Issue 24
Kingdom Knowledge & Practice

 song in the wind

[Heart Follows the Shadow] 1 Thoughts after watching the Indian movie "Three Idiots in Bollywood"

▲"Three Idiots" is a well-received and popular film in India. It won the 2010 Indian Academy Awards (Filmfare Awards) for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor, and the Indian IIFA Best Film and Best Screenplay. Waiting for many awards!

In addition to external and visible achievements, people live.
What is more important is spiritual and eternal satisfaction.

The car is driving on a winding road surrounded by mountains and rivers. The 5,600-meter-high Ladakh mountainous area has beautiful and picturesque scenery. Among the mountains and flowing water, melodious exotic songs are sometimes gentle and sometimes high-pitched in the wind. "He is as free as the wind, soaring in the sky like a kite. Where has he gone... He is like a floating cloud floating alone, but he is our best confidant. Where has he gone... let us find it." At the beginning of the film, I I have followed three young Indians to find friends they have not seen for many years.


The Chinese translation of "Three Idiots Make Trouble in Bollywood" refers to three college friends led by Rancho. With the principle of not easily compromising, he "makes trouble" in India's top science and engineering universities. This film is a well-received and popular film in India. It won the 2010 Indian Academy Awards (Filmfare Awards) for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Indian IIFA Best Film, Best Screenplay and many other awards! The entire film is adapted from the novel "Five Point Someone" by Indian best-selling author Chetan Bhagat. In a unique Indian Bollywood film method, It reveals the vicissitudes of social reality and reflects the unfairness of the social system.

▲The film uses humorous and ironic techniques to challenge the rigid education system, just like Farhan’s confession at the beginning of the film: "Life is a competition."

Reflection amidst laughter


The film uses humor and irony to challenge the rigid education system. Just like Farhan's confession at the beginning of the film: "Life is a competition." In India, a country with a large population, it is very difficult to get admitted to a higher polytechnic. , not only did I have to work hard to get high scores to compete with others, but my family even had to sacrifice for my son who was studying. All my daughter’s dowry was included in his son’s tuition. “Let my son become an engineer” became the goal of the whole family.


A polytechnic professor nicknamed "Virus" uses a cramming-style teaching method that he considers authoritative. He and the male protagonist show off their talents in class and compete with each other. It is a classic sadistic scene in the movie, and it is brought out in laughter. Reflections on challenges. A top student who strives to get into the polytechnic, in order to fulfill the wishes of his family and the favor of the professors, is the best and tries his best to "kill" other students so that he can survive in the "jungle" of the college; just like the "virus" professor teaches everyone A lesson - life begins with a murder. If you don't win, you are waiting to be killed. Life is like a race. If you don't run faster, you are waiting to be trampled. (Life begins with murder, compete or die; life is a race, if you don't run fast, you will be trampled by others.)

▲The polytechnic professor nicknamed "Virus" uses a cramming-style teaching method that he considers authoritative, and competes with the male protagonist in class, bringing out the challenges and reflections in the hilarious laughter.


Perhaps we have never encountered such a severe and cold-hearted professor who instilled such an alarmist philosophy of life, but we have to admit that life is indeed full of competition, such as entrance exams and job promotions, and there is full of pressure to beat others. Otherwise, you have to endure the loneliness of losing to others!


"I have lived for others all my life, even if it is only for a moment, let me live freely. Give me sunshine, give me rain, and give me a chance to be reborn."This is the cry sung by the character Joy in the play in a light-hearted tune when she is pawned off by her professor and has no hope of graduation. It truly reflects the miserable demands of young students. Joey was the first quasi-engineer in the village with high hopes, but he had no choice but to be unable to graduate. He was unable to meet his elders in Jiangdong. Under the weight of disappointment and pressure, he chose to hang himself to end his life. Parents' expectations, teachers' strictness, competition for further education, and self-loss. Do these pressures push young students into a blind corner from which there is no escape?

▲Parents’ expectations, teachers’ strictness, competition for higher education, and self-loss. Do these pressures push young students into a blind corner from which there is no escape?

Is losing yourself an inevitable "fate"?


In addition to challenging and criticizing the education system, the film also explores self-pursuit and the value of life. Every character in the film leads a repressed life. Fahan was "stipulated" by his father to be an engineer when he was born. Even if he liked photography, he had to hide his interest. Raju, whose father was paralyzed and his sister had no dowry, worried every day, prayed to God and worshiped Buddha, and lived a happy life. Live a life of success or failure. Professor Virus calculates his life according to the scientific and engineering formulas he has learned, is unwilling to think, refuses to change, and lives a robot-like life. The heroine Pia also got engaged to a famous sportsman under the arrangement of her professor's father, wandering between social values and her true self. Even though the male protagonist Lan Che looks free and easy, and has no worries about the world, he is also studying for a degree for his boss's son behind the back of other people's identities and names.


In an Indian society with a large population and class concepts, how difficult it is to realize dreams or break through difficulties! In such a competition that suppresses human nature, losing oneself seems to be an inevitable "destiny"? I really wish someone could say to them:"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; I am gentle and lowly in heart...My yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28- 30)Do they understand that life is not a competition, and you don’t have to go through five levels and fight all the way to find your own value and positioning, because in life, in addition to external and visible achievements, what is more important is the soul. , eternal satisfaction.


A typical Indian film in Bollywood must be accompanied by lively and interesting singing and dancing. In the film, Lan Che leads the students of the Polytechnic School in singing:"The chicken doesn't know the future of the egg, whether it will hatch or be eaten. No one knows what the future will bring... quiver your lips and let the whistle blow away your worries, Aal izz well (everything goes well) na na na ..."These interesting passages and dances attracted me to "sing and dance". While singing and dancing, I felt very confident in my heart because I knew that my God would take control of tomorrow.

 Notes
Indian Bollywood dance originated from the film industry in Mumbai, India. Indian films are good at telling emotional narratives. Even very serious themes, such as historical dramas or tragedies, are often treated with some comedy elements. Indian society is quite conservative, and many love scenes are replaced by dance. A movie usually includes five or six dances, which has become a major feature of Indian movies. Bollywood dance, which is a fusion of Indian classical and modern dance, has distinctive national characteristics and beautiful and compact images, making it a unique dance style that is both performative and entertaining.


Movie skills

Three Idiots causing trouble in Bollywood (3 Idiots, also translated as "Three Idiots")

Time: Produced in 2009

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Actors: Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor

Plot introduction: Three young people, Fahan, Lanche and Laiju, are classmates and roommates at Imperial College. Lan Che is smart and keen, taking the lead in challenging the teaching system, and his free philosophy of life stirs up students' thoughts. He encourages his friends to pursue their ideals, urges the professor's daughter Pia to leave her stinky boyfriend, and advocates that engineers should not just seek high academic scores, but should apply what they have learned to contribute to society. Of course, there must be sworn enemies among the students who disagree with these views. Professor "Virus"'s favorite student who memorizes high scores, Chatur, was teased by Lan Che and his friends and developed an "immortal hatred", so they made an appointment to meet ten years later to see who can take the credit. And back. Ten years later, Lan Che did not show up, so Fahan, Laiju and Chatur went to look for their friends they had not seen for ten years. The story starts from here in flashback...


Author profile

Wu Jianyan is a writer. He likes watching movies, visiting art galleries, reading, traveling and music. I like to get together with friends, discuss life, movies and books easily, and write down my thoughts. Settled in North America.