3 Idiots

3 Idiots [Online image]. (2009). Retrieved July 25, 2015 from https://klling.wordpress.com/2013/03/24/3-idiots-2009/3-idiots-poster/

    The narration majorly surrounds the story of three engineering students, Farhan Qureshi, Raju Rastogi and Rancchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad, who enrolled in Imperial College of Engineering, one of the best colleges in India. While three of them came from different backgrounds, hold distinct personalities, they still end up in best buddies and share the same hostel together. Out of three of them, Farhan was the only one that owns a dream himself, which is to become a wildlife photographer, but unable to pursue it due to his father’s strong expectation on him becoming an engineer. Despite that, Raju came from a poor family background, with his coughing mother, his father paralyzed in bed, their water supply from 24-hours water leaking roof, and his unwed sister, Raju was forced to study hard and graduates with a degree so that he would be able to find a fine job and earn money and bring his family out from this wretched living conditions. Unlike Farhan and Raju who came from modest background, Rancho was a wealthy genius that has a curious mind. Rancho was often question things and definitely a pain in the head for all lecturers, especially Virus, the designated “evil” protagonist in the overall film and the director of ICE. Ever the non-conformist, Rancho questions the ICE systems and always rejects the philosophy from Virus where one must compete and sacrifice other in order to reach the top position. However, little did he know that this system was the cause of many lives of students being sacrificed. Evidently, his son and one of the students in ICE, Joy Lobo committed suicide due to his cruel and apathetic on their learning ways and their passions towards their pursuit of career path.

    Rancho challenges Virus by teasing him in every possible way, including one of the events where Rancho and Farhan substituting obscenities into the script in which Chatur Ramalingam or “Silencer” would be presenting a speech at an award ceremony. As expected, Chatur ignorantly memorized every word in the script and mindlessly humiliated Virus in front of the students and guests without noticing anything was amiss. Chatur was furious afterwards and went to challenge Rancho where he makes a bet on which of them would be most successful after ten years though Rancho did not take it seriously. Not only did they offend Chatur, Virus also intended to make revenge on them. After the exam, Farhan and Raju fuddle themselves up as they came the last two whereas their best friend Rancho came first in the exam rank. Both of them challenged Rancho to propose to his love that is Pia, Virus’ second daughter if Rancho wants them to pursue their own dream and to break free from their family’s burdens. As a result, they went to Virus house in the middle of midnight where Rancho went to Pia’s room to propose while both Farhan and Raju urinate in front of Virus compound’s front door. Although they manage to escape from being caught on the spot, Virus knew it was their mischief. Virus then compelled Raju to make a decision whether to expel Rancho out from college or him himself disappointing his family. Raju who cannot bear to betray both his friend and his family went to commit suicide from Virus’ office window.

    Fortunately, after extensive care from his best buddies and Pia, he recovered from coma. From that day on, their friendship was more deepen and Farhan and Raju even follow Rancho’s advice of pursuing their own passions. At the end, Farhan and Raju found Rancho who had lost and out of contact for many years after the graduation ceremony. It was revealed that Rancho was impersonating this person to earn a degree for him and his real name was actually Phunsukh Wangdu. He had also become a successful scientist and a schoolteacher in Ladakh.

    The film emphasizes more on the social status quo nowadays, not only in India but also worldwide. Due to the fact that people nowadays excessively regard on having a high-paid job like engineer and the job status in the society, people forgot their passions and abandoned the values to pursue their own interests. Moreover, the film also intends to convey the message of education systems in modern days stress a lot on results rather than knowledge they obtained through learning. As a consequence, cases of students commit suicide increasing. It is also believed that the director intend to send the message to its audiences that there was many possibility to become success in life besides obtaining a degree in top college or university. He (Rajkumar Hirani) wants the audiences to understand that there is numerous ways to achieve material wealth and challenges the conventional ideology of earning a degree in study life. The director (Rajkumar Hirani) himself as well as the film “3 Idiots” clearly wants to portray the ideology of nonconformist to society. 

    Bollywood is well-known for its light-hearted romance and action genres, with musical numbers inserted in the intervals of movie. Usually, the settings were decorated with elaborate designs especially during the dancing and singing parts. The use of massive people dancing and the random interchange of sets truly portray the theatrical performance where it also sustained the culture of Indian in film aesthetic language. Romance theme was normally the main plot or subplot for the thorough film. To emphasize the epic romance journey both male and female characters share, the stage setting in a theatre-like location was the most suitable visual place to show their strong love bond. Not only it entertained the audience’s eyes but also brings out the vivid culture dance and elaborated decorations that India has.

Portray of Pia's love relationship with Rancho. (2009) [Image, screen capture]

   Unlike classic Hollywood style, which applied skin-ship or kisses scenes to portray the romance relationship shared between the characters, Bollywood involved less kissing scenes in the overall film. Instead, the performance and interaction between the lover character through dancing and singing somehow uplift the romance atmosphere surrounds the two love birds. Besides, the melody would often imprint in every audience’s heart and the tune would be haunting everyone’s mind which also became one of the key elements for Bollywood became a hit in the blockbuster movie. For instance, the rhythmic tune melody of “All is well” in three idiots’ movie has recognized through worldwide. 

"All is well" melody. (2009) [Image, screen capture]

    Bollywood would usually focus on the issue on stereotypical gender role like gender, sexuality, Asian-Americans, globalization and postcoloniality. (Desai, 2006, p.3) It is a tool to define and construct dichotomies between nation and culture in India. (Ginta, 2004, p.3) Evidently, in the film “3 Idiots” it discussed about the stereotypical in job status in India. Moreover, the harsh society towards lower class also was portrayed in the film. For instance, even though Raju’s family live in poverty, there seems to be no social community provide help. Moreover, Virus did not took pity on Raju and insist on kicking him out of college study.  

    Returns to the topic of challenging dominant ideology of what drives success, the film “3 Idiots” did a good job by staging the story platform in college setting. Generally, college or university was the pre-staging for one to survive in a competitive society. Yet, education systems nowadays pay attention more on results than on the knowledge that students acquire. In this film, the director (Rajkumar Hirani) gave a different conception on pursuing success in different way. Having a prestigious degree wasn’t the only way to pursue material wealth in the future. The director (Rajkumar Hirani) also intends to convey the message of become open-minded in every possible way and restrict oneself by the boundaries set by the society. Thus, the fantasy character Rancho was born. He was both smart and often think out of the box. Through the perspective of society, he was a troublemaker, but that was because he breaks through the constraints of pursuing knowledge. The character itself was indeed a role model to fight the dominant ideology that many past generations had imposed on the new generations. Nevertheless, the pressure and expectations came from the past generations only force the new generations to a verge of depression and even commit suicide. By following the pace of Rancho through the film, there was much philosophy to be learned from his dialogue. For instance, there was the event where both Farhan and Raju drunk after failing to raise their position in the exam rank, Rancho gave his advice to both his friends. He assured Farhan to go pursue his passion of becoming wildlife photographer and stop obeying his father wish. Whereas to Raju who questioned Rancho that he still failed although he interested in engineering, Rancho stated that was because he was always scare of his family’s expectation and scare of unable to find a job. Both Farhan and Raju were the reflections of today youngsters who either forced to fulfill their family’s expectation or being compelled by the environment factors. The message that the film wants to transmit was none other than breaking free from conform to the established society’s beliefs and notions. 

Rancho is persuading both Raju and Farhan. (2009) [Image, screen capture]

    In terms of cinematography, the director (Rajkumar Hirani) cleverly guides the audience into the illusion of participation in the film. On the introduction of the narrative, the audience confusingly follow Farhan nervously and eagerly to meet Rancho. The audience saw how Farhan deceived the airline staff in order to get off the flight just to meet Rancho. Then again, we saw how Raju was too anxious to meet Rancho until he forgot to wear his pant out. At this point, the audience would start to look forward to this character that could drive both his friends so anxious to meet him. 

Farhan and Raju were eager to meet Rancho. (2009) [Image, screen capture]

    Furthermore, when they finally reached the destination, there was no sign of Rancho, but Chatur waiting for them. Even though Chatur was so arrogantly showing off his 3.5 million mansions and his luxury Lamborghini car, Farhan and Raju showed no interest on it, but keep asking Rancho whereabouts. At this point, Chatur mentioned the day when he bet with Rancho about whoever would become the most successful on the same date, September 5^th after ten years. The flashback of that day cut into the scene, revealing minor parts of that day event. 

The significant date that Chatur bet with Rancho on who would become the most success. (2009) [Image, screen capture]

    This somehow stimulates the curiosity of this mysterious character named Rancho and question of “what’s happen ten years ago” would be the main key to guide the audience back to the past event. Thorough the film, the story was focused more on their college life with some present event punctuated into the plot, reminding the audience that they were looking at the past and that Farhan and Raju still tracking down Rancho. By portraying the actors’ exaggerated reaction and humorous manner, it ignites the curiosity of the audience towards the mystery identity of Rancho. 

    After the opening credit and Hindi music fades in, the story pattern was narrated in an alternate period between present and past events. It began with Chatur persuades Farhan and Raju to meet Rancho which he claimed to know his whereabouts. Then, the story altered to past events where Farhan and Raju first met Rancho. By following the story sequences between past and present events, the audience began to know this mysterious character; Rancho while also understands the reasons for Rancho to earn such trust from his two best friends. The director (Rajkumar Hirani) first creates the mysterious identity to Rancho and slowly reveals his characteristic and subsequent events that make today Farhan, Raju and Rancho. The purpose perhaps wants the audience to discover the mystery behind these men and to absorb the moral value behind this film deeper.

    Although the film reflects the stress condition in today society and intellectual systems, it did not preach the message. Rather, it gave the spectators two different opinions on becoming success – whether to have multiple wealth materials like Chatur or to achieve the passions in life like Rancho. The audiences were left to ponder on the topics themselves and to decide the real success through their own opinions. 

    By entitled the film “3 Idiots”, the film in fact discussed on who is the real idiots though the answer was vague and it depends on the point of view of the spectators. One of the events that best demonstrate the different perspective of learning was the event when Chatur and Rancho were still freshmen. During a lecture class, the professor wants the students to elaborate the definition of machine. At first, Rancho explains the machine in a clear and simple way, but the professor did not appreciate it. On the contrary, he only accepts Chatur’s answer which was complicated and pretentious. This scene was clear to show that people often prefer lengthy and intricate sentence without having to comprehend the meaning of the words. Thus, the professor chose to believe the learning way of Chatur memorize the definition like a robot than appreciating the way Rancho practice his critical thinking ability and apply it in everyday life surrounding. Rancho was claimed as an idiot by the professor and that was the second time the film title “idiots” being discussed. Nevertheless, that was the personal opinions made by the professors and it did not completely prove that Rancho was wrong.

The professor kicks Rancho out of his class. (2009) [Image, screen capture]

    In one of the scene when Rancho was forced by Virus to lecture in class since Rancho deny his education systems, Rancho randomly write down two words and gave everyone 30 minutes to define it. Everyone in class was panic and flustered on searching the definition through textbooks, including Virus himself. However, it was later revealed that the words Rancho wrote did not exist at all, he just promptly created it. Surely, Virus was infuriated by it, yet we audience noticed that the people who impose the “idiot” on Rancho was idiot by themselves as they did not think critically instead acted like a robot which solely memorized terms. 

Rancho was forced by Virus to give lecture. (2009) [Image, screen capture]

    The film intensely reflects today’s education too rely on memorizing and had neglected the importance of comprehending the true wisdom behind every learning process.  According to one of the film critics in India, he stated that not only institutions in India, but many institutions nowadays focus more on producing a bureaucracy to serve the corporate sector, than cultivate original thinkers. (Mayank Shekhar, 2009)

    The film’s storytelling sequence was definitely not new and uncommon in the film industry, yet what makes it different was the impact it has on the audience’s belief to the norm that has been obeyed by diverse nationalities and cultures. The director (Rajkumar Hirani) also invites the audience to ponder on the issues in education systems, whether to sustain the traditional standards of study or to break free from the boundaries and try a second way to help people to appreciate knowledge again and to regain humanity in the society. 

References

Chang, I. (2011, February). Three Idiots: A Trip of Discoveries and Enlightenment. manycinemas. Retrieved July 20, 2015, from http://www.manycinemas.org/Irenna_Chang.html

Desi, A. (2009, December 30). 10 Lessons From 3 Idiots. Retrieved July 20, 2015, from http://amreekandesi.com/2009/12/30/10-lessons-from-3-idiots/

3 Idiots. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Idiots

Run Lola Run

    (1998). Run Lola Run. Retrieved from http://hattershostels.com/events/run-lola-run/

    Run Lola Run is definitely one of the unique and interesting films that I have watched through. The movie begins with Lola receives a phone call from Manni, her boyfriend who works as a runner for the mobsters, lost a bag of cash that he had smuggled into the country on a subway train. This leaves Manni with no choice of deciding to rob a grocery store nearby but Lola stops him. In the next 20 minutes, Manni will wait for Lola for the money if she is able to raise it or else he will take the action to rob. On the other side, Lola has to think of a way to raise 100,000 Deutschmarks for Manni in that short period of time. Three alternative endings all depend on different decisions and actions made by Lola during her run. Though not all of which the three different outcomes result with a happy ending. 

    Certainly, the film portrays a great deal of exciting storytelling; with the fusion of mixing some cartoon animation to express the frantic run by Lola and the repetition of Lola’s attempt to collect the needed amount of cash with minor changes to every setups. Mostly, the streets she runs through remain the same, but the people she met have slight changes in their behavior and each foretell events change depends on their attitudes. The forecast of how each of the people Lola run through will end up with are shown in a fast-pace cut shot. The images of their endings were edited in metric montage in black and white color and somehow making the fact that audiences are actually looking at their lives through photos. The message is that every small attitude towards an event can cause huge difference in consequences. To take an example, in the first run, the woman strolling with her baby swear at her then the images of her baby being taken away revealed whereas for the third run, when Lola rushed by her, this time images revealed that she has joined the church, her manner was better. The same goes to Lola where the last decision she made not only earned her an extra one thousand Deutschmarks but Manni also managed to settle his money matter with his employer.

(1998). The first encounter of Lola with this woman [Image, screen capture]. 

(1998). The third encounter of Lola with this woman [Image, screen capture].

    The director of Run Lola Run (1998), Tom Tykwer is belongs to a generation that embraces post-modernism and pop culture rather than following the classic way of portraying film. He broke the boundaries of genre and launched an avant garde style of aesthetic film practices to create a new direction in German film-making. The film itself is a product of its own time where the whole process of Lola running has a huge relationship with the obsession of time.

(1998). Some visual composition that represents limit of time [Image, screen capture].

   The film employs the element of pop culture that are deviant, nonconformist, disorder and that challenges the conventional forms of contemporary film. Pop is the key to present where the fast-pace editing locks the audience into the present and reflects the contemporary German’s urban settings where the life of post-war era is frustrating and buzzed. (Assheur. T) The mash-up of visual composition with the fast-pace sequences has led German to a new wave in film-making. The film experiments the visual playfulness of integrating the realm of game into reality. Tykwer cleverly enhances the pleasure of the spectator by incorporating the risk taking of making selection in reality like in games in his film. Thus, having three different outcomes with alternate selection made by Lola.

(1998). The first ending [Image, screen capture].

(1998). The second ending [Image, screen capture].

(1998). The third and last ending [Image, screen capture].

   This had discovered the possibilities in German cinema. Tykwer resorts to the aesthetic practices of avant-garde as he firmly wants the film to direct spontaneity with linear storyline. (Tykwer. T) According to the scriptwriter of Run Lola Run, he adopts the hybridity to the genre of the film that he experiments with different types of genre and includes it all into one film. The disintegration of classical narrative also represents as one of the traits in pop culture.  

    According to Tykwer confession, his inspiration of creating this film is in fact the desire of combining body movement, emotions and female body into one that acts as a vehicle to portray desperation and passion. Therefore, the character Lola was born with red hair blown while running to save his love. She literally manifests the essence of the entire film and also produces the new image of a tough and rebellious heroine on that era. How the film begins with an animated figure of Lola into the real life Lola has the intention of placing firmly a fantasy character invented into a real society. 

(1998). The integration between animated Lola and real Lola in the film [Image, screen capture].

    She is the visual pleasure for the ideal figure for woman: energetic, powerful, passionate and determined. Besides, Tykwer also attached a fairy-tale like romance bond on Lola with the security guard, Schuster. Each time Lola met him, he will worded out words from being sarcastic gradually to being kind and sweet. For instance, in the first meeting, Schuster ironically calls her the princess of the house then on second meeting, Schuster lectures her with the virtue of queen and finally, the last meeting he proclaims “you’re finally here darling” with the sound effect of loud pounding comes in. Other than that, on their last encounter in the ambulance, Lola was able to resuscitate him by staying by his side. 

(1998). First encounter with Schuster [Image, screen capture].

(1998). Second encounter with Schuster [Image, screen capture].

(1998). Third encounter with Schuster with the enhanced sound effect of heart pounding [Image, screen capture]. 

(1998). Lola revives Schuster by staying by his side [Image, screen capture].

    Through the perspective of cinematic language, it is obvious that fast-pace editing was vastly applied in this film. Not only has it had the purpose to reveal the urban settings of contemporary German but also to emphasize the importance of time in making decision during that era. Before the opening credit appears, it is interesting how the shoots focus on each sub character that appears in the film and then to aerial camera view where the crowd moves to create the film title. 

(1998). From the crowd walking to the aerial view of crowd forming the film title [Image, screen capture].

    Again, from the aerial perspective the camera moves rapidly into Lola’s house in which the same camera movement goes to shooting Manni in the phone booth. Interestingly, the movie directs the audience in a rapid speed in which distinct from the usual classic way of directing the audience in a slow pace. The way of moving the audience fast to the story though gives a sudden confusion, it somehow stimulates the nervous sensation to a certain extent where the audience will start to think of what is something bad happening.

(1998). The rapid speed of directing the audience into the story [Image, screen capture].

   Besides, the importance of prop in Run Lola Run is also well portrayed through editing. For instance, during the scenes when Lola and Manni mentioned “the bag”, rhythmic montage is used where they keep repeating “the bag” until the bum, main cause to the lost of bag, saying “the bag” as well. The purpose is to have the audience realize the importance of the cash to both Lola and Manni.

(1998). The recur of the word "the bag" [Image, screen capture].

   Despite, in the beginning of scenes, wipe transitions were also massively used for flashback. Instead of using classical low pace of fade in for flashback, the wipe transition could have the audiences dive in more quickly to the overall situation of Lola and Manni were into. For example, Lola explains to Manni about she missed the time to fetch Manni in front of the cyclops’ trading place while she thinks back, the similar transition also applied on Manni’s flashback.

(1998). Wipe transition used in one of the flashbacks [Image, screen capture].

   Moreover, split-screen that used in the film was to convey the message of incidents that happen simultaneously consider with the space and time. Furthermore, it is also to show the exuberant sprint of Lola through metropolis. For instance, Lola rushes to Manni to stop him from robbing and the scene where Lola rushes to ask for his father’s help. Both of the events show how Lola was already about to reach them though she did not succeed in meeting them every time.

(1998). Split-screen appear in each time Lola rushed to Manni as well as applied in one of the scenes where Lola was trying to catch up with his father [Image, screen capture].

   Despite that, the successive use of cut editing is visible for the first run ending. After the flashback of Lola, she claims that she did not want to leave at all thus the fast pace edit between the red trash bag and the red telephone carried in. The message is to give Lola a chance to reverse back time to the point she begins her run, which she says “stop” just when the phone falls. That is the starting point of the whole plot.

(1998). Repetitive cut shots between the red trash bag and the phone [Image, screen capture].

    Instead of using sound as a sub tool to support the flow of narrative, Tykwer emphasized it a lot in the overall film. The projection of sound volume increased every time Lola starts running, thus making the audience realize the relationship between the settings with the music. The techno music beat, in fact, lead the audience through a sensation of excitement in which the anticipation of “what is going to happen” in the audience towards the three alternate stories rise.  

    In a nutshell, Run Lola Run is absolutely a new direction of film-making for the German film industry. Instead of follow the trend of classical Hollywood movie, Tykwer displayed new aesthetic practises in film language and created a form of avant-garde art in the film-making field. If you like to dive into a realm of fantasy, Run Lola Run is definitely one of the films that embrace the escapism and would visually rouse the pleasure of watching it. 

References

No author (n.d.). Run Lola Run (1998) Plot Summary. IMDb. Retrieved July 4, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/plotsummary

Ebert, R. (1999, July 2). Run Lola Run. Roger Ebert.com. Retrieved July 4, 2015, from http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/run-lola-run-1999

Kosta, B. (n.d.). Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run and the Usual Suspects: The Avant-Garde, Popular Culture, and History. Retrieved July 4, 2015, from https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472113844-ch11.pdf