Top

film

Stories

 

Aamir Khan's College Comedy, 3 Idiots

Comments (0) By David Chute Tuesday, Feb 9 2010

Details

3 Idiots
Directed by Rajkumar Hirani
Reliance Big Pictures
Opens February 12

Related Content

More About

A superstar for more than two decades, Aamir Khan has never been more popular than he is today, in his mid-forties: His 2008 release Ghajini quickly became the highest-grossing Indian movie of all time. So there must be something besides commercial necessity at work in Khan's determination to keep on playing mischief-making undergraduates. In writer-director Rajkumar Hirani's tuneful, enjoyable college comedy, 3 Idiots, Khan plays "Rancho," an engineering student so brilliant that he barely has to break a sweat to place first in his class. Rancho always has plenty of energy left over to wage a guerrilla war against the institution's emphasis on rote memorization—and to tweak his less-gifted classmates as humorless swots. Coming from a natural-born genius, this seems ungracious, at the very least. There's a pro forma mystery surrounding the character, and some anecdotes of early struggle, but, ultimately, Rancho is a Hindi-cinema superhero in terms of intellect if not upper-body strength, while his nemesis, a professor played as a lisping buffoon by Boman Irani, is a slapstick pushover. In the ingenious extended finale, Rancho serves as a deus ex machina guru/savior to the ordinary mortals he has befriended along the way. Hirani embraces melodramatic convention with open arms, but he is also a crafty entertainer who smoothly choreographs his overpopulated storyline.

Related Content

Check out this week's featured ad for Restaurants
More Ads >>
 
My Voice Nation Help
0 comments
  Livefyre
Newest | Oldest
 
VOICE Daily Deals

Now Showing

Find capsule reviews, showtimes & tickets for all films in town.

Powered By VOICE Places

Slideshows

Join My Voice Nation for free stuff, film info & more!


Box Office

  1. Star Trek Into Darkness, 70.6 mil, 84.1 mil
  2. Iron Man 3, 35.2 mil, 337.1 mil
  3. The Great Gatsby, 23.4 mil, 90.2 mil
  4. Pain & Gain, 3.1 mil, 46.6 mil
  5. The Croods, 2.8 mil, 176.8 mil
  6. 42, 2.7 mil, 88.7 mil
  7. Oblivion, 2.2 mil, 85.5 mil
  8. Peeples, 2.1 mil, 7.9 mil
  9. Mud, 2.1 mil, 11.6 mil
  10. The Big Wedding, 1.1 mil, 2.2 mil
Movie Title, Weekly Earnings, Total Earnings

Movie Trailers

More News Stories >
©2013 Village Voice, LLC, All rights reserved.
Browse Voice Nation
  • Voice Places New York

    Voice Places

    Find everything you're looking for in your city

  • Happy Hour App

    Happy Hour App

    Find the best happy hour deals in your city

  • Daily Deals

    Daily Deals

    Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city

Join
Log In