3 Idiots saga reveals the big bad Bollywood

The media war between Chetan Bhagat and the makers of 3 Idiots exposes the irreverent attitude Indian filmmakers show towards scripts and writers. It is a revelation to see the much admired Rajkumar Hirani dismiss Chetan Bhagat's claims. It only shows the dog-eat-dog kind of world Hindi filmdom has become. Am I now wrong in wondering how much 'original' was Munnabhai series as Hirani's work!

To be fair, the filmmakers claim that they financially settled the deal with Chetan Bhagat before the release. They claim there is a binding contract which didn't promise Chetan any 'credit'. So they claim Chetan is now engineering a needless controversy - an effort to get some publicity, according to Aamir khan. This is a fair argument if indeed there was a contract which Chetan Bhagat could have been careless in negotiating the terms. However, it is Hirani, Chopra and Aamir's claims that set the cat among the pigeons. Hirani claims the movie is 5% inspired from the book. This is 100% blasphemy. Aamir says Chetan just wants publicity (even as he admits he didn't read the Novel!). Is it Chetan who goes around masquerading in Varanasi or Mahabalipuram to catch eyeballs. For all the image-building he did to project himself as an intelligent and social activist kind, he should shown an iota of it in this case. Hindi movies can survive without Aamir Khan, Indian English writing does not even exist without Chetan Bhagat! It is not the Vikram Seths or Arundhati Roys who sell millions of books, even with their bookers. He is the one who bought the reading habit to the many towns in India from the elite cocoons of the metros. With their outbursts, these three indeed ended up the 3 idiots. Once the 'original' writer Abhijat Joshi opens his mouth, he will become the fourth. Not that they will mind though, with the windfall at the box office.

It will at best matter for only those who have read the book and have seen the movie - a fleeting view here. For anyone who haven't read 'Five Point Someone', here is the gist of these whole hullabaloo. The book has been adapted 100% in soul and spirit and 90% in character design. The only differences that came in the movie are to aid the narration, in flashbacks. Here are they.

1) We have 2 friends going in search of the Aamir's character. This allows the narration (the narrator is the same in book and movie) in flashbacks.

2) To add a 'twist' to the story and to elevate Aamir's character to show it as a triumph of an underdog, 2 changes are done.
One - the 10 year concept and Chatur's character has been expanded from Venkat's character in the book. to accentuate the drama before the 10 year challenge, the uproarious stage scene was designed to humiliate Chatur. In the climax, Chatur and his mugging education is supposed to lose in Bollywood style to Rancho's education. So, the 2 friends literally drag Chatur to Rancho to set up the final 'twist' about fake Rancho and real Wangdu.

Two- Rancho being the hero in a Bollywood movie, need to have the girl. So, the professor's daughter who is the girlfriend of Madhavan's character is bartered to Rancho. Her character remains same as in the book, complete with the suicide letter. Madhavan's character is in turn bartered the 'i wanted to be wildlife photographer' background from Sharman Joshi's character in the book. Its just that Joshi's character in the book has a 'i wanted to be painter' background! Now that she is the hero's girl, she is handed her 'runaway bride' sub-plot.

In essence, these are the changes made to suit movie format and also sort of elevate 'hero' Rancho's character. The main characters in the novel and the movie remain same. The soul of the novel remains intact and in fact are its most interesting dialogues! So much for the 'original' writing of Abhijat Joshi. All the changes done are to add gloss and does not alter or add anything of substance. While the filmmakers did a good job at converting the novel for the format, that does not mean they can deny an 'adapted from' credit to Bhagat's novel and claim this is a 5% inspiration. Its like he dressing up the neighbour's newborn and claiming it to be his! It is this lack of regard to writing in Indian film industry that churns out hopeless stuff year after year. Hope things would start changing in the new year. Till then, my sympathies to Chetan Bhagat. Maybe, he will now pen a semi-autobiographical about his tryst with Bollywood!

3 Cheers for 3 idiots

Following up the Munnabhai series on one hand and also doing justice to something like Chetan Bhagat's 'Five point Someone' on the other must have made Rajkumar Hirani evolve his 'Aal izz Well' philosophy! And it worked, just like 'Jaadu Ki Jappi' and Gandhigiri. Rajkumar Hirani, the man who resurrected Gandhi for the theatre-goers is back with a rehash of Chetan Bhagat's 'Five point Someone' and with his honesty intact. Chetan Bhagat would be proud of this take on his novel. But did he actually get the credit? I am not sure I saw his name in the opening credits!!

The novel's critical take on Indian education system and its lush portrayal of the joe de vivre spirit of the 3 friends the system takes it toll on is the perfect canvas for Hirani, who excelled the art of hammering in messages through comedy. So here he is taking the essence of the novel, especially its humor and adding the Bollywood masala and deducting the matter-of-fact tone of the novel. While the Five point graders in the novel go thru unbelievable lows to salvage something in the end and pass out, this 3 hour Aamir starrer is designed as triumph of the underdogs, as is the filmi wont. The humor is multiplied many times over.

To start with, The IIT background is shifted to some prestigious private college so as to not arouse a scandal by commenting on its education system. The Ryan character becomes Rancho, borrows Rajesh's girlfriend here as he is playing 'hero' here, again because of which he ends up a top-of-the-line scientist, not some research assistant. Ditto with other 2 friends who in the novel just manage to scrape through into software careers (man, are we so cheap!!). Here in the movie, they are made for better things. One even follows his heart to become a wildlife photographer. The novel didn't have the lofty ideals of follow-ur-heart thing and it just was a coming of age story of 3 folks, even as it enlightens the Hitleresque HoD of Mech Engg. While the HoD thread continues to be the emotional core here, the movie includes more sub-plots in its canvas to add more masala. Rancho is more altruistic here than Ryan was, there is also some drama thrown in for his background which helps the flashback narrative. And here we have a Chatur Ramalingam's character who is fully-blown out from the mugger Venkat in the novel (to elevate the 'success' of Rancho towards the end). So much blown up, he stinks all time! His on-stage Hindi performance is outrageously funny (Why do the southies suit so well for the studious characters is something to ponder! Remember the bespectacled medico Nagarajan in Munnabhai).

Aamir suits the central character to the T. In fact the project wouldn't have been possible without his dynamism. 3 idiots is the first serious take on Indian education system and that very fact keeps it in good stead to become a huge blockbuster. Madhavan and Sharman do well too. Boman Irani seems to be a resident evil in all Hirani's ventures and with a very good reason. He makes it very easy for us to loath him with his menacing. The first half of the movie just flies by in all wit. The second half slows a bit and even the dialogue at some places look laboured but the joyous mood of the movie so overwhelms that these technicalities don't matter much except to rank 3 idiots a few steps below the finesse of the Munnabhai series. But then, maybe, we don't always need Hirani's best to keep the viewers agog and the box office on fire. Hirani would have feared matching his early successes and must have said 'Aal izz Well' to keep himself going! And it works big time in all its honesty. 3 cheers to 3 idiots :)

AVATAR (IMAX 3-D): Redefining Cinematic Experience

"The last time I came out of a movie feeling that way it was the first time I saw Star Wars. The most evocative and amazing science-fiction movie since Star Wars." - Steven Spielberg about Avatar

In all its verdant 3D splendour, James Cameron's Eco-fable Avatar left me spellbound like nothing before. This

jaw-dropping visual spectacle, which shows the full potential of the 3D medium, ushers us into a whole new age of film making. Would this turn out a crush and not real love, only time and the next 3D adventures would tell! But for now, the riot of colors and the 3D alternate reality on screen with all those painstakingly done details simply overwhelms us so much we would be ready to redefine cinema as a sensory experience rather than a story-telling craft for those 160 odd magical moments. That's how hard Cameron's imagination pushed the envelope.

Many a time, we feel technology mindlessly dominates the stories and characters so much so that the human element would be crushed beneath it. In fact, we have come to believe that good special effects are those which are hard to notice. Avatar is the case where the technology is right in-the-face in form of 12-foot tall, golden-eyed, gazelle-like blue indigenous people and other never seen before fauna on lush extraterrestrial moon called Pandora. And it engrosses and connects with us so well we don't feel we need to connect with the story. Heck, I didn't even care if there was one. At least till I left the IMAX 3D theatre. Avatar redefined cinematic experience for me.

One viewing may be hopelessly inadequate for us to take in all of Avatar in its 3D glory. The lush flora complete with filtered sunlight in middle of wild forests to the most imaginatively created wildlife to the floating mountains all scenes one after the other look like paintings of Van Gough. Cameron showed everything that can be imagined can now be realised on screen without making anything look like gimmickry. How much of this groundbreaking experience is due to skilled color composition and how much due to real hardware developments - like in camera would determine what this new generation 3D cinema would throw up. But for now, Avatar shows the future of 3D action movies. When the Na'vis speaks and the subtitles float in a wonderful 3D layer, we realise 3D is no more about some odd thrill but that it is as real as it can get. The range of subtle emotions Na’vi warrioress Neytiri's character displays and our emotions it elicits speaks volumes of how real the 3D and VFX technologies elevated the experience into.

Once I descended from the highs back at home, the more I think, the more I get to realize that Cameron indeed got away with a simplistic bland story - corporate greed destroying mother earth, and cliches political - "we will fight terror with terror", “When people are sitting on stuff you want, you make them your enemy” (an allegory to Iraq and Afghanistan and the premise for the wars there) and business - “One thing stockholders hate worse than bad press, is a bad quarterly statement”. But then with something around $500 mn at stake, Cameron must have felt it safe to stick with his tried and tested simple storyline method. As is his wont, he comes out with all guns blazing in the climax to steady Avatar as the next big popcorn blockbuster. A dream of 12 years, ironically, would have a predictable climax, albeit an all-enveloping visual experience. This is precisely what stops us from calling this a masterpiece. But then making one may not be Cameron's priority as is his ambition to be re crown himself the king of the world. He may well be re crowned next year, Avatar may well sweep the Oscars in all technical departments. Till then, we can all give him a collective WOW.