Three Idiots

In the Indian film Three Idiots (2009), three engineering students and best friends Rancho, Farhan, and Raju struggle to beat the draconian education systems in one of the Indian premier universities. The film was included in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the highest-grossing Bollywood film(Suparna, 2019). Though it was released more than 10 years ago, Three Idiots is still one of the most popular Bollywood movies in China nowadays. It won 9.2 out of 10, with more than 1.96 million comments in Douban (2022), one of the most popular movie rankings in China. The movie has the usual characteristics of Indian movies: joyful with singing and dancing. In this case, some people think that the reason why the film is popular in China is that it brings joy to the youth audience. However, I am going to argue that the reason why this film is highly rated is that Chinese young people feel similar cultural values to Indian people from a social perspective. The movies reflected the social pressures under the Indian education system that can be found in the Chinese educational system as well and inspired Chinese people to break conventions and have their personal definition of success, which is to pursue their career dream outside the traditional educational system. This kind of reflection and encouragement enables Three Idiots to become a symbol of cultural globalization.

The hilarious plot in the film has undoubtedly won the favor of Chinese audiences. But what makes the film even more intriguing is the fact that it reflects issues that can be found in the traditional Chinese education system. For example, both Indian and Chinese cultures have the culture of not offending teachers’ authority, and problems like teachers’ pressure on students to get good grades. In China, the tradition of 尊师， which is highly respecting teachers, has continued for thousands of years. To be more specific, in the traditional educational system, students should obey the commands of their teachers without questioning and have good scores in school. Students who follow teachers’ instructions will be encouraged, while those who challenge the teacher’s authority will be punished. For instance, according to the professor in the movie, the only acceptable answer to the question “ what is a machine”, should be the same as the bookish definition, which is “any combination of bodies so connected that their relative motions are constrained. And by which means, force and motion may be transmitted. And modified as a screw and his nut, or a lever arranged, to turn about a fulcrum, or a pulley about its pivots”, instead of a simple but understandable definition, like “ a machine is anything that reduces human effort like a fan that produces a blast of air in the warm day or telephone that enable people to speak to a friend miles away.” In this case, only students who recited the definition from the textbook were considered wonderful by the professor. Those who integrate knowledge with practical life were called idiots because they cannot get a good score with their answers in the exam.

However, this single rigid evaluation method brings lots of stress and pressure to students, which leads to serious mental health problems in extreme cases. A survey report in China shows that among seniors in college, emotional distress accounts for up to 47%, of which academic performance is the most important source (China Youth Daily, 2020). Take one scene in the movie as an example, the school director refuses to give an extension to student Joy’s non-human helicopter project because he considers that project is nonsense and unrealistic, which leads to Joy’s suicide in the dormitory finally. Ironically, Joy’s invention turned out to be promising and widely used in the future. Joy’s case demonstrates the bad consequences of traditional education models in extreme situations.

However, unlike other students who will only silently obey the teacher’s instructions or choose to suicide when it is unbearable, the protagonist Rancho dares to argue with the principal, pointing out the problems in the current education system. Rancho encourages students to fight authority and hopes schools will change the way they teach and accept different kinds of meaningful answers. He believes that students should focus more on new inventions and new ideas, not just compete for grades. He takes action to prove that professors should not just teach students how to get high grades on exams but should teach students real engineering knowledge.

For example, after being taken to the classroom by the angry principal, and being asked to teach the students. Rancho wrote the words “Encafarhan” and “Perraju” on the blackboard and asked the audience to define these two words in thirty seconds and complete the speed of finding answers. People in the audience nervously flipped through the book for the answer during these thirty seconds, but no one found it. Rancho points out that instead of feeling excited about learning new knowledge, students are caught in a frenzy of competition when confronted with questions. People’s knowledge is not increased, more is only pressure. Finally, he points out that the two words on the blackboard don’t exist at all. He’s not teaching engineering. His goal is to teach professors how to teach.

Rancho’s behavior is an excellent demonstration of the student’s rebellion against authority. Rancho’s behavior encouraged students in China who were also constrained by the teacher’s authority and the educational system. He made Chinese students realize that the way the teacher teaches is not necessarily the right way, the instruction of the teacher is not necessarily beneficial. There are things people can do to rebel against authority and the sick education system. The film’s portrayal of teacher authority raises a common thread in Indian and Chinese cultures. Chinese students see the commonality in Indian students. The film’s encouragement of this behavior against an educational system that puts a lot of pressure on students has allowed the film to overcome language barriers and become popular and successful in China.

In addition to telling people that it is wrong to compete for good grades, Rancho also inspires people to break the conventions to pursue their career dream. In the movie, Rancho’s friend Farhan had a passion for wildlife photography but chose to pursue engineering because his father considered that he will be an engineer when he was born. Rancho’s other friend Raju, with ten fingers covered in rings, burns incense every day to pray that he can get a good job and help his family escape poverty. Both Farhan and Raju came to the top engineering schools in India through fierce competition for different reasons, instead of being motivated by their love for engineering. What motivated them to succeed in the entrance examination was the pressure from their families and the social culture that “Life is a race, run fast or you will be trampled”. In the film, Rancho inspired his friends that success is not just the one defined by their parents or teachers, everyone can pursue their career dream fearlessly. At the end of the film, Farhan publishes his photograph, and Raju becomes a successful business executive. The fact that Rancho’s friends refuse to compete blindly in the traditional educational systems, and boldly pursue their dreams and achieve success finally, inspires young people as far away as China to pursue their dreams, instead of being defined by exams and grades.

In conclusion, in the past few decades, no film in China reflected the problems of the current education system. The movie Three Idiots makes Chinese audiences realize the similar problems in China’s current education system through the problems of India’s education system and provides feasible solutions for students who encounter similar problems. The story of the characters in Three Idiots inspires young Chinese people to break conventions to listen to their hearts and live for themselves, which is why this movie is loved by the Chinese people, especially the youth.