Wow! That was something quite interesting to read. Not the article alone but the near 90 responses too. The Article in question is one by Sagarika Ghose on 3 Idiots published in Hindustan Times. and a similar one posted on ibnlive. Most of the thoughts that came to mind while reading the article already got thrown back at the author in those 90 odd responses. From both perspectives; and I couldn’t say either the article or the people responding for and against it were wrong, just because they are opinions and everyone has the right to express their opinion.
But the Gemini in me was actually bubbling to look at it from all possible perspectives. And some interesting perspectives started to reach the surface and burst. So lemme see if I can capture them in my long pending effort to start writing once more…
Perspective 1
It’s a question of supply and demand! Things that are less in supply are hugely in demand. Things that are in fashion are in demand. Things that are different from the one in vogue are new and in fashion, hence in demand. “3 Idiots” scores in all of them. It shows a story where the protagonist fights the rat race and creates his own path. He is a protagonist who fights the shackles of societal system. So he is “different”, makes him “in-fashion” hence in demand! No one likes to have a bitter pill to have fun. So the movie adds oodles of comic takes – so fun. And something that is in “demand” and “fun” has to be successful.
Perspective 2
Does everything in demand or liked by youth has to be bad? Is moral policing right? (Well they are in fashion now days, because it sells!) But the question is if too many people demanding something, then there is a big possibility that it is a basic need? When Nehru – Patel established India, the basic needs were “Roti – Kapda – Makan”. And people craved for that much only. But we have come a long way since. Now we have our government stressing the need of health & education as basic needs, as that’s what today’s populace demand and aspire for. Hence the basic need is driven by national demand. And the basic need can not be good or bad – it’s just the basic need. Same way today the overwhelming success of 3I shows the demand is for alternates – to break away from stifling education system, so isn’t it possible that it is also a basic need of present society? And there can not be a right or wrong about it – it’s just the “Basic Need”.
Perspective 3
From the perspective of back benchers, there’s nothing wrong being a back bencher. Whether I have the knowledge and capability, if I chose not to boast that and simply love doing what I do – is that wrong? I sit on the back bench, listen to what the professor explains, and instead of concentrating my effort to prove to the professor and call that I am the best person who have understood it, I try to dream, in what will this information be useful? May be the next prank that I was planning? May be the great business plan that I dreamt about? Yeah – that what I love and that’s what I will continue to do. And that’s what the movie shows.
Perspective 4
Now, let’s have a totally different take on it. The history is decorated with personalities who always left the beaten path, and chose to be “different”! Even the IIMs keep teaching you to think “out of the box”. Don’t know how to think out of the box while trying to protect the box itself. Amir is just trying to join that bandwagon – of “Maggi Hot n Sweet Tomato Sauce”: “This sauce is different baass!” And so a continuous effort to break out of the mould – RDB, TZP and now 3i. Dreaming about a rebel world – and THAT’S youth. The rebel! The romanticism of breaking the shackles of law and “usual”. That’s how you invent – that’s how to innovate, that’s how the history has been mile-stoned by the events that changed history. That’s why people from Kamal Ataturk to Che Guevara are respected. Even Galileo and Einstein are accused of it, yet they have achieved and attained what was due. Can then trying to be different ‘be so bad? At least I am all for breaking the mould and try something different. “Follow your heart” – that’s what my professor taught me two decades back!
Abode of Horus 