Episode 3, Part 1
Episode 3, Part 2
Episode 3, Part 3
Posts By sudhishkamath
Hands Up: Shiva & C.S. Amudhan
Episode 2, Part 1 of 3
Episode 2, Part 2 of 3
Episode 2, Part 3 of 3
Hands Up: Ganesh Venkatraman & G. Venket Ram
Episode 1, Part 1 of 3
Episode 1, Part 2 of 3
Episode 1, Part 3 of 3
Hands Up with Gautham Vasudev Menon & Trisha
Watch the full episode here or by by going to the My Talk Show link on the header.
Download Hi-res version of That Four Letter Word
For one week only.
Hands Up: My new talk show now on my blog
As most of you already know, I just got started with TV with a show of my own. Hands Up hopes to be a fun interview at gunpoint. We’ve started off soft. I promise to get nastier once I find myself at home in front of the camera.
You will find Part 2 and 3 of that episode here.
And yes, you can catch up with the latest episode every week on My Talk Show link at the top of this page.
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya: Not a review
I don’t want to really review this film because Gautham Menon just came for my talk show Hands Up (the episode will air on March 12, 9.30 p.m. NDTV HINDU) and anything I say will be seen as saying good things about him in return. Haha!
So as much as I liked the film personally (Gave it 7.5/10) I am going to skip to the parts that didn’t work for me. And if you haven’t yet seen the film, you may want to come back to this post once you’ve watched it so that I don’t ruin the ending for you.
Stop reading because the spoilers begins here:
This isn’t the regular love story, this is a ‘Why did I fall in love ‘ story and the related angst soulfully voiced by Alphonse (Aromale) is what’s making the film strike a chord with the audiences.
And my problem is that this angst is stifled by an ending that’s neither here nor there.
Gautham now wants us to believe they can be friends. Really? Do we want to be friends with people responsible for that very angst, let alone invite them for a premiere of the film all about that?
The last 10-12 minutes of the film (Specifically, the moment from where he sees on Brooklyn Bridge) including the ‘Happily everafter’ song (Gautham says it’s only two and a half minutes long) I thought were the weakest portions of the film despite the fact that it had one of the best scenes in the film – the scene at Central Park on the park bench.
Instantly, I connected it to a similar scene at the end of 500 Days of Summer and I realised how the situation the couple was in was almost similar (Gautham hasn’t seen 500 Days nor is the screenplay even remotely similar and to be honest, the similarities I am talking about are limited to the ‘Boy Loves Girl, Girl Leaves Boy’ knot and the related angst. )
Here’s the now-married girl sitting with the guy who still loves her and… just as you think here comes the part where she gives him closure (like in 500 Days of Summer), she stumps him (and us the audience) by saying she never married and that she loves him very much and the Happily Everafter song sequence begins…
As the song begins, we know for a fact that there’s a twist waiting at the end of it, one that’s a fairly easy guess – that he’s only imagining it (the audience at this point really does not care for parental opposition because the lovers are together).
So for two and a half minutes during the song, we wonder why is the director trying to make us believe that All is well….
And then, predictably, the hero makes it a part of his film within the film and that film ends with Trisha sitting next to him… Not as his girlfriend as we’ve been led to believe until now but as a married woman who wants to be friends with him.
I find it hard to believe that a girl who didn’t walk eight feet towards him at the bridge to say Hi would travel over eight thousand miles to watch a film he made about her, especially when she hates cinema. Yes, maybe she was just in town conveniently or maybe she wanted to end things on a good note and stick to her promise of watching his film…
But my problem, honestly, is that Gautham wants them to be friends at the end of it. Because apparently, that’s how it is in life. Gautham believes that this redeems the girl’s character and makes us feel that she isn’t a total bitch.
First, I don’t think the girl becomes a bitch by not showing up or even saying Hi to the boy because she obviously has her reasons and we see the angst and helplessness in her eyes now that she is married even when she walks away from him.
Second, her presence at the premiere does not in any way change our impression of her – she was confused and consistently so. And her confusion led to the boy’s angst.
Yes, it is a very mature ending no doubt about that. It’s very mature to think that the boy and the girl can be friends. But one look at the guy in that last scene and we know he’s a broken man. He still feels the same way about her and she’s moved on. He hasn’t got his closure.
Which is why that scene in 500 Days of Summer comes to mind. Summer is nice enough to provide him with that closure but here, Gautham does not let Jesse give the boy his closure.
The boy could have got his closure by never seeing the girl again – his last memories of her being walking away from him at the bridge. Yes, Trisha could’ve still continued being part of his desired reality (his movie ending) and watched the film with him as literally the girl of his dreams and given him the closure after it. All she had to say was: “Jesse chapter over, what next? And yes, whatever happened, happened for the best.” and given him a parting hug. The completion of the film could’ve been that cathartic release of the angst that will enable his closure with that parting hug from the girl who wasn’t there.
Her absence at the premiere would have drilled home the point that she didn’t love him enough. And that would have been tragic that the last image he had of her was – her walking away from him on the bridge, a classic larger than life moment of chance, of films, of unrequited love.
But her presence just brings us to the real world awkwardness of being friends with your ex. Who wants that shit? This is why many of my friends who watched the film said they couldn’t feel the tragedy. Nor did they feel happy that he made the film. They just had mixed reactions, felt it was awkward.
Maybe Gautham wanted us to feel awkward about it. Maybe that’s his take on tragedy – being friends with the girl you love (not once loved, but still love).
I, for one, wouldn’t wish it upon my enemy. 🙂
Which is why the ending didn’t quite work for me.
Moulin Rouge: This Weekend, Come What May
What goes around comes around. The idea of the singing dancing tragic-comic Bollywood musical imported by Baz Luhrmann comes a full circle back to India as an ambitious young theatre company Nicholas Productions, founded by choreographer Denver Anthony Nicholas, attempts to recreate the magic of Moulin Rouge on stage this weekend at the Chinmaya Heritage Centre (March 6, 7 p.m and March 7, 2.30 p.m. and 7 p.m.)
The last few days have been an emotional rollercoaster for the team behind the show. The producer of the show Roshni Menon died twenty days before the opening night leaving them completely shocked and shattered. Until they realised that the best tribute they could give their friend was make her dream come true.
“We had the first audition on the first weekend of November, and had a callback in the second weekend and started rehearsals by the third week. But before the rehearsals, I spoke to Shaun Roberts to get the music ready and Mike (Michael Muthu) about the set design,” recalls Denver.
Though ‘Moulin Rouge’ is his first production as a director, Denver has quite a few shows to his credit as the choreographer ‘ Grease, Little Mermaid, Romeo and Juliet, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Night at the Musical, Chicago.
“Working with different theatre companies, I picked up the nuances of how to direct and what goes into a musical production. After Chicago, I realised I had to move on from being a choreographer to director” Roshni and me were very close friends, she had been asking me to do something on my own and had told me that the day I had decided, she would jump in and help me with my production, he adds.
“Roshni was coming back to theatre after five years.” They had earlier partnered to recreate Grease on stage for Stagefright Productions, a company Roshni founded with Freddy Koikaran.
It was Michael Muthu who had suggested Moulin Rouge to Denver. “That night, I took the DVD from him and ten minutes into the movie, I had decided to do it. I messaged Roshni and told her I wanted to do it. Unlike most of the other musicals, the songs here were already popular cult classics songs from Elton John to Police to Lady Marmalade to something like Chamma Chamma and I loved what Baz Luhrmann did with the colour and the costumes but the main thing that attracted me was the music.”
Shaun Roberts and his band Midnight Groove (Meynard Grant on Drums, Balaji on Rhythm and Percussion, Timothy George and Nelson Samuel on Keyboards, Vikram Vivekanand ( guitar and Shaun himself on bass and guitar synth) will perform live with the eight-member choir and Moulin Rouge will be one of those rare shows performed entirely live.
Shireen, student of NIFT, did the costumes of the period (Moulin Rouge is set in 1899). “The spectacle of the film was captivating and challenging. Initially, it was intriguing to us but everything started falling into place. I gave the actors a lot of space and freedom to make changes to the production and they have helped me a lot.”
“I hadn’t done theatre since college,“ says Cary Edwards, former VJ, stand up comedian and actor. “Seven years ago, Roshni and me were talking about what it would be to do a play together because she had just got into theatre production. And then we kind of lost touch and then, one day I got a call out of the blue. The minute she said ‘How you doing’ and I knew why she had called. I asked her ‘Moulin Rouge’? She said ‘Yes’. ‘You want me to play Christian’? She said ‘Yeah.’ And we had a laugh.”
Cary admits that Christian is everything he is not. “The only thing Christian and me share is that we are both creative, musically inclined and we are both straight. That’s where the similarities end. During rehearsals, Roshni would often walk up and tell me: “More Christian, less rockstar,” he laughs.
Renu Anne Abraham who plays Satine, as Denver describes, is “one of the few around who can sing and dance really, really well.” Like everyone else in the cast, Renu cracked the audition.
“I had to do the most embarrassing scene for the audition,” Renu reveals. “The one with me on the floor going Yes, Yes, Yes,” she giggles.
“I am a dancer, when Chicago happened, I jumped in. I didn’t know to sing,” she adds as Denver clarifies: “She didn’t know she could sing.”
Gibran Osman plays the villainous Duke and has sprouted a moustache for the role. “I think it gives a little quirk to the character and it’s also something to keep my hands on. Ever since I watched Grease, I wanted to work with Roshni. So when she called me to audition, I did a very horrible version of ‘Please Forgive Me’ and I am so glad they had a character that didn’t have to sing much.”
Everyone had a Roshni story to narrate. “On a personal level, it affected me a lot because she is a very good friend but on the production side, her death affected us a whole lot because she was handling the finances,” says Denver. “I never knew who she was speaking to. When this happened, we had no idea of what to do and friends got together and pooled in to make the show happen.”
“This was her dream, this is what she wanted and we will just make sure she gets it now that she has the best seat in the house. She wanted us to be Spectacular, Spectacular and I hope we live up to that,” says Cary.
As they say, the show will go on. Come what may.
For tickets, go to http://nicholasproductions.blogspot.com or call 9940195883.
Aayirathil Oruvan: Myth & Reality – the twain don’t meet
Before I begin, I want to take a moment to get this out of my system.
The ad for Aayirathil Oruvan calls it “in the league of The Mummy Returns and Avatar”.
All right Einsteins, Avatar and The Mummy Returns were certainly not in the same league in the first place.
Nor is the cheap CG-infested Aayirathil Oruvan.
Not by the wildest stretch of imagination are these three films in the same league but that’s understandable because Aayirathil was made at a fraction of the budget of the spectacular Avatar or the B-grade no-brainer called The Mummy Returns.
The thing about Twitter is that you get only 140 characters to get to the point and most of the time, two lines aren’t enough to explain the point.
When I wrote that the first half of the film and the second half of the film are of contrasting genres – the first being a B-movie adventure (that works because of the chemistry and sexual tension between the trio) and the second half turning into a dark, Chosen One epic war film, I didn’t really mean to say that’s the problem.
From Dusk Till Dawn and Teen Deewarein are fine examples of completely changing genre halfway and pulling the rug from right below your feet. So I don’t really have a problem with a filmmaker choosing to change genre halfway. The problem is that the filmmaker here has no idea of how to do it smart.
In fact, the problem with Aayirathil is more basic – why does the filmmaker spend half a film investing on chemistry between three people when the interplay between them is not at all relevant to the outcome of the film because well, the storyteller is to lazy to continue that story now that he has found another interesting one to tell halfway?
And why does the filmmaker not understand that the fantasy genre also requires an internal logic. Yes, Superman can also do quite a few things without any explanation and we buy it. Why? Because we also know what can stop Superman – Kryptonite.
We know not just what is possible but also what’s not. The world of fantasy is defined by the scope of the possibilities and exceptions to those possibilities.
In Avatar, we know humans can bomb the hell out of Pandora but we also know they cannot breathe without masks. We know they can fly their machines anywhere into Pandora but we also know that because of the flux vortex, the radars will not work and the machines will have to fly by sight. We know the Eywa can heal but we also know she cannot bring back the dead. And so on…
In Aayirathil Oruvan, characters have magical powers to kinky things like shadow-sex and get a comet or asteroid to set dolls on fire or bring back the dead but suddenly, they also don’t have these magical powers when they need to save themselves from bullets or bombs!
What’s even more silly about this supernatural adventure is that the conflict of the film does not call for supernatural elements or magic.
A Chola king sends off his little Prince along with his people to hide at an undisclosed location when attacked by the Pandias.
Centuries later, a team sets out to a remote island on an adventure, crosses seven hurdles (traps created by the Cholas) and find the lost civilization living in starvation and history repeats itself.
Nothing wrong with the story at all.
What’s wrong is the screenplay – something that requires specialised training and it’s high time Selvaraghavan got himself equipped with the art of screenwriting or employed specialists to do the job for him because he is a gifted filmmaker capable of creating unforgettable moments.
Selva employs three characters to lead the adventure – one’s the woman on a mission, another’s an archeologist in search of her father and the third is the modern day version of a slave. Interesting dynamics between the sexes as sexual tension and chemistry keeps the narrative cruising along the seven hurdles (all shot with B-movie flourish and cheesy computer graphics)… And suddenly, after they reach their destination, the three go crazy because of high intensity sound waves that make their ears bleed…
And the three actors who until this point were sticking to realistic acting (except for an unwarranted cuss-word exchange in English by the leading ladies) switch into over-the-top hammy portrayal of the mentally ill (it’s like a Mani Ratnam film suddenly handed over to K.S. Ravikumar at this point) and the film never quite recovers from this switch in sensibility.
To add to the period setting, there’s plenty of mumbo-jumbo, medieval rituals and an absolute lack of characterisation. Apart from the king and his advisor, an old man with a serious skin disease, nobody in that civilization seems to have a personality… his subjects are all dark savages with hardly any dialogue.
Suddenly, the woman with the agenda (Reema) seems to have acquired magic powers of her own as she takes her top off and produces a tiger tattoo on her back that appears and disappears. And the slave (Karthi) who also has a tiger tattoo on his back conveniently turns out to be the Chosen One.
One moment, the Chosen One is pissed upon by an urchin and a moment of bad visuals effects and hallucinations later, he turns a warrior and rides a rock-shaped yoyo to slay the gladiator and does a dance with a king – that one sequence bonding is entrusted with the responsibility of convincing us that the Chosen One is now one among the natives.
What about the third character we invested in? Well, Andrea finds her father instantly in the second half and but for a couple of scenes, she has nothing to do with the story. The father himself (Prathap Pothen), now a loony man has nothing to contribute to the script.
The film by now has turned into a full-fledged conflict between the Cholas and the Pandias reincarnate – a modern battle between primitive savages and state of the art ammunition with the Chosen One getting to do absolutely nothing! Why was he the Chosen One then?
Just to take the young Prince and run again to bring the story to a full circle! Ha!
Individual performances are not too bad at all. Karthi is brilliant, he makes the first half of the film work with sheer presence.
Reema has never looked hotter and Parthipan though over the top manages to entertain with some charming quips in chaste Tamil (the Linga Darisanam, for example). Andrea is totally forgotten in the second half of the film and has nothing to except to conveniently open up everyone’s handcuffs in the climax. The music, especially, the score is quite interesting, a job well done by the kid who stepped into Yuvan’s shoes for a film of this scale.
What’s been pissing me off is that a few fanboys are trying to convince everyone else who do not agree with them that it’s their fault that they didn’t understand and/or had different expectations. The film’s not that difficult to understand. It’s plays out like a bad dream without logic – you understand what’s going on but also know that it’s stupid that it’s happening.
Don’t confuse issues here, fellows… Selva made a film with balls and utmost conviction. So did Ram Gopal Varma when he remade Sholay as RGV Ki Aag. Effort or daring to walk a road not taken alone does not make a movie a classic. It needs to be executed well too.
I gave a 3/10 rating to the first version of the film because the second half turned into a completely irrelevant, indulgent film altogether that had nothing to do with the first half of the film (by which time we had invested heavily on the three characters).
The smartest thing Selva has done is to understand that he did go overboard and trim the film by over 15 minutes. This contributed to a better flow and removal of a lot of the flab and made me give him with an extra 1.5 points taking it to 4.5/10 being the best this film can be.
This does not mean my rating will increase with every watch. It means I am rewarding him for understanding that he fucked up the narrative.
The film works somewhat as a collection of some fun moments in the first half that work as a B-movie adventure and some wonderful dark imagery (the breast spurting out blood for example) in the second but never as a whole which is why 4.5 is the most it will ever get.
Yet, the film can be watched once since it at least tries to tell a different story. Don’t go with any expectations whatsoever.
Five Point Someone v/s 3 Idiots – A closer look
Now, that the parties have laid the issue to rest and have decided to move on with closing statements, it maybe a good time for us the readers/the audience to take compare the book and the movie and give credit where it is due. Also now that everyone has seen the movie, I hope mentioning a few plot details won’t spoil it anymore.
Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone was about three underachievers who come to terms with the system after failed attempts of cheating it. The commentary on the education system, the academic pressure all remained as the subtext as Bhagat chose to focus on the personal lives of three best friends. It was a coming-of-age story where the guys learned a few things about life.
Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots is about three friends in the top-most engineering college in the country too but Hirani likes to preach and hence turns the smartass among the three into a full-blown wise man… a saint. Baba Ranchoddas.
Given the inherent need of a Bollywood film to have a hero who does the right thing, Ryan’s character from the book became this righteous philosopher who seemed more keen to teach the teachers than learn himself.
I find it hard to believe that a guy like Aamir Khan who spends hours researching his look for every film and goes to insane levels chasing perfection hadn’t read Five Point Someone before he agreed to do the film, much before the script was ready.
Let’s for a minute look at the raw material from the point of view of an actor.
There are three guys in the book – One’s a fat dude called Fatso, the narrator who seems like a wimp except for the fact that he gets the girl. One’s the poverty-stricken geek who is blindly conforming to the system and the third guy is this total dude who teaches his seniors a lesson right in Scene One when they try to rag him.
So you are this A-list star and are asked to pick one of the three characters. Which one would you pick?
What would be your only request to the makers especially if it makes no difference to the plot if the girl falls in love with the stud?
I do not want to assume that Aamir insisted on the change but whether it was Aamir’s decision or Hirani’s, it is obvious that the changes were made keeping in mind the image of the Bollywood hero – the guy who can do no wrong and in the process of teaching the villain a lesson, also gets the girl.
The hero’s journey in a film is complete only when he wins and hence, the need to show what happens to the guy who didn’t follow the system ten years later.
Take a look at how events in the book translated to film. Alok=Raju, Ryan=Rancho, Hari=Farhan, Prof.Cherian=Virus, Neha=Pia, Venkat=Chatur.
Prologue:
One of the three guys is being rushed to the hospital and one of them decides he has to tell the story behind it.
The film opts for a different flashback point which is also one of the most significant differences to adaptation. What are these characters doing ten years since they first met – an interesting thought. The film hence begins with some larger than life moments of a passenger faking a heart attack and makes his friend leave his house without his pants on after an old college mate reminds them of the day of the bet – the day they will find out who’s more successful. And since the film’s a commentary on the education system, what better day than Teacher’s Day.
Chapter 1: Bare Beginnings
Ragging episode & What’s a Machine
While Bhagat’s more dramatic in the Ragging episode, Hirani dumbs down the Machine episode by making the professor sound unreasonably stupid by insisting on jargon. In the book, the Professor suggests a machine is anything that reduces human effort and smartass Ryan asks: Then, what about a benchpress?
Chapter 2: Terminator
Alok’s desire to conform to system v/s Ryan’s beating the system
In the book, the boys jump hostel to catch a movie and we realise the differences in their outlooks. Alok wants to conform to the system, Ryan wants to beat it and Hari, the narrator is in between while in the movie, Rancho demonstrates right at the beginning that he likes to bathe in public and learn things himself by opening up parts of machines.
In the film, this translates to Rancho spelling out his mantra – Aal Iz Well or telling yourself that everything is okay when the pressure mounts up.
Chapter 3: Barefoot on Metal
Mugging Notes & Meeting with the Professor’s daughter
While Bhagat sets the mood in the campus by talking about how the boys mug notes and sets up the hero’s first meeting with the Professor’s daughter, Hirani takes Venkat from the book and give him a meatier role in the film as Chatur to epitomise the malady of mugging notes and memorizing them without quite understanding the meaning.
Chapter 4: Line Drawing
Alok’s typically poor filmi family, Boys night out and Neha’s revelation of her brother’s death due a railway accident.
All these elements from the book have been made an integral part of the screenplay as Hirani makes these guys gatecrash a wedding and bump into the girl for the first time. Though we learn only in the fourth chapter of the book that the Dean’s son had a railway accident, we learn about this quite early on in the film when Virus speaks about how his own son couldn’t get in for three years in a row.
Chapter 5: Make Notes, Not War
First set of exams – pressure. And the author’s budding romance with Neha
In the book, Bhagat speaks about the tension, the pressure in the eve of exams. Hirani uses a song to bring out this angst and unleashes a dramatic twist of a student suicide.
Chapter 6: Five point something
First set of results out – “These were pathetic grades: we ranked in the high 200s in a class of 300 students”
Alok’s rant about his mother not having bought a Sari in 5 years, Alok moves out and moves in with Venkat, the geek
All these are faithfully retained in the film and are manifested in the bathroom sequence when Raju tells Farhan that he’s moving in with Chatur.
Chapter 7: Alok Speaks Out
Alok reveals more about his family background, Dad’s paralysis
Things we learn in episodes in the book are revealed much earlier in the course of the film as with any adaptation.
Chapter 8: One Year Later
Alok begins to hate Venkat, Ryan takes Alok’s Dad to the hospital, wins back Alok
Similarly, Rancho wins Raju back and exposes Chatur in the movie.
This is manifested through a brilliant scene where Rancho uses a Find and Replace to Chatur’s Teacher’s Day Speech.
Chapter 9: Mice Theory
Ryan’s theory: “The system is nothing but a mice race… Name one invention in three decades”
Rancho demonstrates this through that popular Farhanitrate and Prerajulisation scene.
Chapter 10: Co-operate to dominate:
Ryan’s take in the book is to cheat the system
Here is where the film deviates from the book since Rancho can’t do anything wrong. He’s not a smartass like Ryan who is looking to just have fun in college, Rancho’s a wise man… a saint Baba Ranchoddas who in fact tops the class because he’s naturally smart. A Bollywood hero in a mainstream film needs to top the class, right?
Chapter 11: The Gift
The visit to Alok’s house when Alok’s Mom cries again and the boys decide to focus on the Mutter-Paneer and how the boys break into Cherian’s house to meet Neha.
Yes, Hirani does use the Mutter-Paneer moment a little before the boys meet the girl for the first time but the breaking in happens much later in the film.
Chapter 12: Neha Speaks
Neha speaks about her feelings for Hari and the three guys and how different they were from the rest
In the film, Pia obviously falls for Rancho based on Ryan instead.
Chapter 13: One More Year Later
Cherian begins to teach their class
“It’s the same Cherian crap. Treat humans like mindless machines”
Cherian’s lecture on efficiency and not wasting time is manifested through his routine in the film – shaving in seven and a half minutes, listening to the opera, wearing a shirt with Velcro to save time etc.
Chapter 14: Vodka
Getting caught drunk in class and Alok’s need to get a Maruti 800 as dowry for his sister’s wedding. Cherian to set the toughest paper
All these details have been loyally retained since the Director wants the students to fail. In the film, he swears that he will shave his moustache off even if one of the two get placed.
Chapter 15: Operation Pendulum
Plan to steal the papers from Cherian’s office using Neha’s keys
In the film, the heroine is only a willing accomplice to this plan and hands over the keys to the boys because the director insists that the boys can do no wrong. The Heroes are Holier Than Thou.
Chapter 16: Longest day of my life – 1
Neha’s brother’s suicide note. He killed himself after failing to get into the Institute 3 times.
We learn about this suicide note in the film through a wonderfully written dialogue. “He wanted to be a writer. All he could write was this suicide note.”
Chapter 17: Longest Day of my life – 2
The guys prepare to steal the paper against all odds
Chapter 18: Longest Day of my life – 3
The red wax seal and the phone call that got them busted
This happens almost exactly as described in the book.
Chapter 19: Longest Day of my life – 4
Busted, Dean slaps Ryan across the face, disciplinary action
A little dramatised for film, Virus attacks Ryan with an umbrella and insists they move out of college in pouring rain.
Chapter 20: Longest Day of my life – 5
Alok jumps from the Insti roof unable to take the pressure of being rusticated
This happens much earlier in the film after the Director makes Raju choose between his friends and his rustication.
Chapter 21: Longest Day of my life – 6
Alok in the hospital with his legs motionless, survives near death
Raju goes into a coma in the film and needs Bollywood style miracle to make it.
Chapter 22: Ryan Speaks
We learn how the narrator wanted to be an artist and of Ryan’s past
This has been adapted to the narrator wanting to be a wild-life photographer and the sub-plot involving Ryan’s past has been completely changed. We learn at halfway point in the film that Rancho was not even his real name. He was merely a proxy student for his rich master.
Chapter 23: Kaju Barfi:
The three get another chance to write and submit their projects
Omitted from the film except that we learn that Raju’s suspension was revoked when Rancho tells him during the coma.
Chapter 24: Will We Make it
Alok on crutches, the three finish their coursework and resubmit their projects.
Raju too is on crutches and comes back to the Institute as a new man.
Chapter 25: A Day of Letters
Cherian finally finds the letter his son’s suicide note and breaks down.
This happens rather awkwardly in the film since the screenwriters tamper with the narrative a little too much. One scene Kareena is handing out the suicide note to her Dad and the immediate next scene, she’s in hospital and the Father is unable to get the pregnant sister to the hospital. Every time there’s a departure from the book, the writers slap in a larger than life sequence that requires generous doses of willing suspension of disbelief. Like the delivery scene that follows.
Chapter 26: Meeting Daddy
Alok’s interview and Ryan’s research internship
Have to agree that Hirani and Abhijat Joshi do a much better job of writing and fleshing out the interview scene and the actors rock it too. We do learn in the book that Hari wanted to be a writer, so here Hirani makes Farhan talk to his Dad about his dream internship with a wild-life photographer.
Chapter 27: Five Point Someone
Cherian realises how the Education system is flawed in a dream sequence. The boys pass out of IIT and the narrator post a letter to Ryan’s parents for funding his project.
The posting of the letter in the film happens with Farhan. Ryan can’t take favours from anyone because he’s the hero of the film and hence, posts Farhan’s letter and makes his dream come true.
* * *
Well, so almost all of Five Point Someone but for a chapter has found its way into 3 Idiots in one form or the other. And just for that reason alone, Chetan Bhagat ought to have got a story credit right upfront. Coming up with a parallel narrative of what happens 10 years ago alone does not change the entire story, however interesting or entertaining the twists are.
But seriously, imagine the suspension of disbelief and the convenience of co-incidences that Hirani and Joshi in that parallel original narrative that has nothing to do with the book. I mean what are the chances that the girl is getting married the same day as the day of the bet and the day Ranchoddass’s father died and the time Silencer/Chatur has to meet Phunsukh Wangdu and his lost classmate with whom he’s had a bet turns out to be Wangdu?
Yes, Hirani says they have fulfilled the contract and given the writer the credit he was promised but does that really entitle him to claim ownership of the story?
The ‘Work for Hire’ is a generic clause that negates all contribution from the writer and transfers ownership of the idea to the producer and the work is treated as commissioned. Bhagat unwittingly signed a contract with this deadly clause that now leaves him helpless.
There’s what you can do legally and what you have to do morally. Especially, when you teach us moral science lessons film after film.
Hirani has fallen in my eyes. If this can happen to one of the most popular writers in the country, then imagine the plight of the lesser known.
First, it was Aamir taking over a writer’s film as a director. Yes, he did a fantastic job no doubt but there’s no denying the arm-twisting. Then, there was a case about a lesser known writer claiming that Lage Raho Munnabhai was inspired from a concept note he submitted of a film he wanted to make called Gandhi and The Kid.
Hirani and Co ought to learn from Vishal Bhardwaj who credited a rather unknown Cajetan Boy for just the idea of Kaminey right at the beginning of the film and even named a character after the screenwriter he met at a seminar.
We crib about lack of writers and scripts all the time. But if this is how we treat them, how can we expect writers to come up with original ideas and trust them to Bollywood?
Lucky for Bhagat, his novel is still available for us to compare and discover. God bless the rest.
P.S: I love 3 Idiots as a film, however manipulative it is emotionally and I think Hirani is an excellent filmmaker who knows his craft and despite its flaws. Also Abhijat Joshi and Hirani have put together a decent screenplay with some really well written moments but that’s not the point of this post. The point of the post is if Bhagat should have also been credited for the Story.
As for the film, you can read my review here.
MADRAS INK. 