Aamir does a Santa for Hirani

True, you can’t possibly make a contraption out of a vacuum cleaner to help a pregnant woman give birth. But then, before Lage Raho Munnabhai, who could have thought that a rose stick can move mountains?

True, whenever Baba Ranchordas (Aamir Khan) opens his mouth against the educational system, it gets a tad tedious for the nerdy know-it-alls, because they are exactly what they are, who consider bhasanbaazi their precinct. They can if they want hark back to a cute musical that happened in Hollywood in the last century, and remember a certain Maria, who lectured her stiff-upper-lip-single-dad-serving-colonel employer on the right ways to bring up children. And nobody complained.

Because, a vacuum cleaner, or bhasanbaazi, no matter how much out-of-place/tedious they look/sound, actually cease to matter seeing the middle-aged executive beside your seat frequently dabbing at the corner of his eyes as he watches the film. Because a so-called impractical ending falling flat on the face does not matter when the working couple – he still in his office suit and she with that enormous clutch bag that so gives away her last destination – suddenly find they are holding hands in the dark without even removing their eyes from the screen. Because, at the end of the day, it’s not just the awards a film can get that matter. It’s about the warmth it generates in the theatre.

And 3 Idiots does just that. That the film’s hype-mechanics – the cross-country-surprise-visits by Aamir Khan – have been fairly successful is amply reflected in Christmas weekend bookings, across the country. But that’s just the start of business. The end is when an almost full first-day-first-show crowd comes out humming "Aal izz well" (another Shantanu Moitra masterpiece, with "Pagal Suleiman" and "Give me some Sunshine" for the movie). Aamir Khan must be a very happy man this Christmas.

The story isn’t important, not if you go to relive every word Chetan Bhagat wrote in Five Point Someone. It’s also not important if you want to remember the story as Rajkumar Hirani interprets it. Because, it’s not a film about a story, it’s a film about situations.

Situations, which as you see will bring back memories of those days in college and all that you wanted to do, to become, but never managed to. Because your dad was a clerk working hard to fund your education and you loved him. And you didn’t have the heart to let him down by choosing what your heart asked your mind to do. Like it is with Madhavan as Farhan. And you thank Rancho that he prods Farhan to do what he sincerely wants. You feel happy and warm.

Situations that bring back memories of the guy in college who could have been a genius, he had that stuff in him. But finally he became a nervous wreck, doing drugs, saying ‘bye’ to life. He had his family members looking to him, expectantly and vulnerably, and the whole point of his being in the college was a desperate need to land a high-paying job. But at 22, there are times when you really want to break free and he did that and was lost forever. In the film, thankfully, Sharman Joshi’s Rastogi escapes it and you remember your long-lost friend.

Situations, where in office, you invariably meet at least one person – replete with a graying mop, a dysfunctional relationship, hypertension, blood-sugar, smartphone, etc. – who brags about his new car, new bungalow, new LED TV and an exclusive new club membership. But all you remember of him is how much of a sucker he is for the boss and that he spends his daughter’s birthdays pouring over his laptop at office because he has ‘to grow’. Thankfully again, the immensely talented Omi as Chatur in 3 Idiots is just about that. And besides Madhavan and Sharman, he also reinforces the belief in you that Aal izz actually well with you, because you did manage to enjoy the evening show on a working Thursday, and refused to be Omi, his character!

Finally, to Aamir Khan. Perky, jumping-the-gun- with-a-heart-of-gold sort of guy, questioning the system – 3 Idiots is more the final part of the Aamir trilogy that started with Rang De Basanti and was followed by Taare Zaamin Paar. Aamir has got to the crux of the box-office formula: what Manmohan Desai did with Amitabh Bachchan is exactly what Aamir is doing with his films – creating the lone ranger who fights against and changes the system. Only that his characters are not grim and angry like Desai’s. Because, in the days of Prohibition and License Raaj, angry was in, but in modern-mall-and-spa-splayed India, it’s fashionable to hide your stress for your shrink to deal with. And Aamir is the shrink here – Baba Ranchordas.

As for the rest – Boman Irani and Kareena Kapoor, they always live up to the mark. But of course, if it’s a Rajkumar Hirani movie, Boman’s talent will be bottled up in a typecast – that’s for sure by now. Kareena is smashing, even with those nerdy glasses – a refreshing departure from her zero-figure statistics – so much as to become the thinking man’s fantasy from being the hostel room pin-up.

Rajkumar Hirani proves once again that he is a master scriptwriter. For a little over three hours, he keeps his audience glued to the seats, playing with the most basic of their emotions – making them cry, laugh, feel romantic, nostalgic, lumpy in the throat and what not. Not anything new after the Munnabhai series, but then, you do feel like going back to see such things, especially if they are spaced widely – with a three-year-long hiatus on an average.

But more than that, you enjoy going back to such things because you still look forward to a holiday in the hills. You do need a Santa to visit you at the end of the year, hug you and tell you that all that year-long cheek-by-jowl fight with stress, perception, deadlines and targets had been, after all, transitory. That it is just excellence that matters at the end. And that just when you felt that God wasn’t that forthcoming after all your regular bedtime prayers for some sunshine, some rain and a fresh chance to live again, he was actually waiting in the wings to see what you could do yourself. That realisation makes you feel warm like a cup of cappuccino – enough to sustain you for another hardwood year.


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