Everyone from good friends to the kids in my class told me that I must watch 3 idiots. It has a message, they said.
What, I asked.
We should do what we love to do, success will follow, they said.
Now, any person who has spent time writing a novel does not need a movie to tell her this. In fact, she still does things she loves to, and doesn't care if success follows or will follow or lag behind and take a different turn.
But the hype was too much. The controversy too unnerving.
Chetan Bhagat is one of my favorite writers. And I don't think his writing is simplistic, I find a lot of depth in his books.
In his latest book, Two States, the conflict is resolved when the parents get together and accept their children's love for each other, across two states.
During the wedding ceremony, the father of the bride is questioned by a gossip monger, ' Youngsters these days, they make their own decisions, and we feel so left out from their lives, isn't it ?'
Dad replies, 'I don't see it that way. The love they give each other, that capacity to love another human being, is in fact an extension of our love for them, isn't it?'
I found this overflowing with healing, for it works both ways.
Coming back to 3 idiots, I could not enjoy the movie. I happen to be trained in film making, and the book is too alive within me, as a film and as a book. Comparisons are inevitable, the barefoot on car brake too unforgettable an image to be sacrificed.
Actually, the problem is not changing a few scenes here and there. Rajkumar Hirani took the soul-flow out of the book, and just used the carcass. If he has so much talent, why could he not furnish a new backbone for his story?
Why is integrity so out of fashion in the film industry?
I am so heartbroken that I dont have the words to console Chetan Bhagat.
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