Just because the Hindi movie 3 Idiots was such a hit, even in a place like Tamil Nadu where relatively lesser people follow Hindi, let me write my reviews under two headings:
For those who haven’t watched 3 idiots:
You will certainly enjoy the movie to the core. Finally a movie from Vijay without fight, “kuthu” paatu, punch dialogues etc., He has done a decent job despite missing his strengths. Vijay must thank Aamir Khan a lot, because most of his expressions and body language have been directly copied from AK. He has hardly shown his originality. Sreekanth is just there in the movie. Neither great, not worse. In his flashback scenes, he looks like curd rice (or “pazham”), whereas in the current day scene, he looks very handsome. Jeeva has displayed the best of his abilities to act. He has carried over his “student from middle class family” look and behavior all through the movie. Good act.
But the real star of the movie though is Satyan. He has done such a commendable job that no one would have thought or expected him to do. To accept such a challenging role and perform it to perfection is something to be appreciated.
Illeana doesn’t do anything great. Just the belly dance song.
Satyaraj doesn’t do much justice for his standards. My opinion is that he is not at all suitable to the role. His strengths are different. A college dean with over 35 yrs of experience is not his kind of role to play. I personally feel that Prakash Raj or Sampath (the gay guy in movie Goa) would have done better.
Songs are nice to listen. "Ask Lask" is very soft , whereas “en friend’a pola..” will be the next “Mustafa Mustafa..”. It also has shades of the Chennai Super Kings theme song, in terms of beat. That could get the youth going too. The other belly dance song is some relief for Illeana fans as she proves that she is better than Shriya Saran in belly dancing.
Cinematography, Picturisations, locations and editing are all decent. The Shankar touch is present throughout the movie. Dialogues are hilarious. The story and plot have more scope for comedy. I feel that some one like Crazy Mohan would have added more flavour to it.
Overall, this is a kind of a plot that Tamil audiences have not seen enough of and so it will be an enjoyable ride.
Now coming to the comparison: i.e., for those who have watched 3 idiots already:
Considering the number of remake movies coming out these days, i follow a plan of not comparing anything while watching the movie. Let’s enjoy the movie first, and when we are out of the theatre, let’s do a comparison or discussion.. That has helped me a lot.
As said earlier, this is an official remake - scene to scene copy. During the audio release, Director Shankar made a statement that all the appreciations / positive feedback of the movie will belong to the Hindi movie’s director. Even in the title credits, the screenplay is credited to Raj Kumar Hirani.
The first biggest disappointment is the character of “Joy Lobo” in Hindi, which is “Paneer Selvam” in Tamil. The characterization for this role (I think Vijay Vasanth) is horrible. This is a dark guy with a beard, looks like a uneducated villager or a wineshop employee, plays guitar and sings the song which is “give me some sunshine” in Hindi. This was ridiculous. I’m not saying that a villager or a wine shop person should not play guitar. But being a brilliant engineering college student, the guy is supposed to have a look of a decent student.
The second biggest failure is Satyaraj. Ok. I know it is very very difficult to enact this character played by “Bomman Irani”. But they could atleast have tried someone worthwhile. Being a Dean / Professor of an engineering college, the person is supposed to be having some decent English accent if not American English.
And the final flop is that from our Ilaya Thalapathi. His dialogue delivery is very very slow which at time makes us boring. A dialogue that Aamir Khan spoke in 8 seconds, Vijay speaks in 25 seconds. And Vijay has not shown his originality too. For ex: The scene where he defines book, the scene in hospital where he saves Jeeva’s father’s life, the climax scene.. Vijay has copied Aamir khan’s body language perfectly. Even better than what Jayam Ravi does in his telugu movie remakes.
I’m not saying that Vijay is the wrong choice for this movie – he did a better job in Sachin, thamizhan (1st half) etc., Its just that he has tried to imitate AK which is bad.
What I like about the remake:
The names chosen for the characters are great. Kosaksi PasaPugazh (for Phunsukh Wangdoo), Panchavan Paarivendhan (for Ranchod Das Shyamal Das Chanchad). Even Jeeva’s name (Sevarkodi Senthil Nathan).
The teacher’s day speech was hilarious. I was thinking how it is going to be remade in Tamil. But they have managed to give a good laugh. Though personally I felt that the words that were made fun of, were frequently used Tamil words and it is little unbelievable that Satyan's character were unaware of those..!
The Dhokla related comedy was also done well in Tamil , comparing Burmeese food items.
We have a plenty of Tamil Origin Burma settled people in Tamil Nadu. So, there are plenty of Burmese fast food centres and restaurants. It was well explained in the movie that Vijay was eating Burmese food, and he actually belonged to a Tamil origin Burma settled family.
In all, Shankar has done a decent remake, giving his own touches wherever required. Jeeva’s & Satyan’s performance boost the movie a long way. It is worth a watch.
Even if you have seen 3 idiots, watch this once. You might not see these actors coming together again under Shankar.
My rating is 3.5 out of 5.
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