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3 Idiots over 3 D anyday

I slept through most of Avatar a few days back. I was sleep deprived. I had a heavy lunch before watching the film. But to be honest the story didn't engross me.

I watched 3 Idiots this afternoon. I slept late last night. Didn't have my post breakfast Sunday nap. The show coincided with my Sunday afternoon ghoom or siesta... sacrosanct to the Bong Bhodrolok.

I did not sleep in the movie.

Yes, it took off from where Tare Zameen Par left. And the second half was Munna Bhai 3. K feels it had every cliche possible and that it is no Dead Poet's Society or even DevD.

But I liked it. It was not new yet refreshing. There were cliches but it also made fun of cliches (the art house treatment of the Rastogi family poverty for example). The film oozed melodrama specially post the samosa break. Yet you could feel that the script writer hadn't left the building.

The message of 'excel in what you are passionate about and success will follow' is something some of us talk about. But it is a message which is still new to most of Joint Entrance Test crazy middle class India. Or at least something we don't talk about at home. A bit like sex. Yes, 3 Idiots it is no Dead Poet's Society but it has taken the message across to parts of India which DVDs from Bandra's Movie Junction don't reach. And in a manner that is light and engaging.

It is also a message which is particularly poignant to many thirty plus Bloggers I am sure. Folks who blog because they like to write. Writing is something which they don't do for a living. And they often write on things which, again, have nothing to do with what they do to earning a living.

3 Idiots raises many questions. Do we want to answer them?

Including, in a different vein, why shoot films in New York and Switzerland. 3 Idiots really romanced the hills of Uttaranchal. And the last sequence set in Ladakh, was breath taking. The blue of the lake was purer than anything I have ever seen.

With Aamir Khan is around 'All would be well' with Indian cinema. To think that I was a bigger Salman Khan fan when they both started off!

I guess there is still nothing to beat good old story telling. Even if it is in just two dimensions.
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Comments

k said…
I was not bored but I was not impressed. And I think I will excuse myself from the cheerleading squad of a film where an almost still born child comes to life through the chant of 'aal is well.' If I want my intelligence and sensibility to be totally taken for granted I can always go to office :)
27 December 2009 at 12:10
Scarlett said…
I totally agree with you. There really is no substitute for a sound script & good story-telling. I didn't like Avatar either. The special effects were good but that's about it. Haven't watched 3 Idiots yet but I guess I'll get around to it soon.
27 December 2009 at 21:57
Kalyan Karmakar said…
well K, as always you have the last word :)

The still born baby was the M B part 3 that I referred to. And the cliches were amateurish compared to Avatar. I think the lightheartedness of 3 idiots helped unlike Kurban which was heavy, cliched and clumsy

Scarlett: and the sad part is that Hollywood has shown us that there could be storytelling AND technical finesse
28 December 2009 at 04:19
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