3 Idiots (Hindi)

3 Idiots:
Definite good watch. I think the movie definitely ranks 6 or even a 7 on 1to10 scale.
Though I might like to watch it more closely a few more times.
It seemed to me that the movie is multi-layered i.e. there is an obvious message and slightly layered messages below it too. So giving a rating maybe premature on first watch.

Just short of a classic... maybe?
If I were to compare it with say "Taare Zameen Par" I'd say it missed out on being a classic by just a few inches.
The movie is kind of like a stitched up sequence of good scenes.
As if the movie got stuck somewhere and then suddenly jumped to some not so related scene by skipping something in between. The ragging scene is one such. The scene ends and there's no more talk about it.
In one word - Discontinuous.

Spoiler warning for people who haven't seen the movie yet!!
Below para discusses the plot of the story to some extent so read only if you don't care about spoiling the surprise....









[The Message]
The movie works on the principle of mindset.
People are afraid to try something new because it involves getting out of their bad but now-habitual circumstances. They're afraid to stand out, be alone, to do what they fear!!
To BE themselves (and not the way world expects them to behave) or as told in the Gita - Sva-bhaav (Self+expression/emotion)

By the way did a search on the (pseudo) name of the hero character -
Ranchhod-daas Shyamlal Chhanchad
The fact that the Hero was given such a strange name made me think.
By coincidence I'd just read a book which mentioned this very same name in a totally different context.

Ranchhod means the one who's run away from the battlefield i.e. Ran = battle + Chhod = Runaway
This is one of the names of Shri Krishna mentioned in this book "Krishna - The Man and his Message" by Osho.
There is even a temple of Krishna with this name in Gujarat. The hero character is also from Gujarat...
So here Ranchhod-daas would mean the follower of Shri Krishna...
The same one who sang the Bhagvad-Gita to help people stuck in the coils of dharma and karma.

He fled from each of the 18 attacks of JaraSandh only to establish Dwarika as a fortified city and eventually defeated him on the 19th time. Hence the name.

Shri Chinmaya explains why the incarnation of the Lord Shri Vishnu would run away from a fight!!
Shri Krishna here is the symbolic sadhaka or seeker who is overwhelmed repeatedly by JaraSandha (the primordial energies of the body or past samskaras) i.e. the bodily weaknesses and can only hope to run away from them in order to not succumb.
Finally he gathers enough strength to overcome his own weakening tendencies.

If this **IS** the intended underlying message then I definitely feel that this movie is more than what it appears!!

By an even stranger "coincidence" Imran Khan in "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa" comes from the Rathod family of Ranjhod!! Is this a coincidence or something thought up by Aamir Khan??!!

As I said this may just be a coincidence or my own interpretation of something not intended.

Either way....
Aaal Iiijj Waayl!!!