Underplayed Gems

3 Idiots (2009)

3 Idiots poster
Directed by
Rajkumar Hirani
Genre
drama film, comedy film, buddy film, musical film, romance film, comedy drama
Country
India
Runtime
2h 44m
Rated
M
Rating
8.0 of 10 from 2,750 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

Three engineering students from different backgrounds become close friends at a strict Indian college. The story jumps between their college days and the present as one friend searches for the other two.

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What happens

3 Idiots is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, co-written by Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The film stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the title roles, while Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Mona Singh and Omi Vaidya play supporting roles. Narrated through two parallel timelines, one in the present and the other set ten years earlier, the story follows the friendship of three students at an Indian engineering college and is a satire about the intrinsic paternalism under the Indian education system. Adapted loosely from Chetan Bhagat's novel Five Point Someone, It is produced by Chopra under the banner Vinod Chopra Films, 3 Idiots incorporated real Indian inventions created by Remya Jose, Mohammad Idris, Jahangir Painter and Sonam Wangchuk, the latter of whom also inspired Aamir Khan's character. Upon its release, 3 Idiots received widespread critical acclaim with praise directed towards its direction, themes, humour, story, screenplay, soundtrack and performances of the cast. The film became a major box office success and one of the few Indian films at the time to become successful in East Asian markets such as China and Japan, eventually bringing its worldwide gross to ₹460 crore (US$90 million) — it was the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time until 2013, when Dhoom 3 surpassed it. At the 57th National Film Awards, 3 Idiots won three awards, including Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Additionally, it won a leading 6 awards at the 55th Filmfare Awards (tying with Dev.D), including Best Film, Best Director (Hirani) and Best Supporting Actor (Irani). Overseas, it won the Grand Prize at Japan's Videoyasan Awards, while it was nominated for Best Outstanding Foreign Language Film at the Japan Academy Awards and Best Foreign Film at China's Beijing International Film Festival. Considered to be among the greatest Indian films ever made, the film also had a social impact on attitudes toward education in India, as well as in other Asian countries such as China and South Korea and a huge cult following for its relevance and humour. It was remade in Tamil as Nanban (2012), which also received critical praise and commercial success. A Mexican remake, 3 Idiotas, was also released in 2017. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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