Five Percent Something...

During my State Bank probation days in 2005, we were relocating from Bengal to North East to join our next branch for training. I was to report at Tinsukia, where I would spend my last one year of probation. Tinsukia, located in the North Eastern part of North-East, was infamous as a belt for frequent insurgency and the few local boys had all words of advise for me, knowing my nomadic ways. The list of the Do’s and the Don’ts were burgeoning.

Saranga pulled me aside and told me, “Manu, Please stay away from the theaters of Tinsukia, especially the ones playing Hindi Cinema”. He was referring to the fact that many of the insurgent groups have an anti-Hindi agenda and they find movie halls playing Hindi movies as soft targets for demonstrating their cause. I nodded. A half-hearted nod. It’s not surprising that I did flout that norm quite a few times. But never more than in 2006 when I landed up in Paradise Cinema four times in three weeks. All to watch the Rajkumar Hirani woven magic named “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”.

Despite not having seen Munnabhai MBBS, I was an instant Hirani Fan and couldn’t wait to check out his next outing. And when his next came out, I skipped it for the first 3 weeks, for more reasons than one. I read Five point Someone (FPS) and found the book as a decent attempt. But blame it on the hype and the resultant high expectations, I did not find it as an exceptional piece of literature.

Even though Hirani claimed before release that the movie is only five percent of FPS, I didn’t like the idea of Hirani adapting the book. The book, despite its undertone of humour, is about three guys who gets run down by the system. Almost all the characters focused in the book had not much of a clue as to what they want and where they are heading. I was not sure how these characters would fit into a Raju Hirani movie.

So, when I ended up at Padma Cinema with my cousin Madhu, I was skeptical whether 3i would leave me half satisfied like FPS. Moreover, rediff had a mediocre review on the movie terming it “Three idiots, Two Stars (on five), One missed opportunity”. My only real hope was the double thumps up that Annie had given the movie.

For three hours, I watched dumbfounded as the magic of 3 Idiots unfolded. Three hours later, I walked out of the theatre with only one thought in mind. “Sorry Raju, I should never have doubted you”.

The controversy surrounding Chetan Bhagat and the producers might have fuelled interest in many, but it did leave me disillusioned even before I saw the movie. Two statements that Chetan Bhagat made through his twitter caught my attention. One, he claimed he should have been given an opening credit under the title “Story”. I agree. He deserved it. Without FPS, there was no Three Idiots.

The second statement was that the soul of the movie was the same of the book. Somehow, I beg to differ. To give credit to Chetan, the book Five Point Someone is a realistic account of what can happen in a premier engineering college in the country. But despite the basic characters and the set up and many situations that could be quoted as similar, the message that the movie tries to communicate is entirely different from the book. I would borrow a cliché and say that 3 idiots is a movie with the heart in the right place.

If FPS was realistic, then three idiots was a fairy tale! With just three films under his belt, Raju Hirani has proved that not many can create a feel good film like him. The movie borrows the idea of the “three struggling outlaws of IIT” and extrapolates it to how they get transformed into three winners. Yes, Hirani movies are about winning, about positive mindset and about how “aal izz well”. They are packed with tremendous amount of positive energy that rubs on to the viewers. His movies professes the right attitude louder than any Dale Carnegie book and he did with one film what Post Graduate Courses in Gandhian Thought at umpteen universities in the country failed to do.

True, there could be skeptics like Raja Sen of Rediff who would argue that many times the movie takes wild turns, with characters outrageously dump logic and listen to their hearts. There are instances when this movie, like all Hirani movies, gets too filmy and you are tempted to ask him whether all this is possible in real life. Hirani will answer this, not with his movies but with his life.

Raju hails from Nagpur and when he went to take up a course in Film & Television Instiutue of India, someone remarked “'Nagpur mein sirf santre (oranges) paida hote hain, directors nahi.”. After learning film editing he tried his luck as an editor in many films, albeit without much success. He shifted to advertising where his talent was recognized. He became a producer and director of numerous ad films and even appeared in this famous Fevicol ad!

Then he did the unthinkable. In three idiots, you see Madhavan dumping his Campus Interview at the Engineering college to take up his dream of becoming a wildlife photographer. If you thought that it was crazy, then consider this: Hirani was making big in the ad business and one day he just stopped. His ambition in life was to become a film maker and he didn’t want to forgo his dream. At a time when his table was piling up with ad scripts, he took a one year break from ad films and wrote the script of the movie that he wanted to make. The rest, as they say, is Munnabhai!

One thing is for sure, Raju Hirani is here to stay. Delivering a first time wonder has happened many a times. The greatest movie of all time Citizen Kane was directed by 26 year old Orson Wells who wouldn’t do another movie worth a mention in the same breath. But Raju Hirani not only created a cult with Munnabhai MBBS, but has successfully carried the momentum into his next movies. This guy has style, he has class and he seems to be in complete control of what he does

I am looking forward for many more Rajugiris.

Post Script: Raju has said that he wanted to redefine the word “idiot” through this movie. Lipika calls me idiot every other minute and I never knew that it had such a wonderful interpretation. Ah, that reminds me that while Lipika calls me idiot, Deepa finds me stupid and Rani loves to call me moron. I wonder who among the three is right!