This movie was very similar to Munnabhai MBBS. The same team's first movie together. The first scene in Munna.... where Arshad Warsi chases a business man is very much similar to Madhavan and Sharman Joshi running to meet their friend - Rancho! Reprising his J DOT ASTHANA role, Virus would have been a cakewalk for an actor of Boman Irani's calibre. Whereas in their first movie, Munna irks Asthana to no end, here we have troublesome threesome pushing Virus to his breaking point and I believe "rustication" was used in both Munnabhai as well to threaten the protagonist. We had Munna playing Carrom-board with Rustam's father and making him well, in 3 Idiots we have the ingenious Rancho deliver a baby in this movie.
The so-called comedy track in the movie was so predictable that it killed the laughter. Couple of dialogues including the threatening names of Gujju food was laugh worthy. The movie was too melodramatic at times and of course preachy. The movie in no way touched my nostalgic chord of my college life. The "senior" in movie was irritating to say the least.
I rate the movie average for the message it delivers and an overall feel-good factor. The problem I have with such movies is that the director takes for granted the average movie-goer. This is a complete lack of creativity on their part to dish out another movie on similar lines to the previous two. "Jaadhu ka jappi" and "Gandhigiri" in the first two made way to "aal iz well" in their latest offering. It is like Dan Brown writing most of his novels on a similar theme and the only thing you can take from his books is the wealth of information. Kamalhassan, according to many is a great actor. I agree he is a great actor but most of movies are a complete re-hash of Hollywood movies. He didn't have to think about his role in Tenali, Avvai Shanmughi, Unnaipol Oruvan to name a few. He already had a general sense of how to etch his character when he watched the original which in a way kills creativity both in acting and script-writing.
For all the above reasons, 3 Idiots - average, 2 stars out 5 and not any where in the same ball-park as a 'must watch'.
