The movie was okay, but for those, who were expecting mindblowing work from the Munnabhai team of director Raju Hirani and writer, Abhijat Joshi, will be left mixed. For fans of the book, it only adapts Alok’s life and sculpts Aamir’s character from Ryan(who didn’t see that coming?)
SPOILERS ALERT -BELOW!
What worked:
Frame 1 till interval entertains in parts and by parts I mean parts that didn’t feel like I witnessed from Munnabhai MBBS and Lage Raho. Namely, scenes with Omi Vaidhya(as Chatur Ramalingam, madrasi) were brilliant, especially his shudh hindi speech to the minister(Dashavtar Hindi dialogue writer, Atul Tiwari.) Then, there is the scene with Jaaved Jaffery post interval in the great mystery surrounding Aamir’s identity. I liked Aamir’s explanation of his watchman using the phrase, "Aal izz well". Also, watch out for Sharman Joshi, Hirani had made a tailor-made script just for him, in fact, you can say he’s the REAL HERO of the film rather than Maddy or Aamir.
What failed:
Like I said, Hirani and Joshi spilled over loads of gags from Munnabhai. You have the college ragging from the flashback: Urine shock vs Senior Ragging. The majority of the film rests on Munnabhai-giri(Aamir’s Aal izz well is the Jaadu ki jappi of the film, Aamir vs Professors is a lift from Munnabhai’s main plot and climax. Boman Irani, despite the 7 min gag on multitasking while asleep, is typecasted. as the villian. MBBS? Evil Professor. Lage Raho? Evil Landlord. Now? Evil Professor again. Most of the dialogues have a spilt personality of Sanjay Dutt’s digs at the teaching standards from Hirani’s first movie. Aamir pleasing the Paralyzed patient(Joshi) near the climax like Sanjay did before in MBBS? Death character? Jimmy Shergill, stomach cancer patient= Student named Joy, suicide case= Joshi’s step into paralysis. Yes we get it, India is t3h evils in education torture. Did we really need Kareena in the film(or that long smooch in the end?) or that dumb climax where Aamir gives birth to a near-dead baby? That’s where the movie looses all credibility or the filmkaer’s purpose to sell it to the Bollywood audience.
The songs Aal Izz Well is alright as well as Behti Hawa, but the song that comes to my attention, Zoobi Doobi? My question to the filmmaker, why? It’s a blatant copy of "Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte" from SRK’s "RNBDJ", whether you like it or not. Can be easily chopped off.
Performances: Sharman Joshi from frame 1 till end. Next up, Omi Vaidhya, then the rest.
Overall: You can’t help but think 3 Idiots is Munnabhai. Watchable once.