The much hype about ‘3 idiots’ aroused a curiosity in me to watch the movie. The movie attempts to give expression to the feelings of the ‘successful’ and yet unhappy upwardly mobile middle class of Indian Republic in the 60th year of its foundation. It correctly identifies the rot which has set in the education system of modern India which randomly puts round ball in the square hole. It is indeed true that given an opportunity most of us would like to be educated in radically different manner than how we were educated. Of course nobody likes the mad rat race for marks and the ‘Andhi Maghai(blind rote based study)’ of which we all were reluctant participant. But the fact remains that despite being conscious of all this and appreciating the movie and making it a super-hit, majority of these ‘successful’ Indians continue to be part of the mad rat race of career and making money in their day to day life. That means the root cause of the problem is not the education system per se. It is also not the attitude of the professors like SahastrBudhe, nor is the pressure of parents like those of Farhan and Raju. That’s where lies the limitation of the movie. It correctly identifies the problem but fails to go to its roots cause; rather it prefers a superficially trivial approach.
Professors and parents do not live in a vacuum; they live in the socio-economic and political milieu. Their attitude and behavior is inevitably governed by the values which are imposed by the environment. If the economic system of a society is based on the lust for profit and mindless competition among its members, it is merely a utopian wishful thinking that the attitude of its members would not be affected by this. If the success of a person is judged by the amount of money he is earning and not by his contribution to the society, then it should hardly be surprising that parents want their children to be educated in a manner which gives them opportunity to earn a lot of money and find a prestigious place in the society! If the economic system requires not the human being for fulfilling the needs of society but the obedient and pliant slaves in the industries to continuously increase the profits of the ruling class, then why should it at all be shocking that the education system is geared towards making more efficient human machines rather than better human beings?
Even if there is a change of heart of few professors and some parents; even if there are some exceptionally talented individuals like Rancho and even if some reforms are introduced in the education system, it would not affect the overall manifested behavior of society at large if the economic system remains as it is and goes on promoting the values of greed and selfishness unabashedly. The overall manifested behavior of society can only be changed if a radically different economic system is founded which is based on fulfilling the needs of all the members of society and provides opportunity for everyone to realize their potential to the fullest. But that would require a revolutionary overthrow of this unjust system and its replacement by a fair system where people work collectively to fulfill the requirements of the society and in the process realize their potential.
Perhaps I am expecting too much from a movie which is made for commercial motives. Why would Amir Khan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra make a movie or Chetan Bhagat would write a book which targets the economic system and professes its downfall? After all they are its real beneficiaries! It is the same economic system which ensures their exorbitant life style as compared to the overwhelming majority of Indians and thereby making them ‘successful’. So what, if even after 60 years of becoming republic, 400 million Indians live Below Starvation Line (which is euphemistically termed as Below Poverty Line) in the same system; so what, if in the same system 46 percent children are malnourished simply because their parents cannot afford to provide balanced diet to them; so what, if millions of children drop out of school mid way because their parents cannot afford their education; it is not their botheration that the average daily income of 77% of India’s population (about 840 million) is Rs. 20 at a time when the prices of pulses are touching Rs 100/kg mark and that of sugar Rs. 40/kg!
No wonder that failing to go to the root of the problem, the movie promotes a mystical illusion of ‘All is well’ in the same manner as the rulers of this ‘Republic’ (in reality a dynasty) of India do in response to all the problems faced by the country. But one thing is surely done by both the movie and the Indian ‘Republic’ – they both raise the aspiration levels of the people to a mountainous height, which this system fails miserably to meet. That’s where lies the hope that unable to meet the ever rising expectations of people, this system would cripple and give way for a just and fair system. This system would not make fool of the ‘idiots’ forever, the ‘idiots’ in reality have no option but to fight for the revolutionary overthrow of this system if they have to realize their full potential and enable future generations to chose the way they want to study and pursue their profession. Only such a revolutionary optimism provides a ray of light amidst the darkness surrounding us.
