When the dust of initial excitement is settled down, we can see the facts behind celebration. I consider ” 3 Idiots” as one of the new chapter in Indian movies and I thank director, producer and actors for it but some questions still haunts my mind and answers are not easy.
Nirmal Pandey
The movie suggests to follow your heart/ passion/ dreams, achieve excellence and the rest ( success?) follows. The recent news of death of an actor ( should I call him succeful actor or unsuccessful ? ) Nirmal Pandey shattered me and I stopped humming ” All is well”. Nirmal Pandey was not an ordaiinary achiever. He was a man who had worked with giants like Shekhar Kapur and Sudhir Mishra in successful movies like ” Bandit Queen” and ” Is raat ki Subah Nahin” . He had many international awards on his name but this world’s biggest f***ilm industry could not find a career for him. This is an industry where AB Jr gets break after break , even after giving many flops in row, learns acting and dance with his every new movie and then finally ended up as a star( should I say ended up, the fact is that he started as a star) . While a talented struggler could not find a way to even express himself/ herself and finally make a mess of his life on all fronts, emotional, financial and social.
Is it really worthwhile to follow your heart, until or unless you have a backup (plan)? Movie suggests not to opt for a safe and mediocre life. Do not care about getting credit cards and a bride/ groom for himself/ herself. Just, go for it. Kar lo Duniya Mutthi main.
Wow, how much I loved the movie. I was feeling like the main protagonist ( Rancho ) of the movie, I was thinking that ” Baadal Awara” song is written specially for me. But , the only difference was that while Rancho got whatever he wanted and I fucked up a big time and made a mess of my life. Though, I feel that I was far more sincere than Rancho.
Then, I think why I am making a fool of myself once again? I believed in the same theory of not opting for a safe life and follow my heart and see what I have made of myself.
And the big question? Do they ( the Team 3 Idiots) really believe in the theory of not opting for safe options? The answer is ” No”. When they opt for a 44 years old star to play the role of a teenager, we should know that this is all about business and choosing the safe options for themselves. They could have easily find a cast of young newcomers but they were not ready to take the “risk” and went ahead with a foolproof success formulae.
Chetan Bhagat
I also criticized Chetan Bhagat a lot initially because he was kind of a spoilsport in the party but honestly I didn’t like it when I didn’t see him getting the Best Story Filmfare trophy for 3 Idiots. 3 diots was definitely a movie based on the ” Five Point Someone” and it’d not have harmed the MIGHTY 3 Idiots team to give the credit where it was due.
It is like if Chris Nolan starts claiming that he will not give credit to DC comics for movie “The Dark Knight” as it is his own creation. Though the story for the movie was original and that is the reason why it was not nominated for best adapted screenplay at Oscars.
The Dark Knight based on DC Comics
Story of writers and newcomers treated badly in the Indian Film Industry is not a new thing, we recently heard about a tiff between Javed Akhtar Sahab and Aamir Khan. It was surprising to know that Aamir was not so eager to share the revenue of earnings of movies with writers who I think are the most important foundation for a movie.
Javed Akhtar started fighting for rights of writers decades ago
Amol Gupte, man behind the movie Taare Zamin Pe
This article will not be completed if I do not write name of most talented and original music director of last year who was completely ignored in the F***ilmfare Awards and he is none other than Piyush Mishra who composed the original songs ( mind you, originality is rare) for the movie Gulaal. He not only gave music but also wrote the lyrics and sung some of them in his melodious voice.
Why this industry. media and other succesful stars/ producers/ directors do not welcome a new talent wholeheartedly?
Is this industry so insecure with the new talented people ???
Why we do not see images of Mahi Gill, Chitrangda Singh, Kay Kay Menon, Irfaan Khan, Piyush Mishra and other new found talents in these award functions who can raise the standard of industry to an international level?
Gulaal Team
When will we stop watching the images of the same so called big stars with the same poor jokes???
As one of my FB friend Nishant asks, ” Could i dare say All is Ghanta Well!”.
Yeah, Nishant! You can say it. At least for now….
Rahul Katyayan . com
Because, one can not stop to exist 
Rahul Katyayan said
Hello Prashant,
I am happy that through this blog, we are able to come out in open and taking some time in self analysis. There is no meaning in going too fast without understanding the meaning of it. In the end of journey, we might feel that we never made a move in real.
Anways, there is no end to this discussion but definitely we came up with good points to look forward to and we can hope for best.
I thank you, Sumit and Nishant for taking part in this discussion.
Please keep in touch through FB . We will be able to share more views there with regular updates.
Signing off for now…
Rahul
Prashant Srivastava said
Hi Rahul,
Similar thing happened to me when I joined one big software company in India. Theese companies normally have a more established office politics then their business stretegies.
At the stage when you join office you are interviewed by office colleagues, they first interview you on a personal level where you are directly compared with their own benchmark and compete with their ego. If you are successful ( technically or physically better) then you earn a secret enemy and if you lose then you have a mentor/ controller. In both cases you will not be allowed to perform the way you want.
Unfortunetly families also rarely try to understand the fact that a bread earner has it’s own life and feelings where he/she also needs some break and satisfaction. He/she can perform a better job elsewhere of own choice and he/she is the best judge of it’s own circumstances.
We definetly need to change this from now on ourselves first; however we should not try to change the blindfolded guys mentoring them for doing something. They already have enought in their pockets. They are in the one side of an elephant and making wild guesses and try to force others to follow them.
Fortunely After learning lesson from life, I have chosen a better way. I keep my mind completely free from any of these issues and just ignore this type of people keeping a safe distance. They are not my enemies but not friends. If you will go very near to fire you will surely burn so keep your hands off.
In a nutshell we should not keep ill feeling for anyone if we keep fire in the herat they will burn us first before buring some one else.
This will give us time for self realisation and brining up our own creativity and the good people around us.
In a nutshell : Creativity requires time and environment… we need time to slow down… understand what we do and work accordingly not simply running and ruining our own talent in a rat race.
you comments please.
Cheers,
Prashant.
Rahul Katyayan said
Just found some interesting facts on internet.
” All is well” is a poem written by an 18th century poet “Arthur Hugh Clough” from Liverpool, England.
Here is the link for more details…
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/all-is-well/
The original poem…
All Is Well
…………………………
Whate’er you dream, with doubt possessed,
Keep, keep it snug within your breast,
And lay you down and take your rest;
And when you wake, to work again,
The wind it blows, the vessel goes,
And where and whither, no one knows.
‘Twill all be well: no need of care;
Though how it will, and when, and where,
We cannot see, and can’t declare.
In spite of dreams, in spite of thought,
‘Tis not in vain, and not for nought,
The wind it blows, the ship it goes,
Though where and whither, no one knows.
Is the change in spelling, the ” AAL IZZ WELL ” a trick to avoid the issues?
Rahul Katyayan said
I understand what you are trying to say. I had this short stint of working in IT department of biggest private bank in India. It could be extreme in my case, but I was literally crying when I was coming out of the office on my first day. I had never expected this from my life. It was a hell for me and it was beginning of the worst phase of my life. I tried my best to make my family and friends to understand this situation but the people who do not know anything more than few pages of theirs course books became my advisors, how could I expect them to understand ME?. They even blamed me that I shy away from hard work but the fact was that I worked much much harder than anybody else and that too, in worst conditions where basic needs of a human life was a luxury for me.
I regret the day when I listened to these people whose only accomplishment in life was a good earning. The people who never experienced a life beyond finding/getting/ changing a job were telling me what to do and I was completely messed up after that.
True, that corporate house are not free from the insecure people. Time-pass, show off and cheap politics, I have seen all it there and I hate that life personally. We can very easily make any place a free, creative and energized zone , where everybody is happy and ready to come up with his / her best.
And the algorithm of weekdays and weekend life you explained is a real horror story.
Do something, man!
Prashant Srivastava said
I truly believe that the rights of expression is a basic right of everyone but anyone who wants to do something different that challenges or defines a new way then people are normally not able to cop up with that.
History is witness that there were loads of people who tried to establish new facts but some of them were killed or poisoned and however later it was proven that they were right.
Thanks to legal system that protects everyone at present days but still there are potential risks of damaging personal circumstances if someone tries that in modern world because now we have a bigger reward. ”JOB” A more refined way of killing talent …. a 9-5 office job where person puts a “tie” to himself and prepare to work as a part of bigger machinery where his work is limited to what company expects from him.
Someone else in the company decides what time you have to start the office …what time you can leave office, what time you can take your lunch, how much you can make in a month, how many holidays you can take….and also has rights to fire you if they are downsizing….Isn’t that slavery?
But we still put a tie representing that we are having a good job. And creativity …. No! you are a part of machine and if you try to over perform or change anything you will break that and as a free rewards bear the taunts of the colleagues “MAKHAN LAGA RAHA HAI… KITNI LAGAYEGA ….AB BAS BHI KAR”.
All days of the week goes like that “Wake up Office Home Dinner Sleep”
And weekends “Friends and relatives”
Holidays “ Photo khichwane kahi chale gaye
” Did we earned any pleasure during the course?
No … just rushing everywhere and killing our creative visualisation with an excuse “ Samay hi nahi milta”
Rahul … you are right “this has to be changed” and change will begin with the moment we wake up.
Society is still working as an old styled flour mill and we are losing our skin to turn into white fine product that will be utilised by someone else and if left unused will not be able to regain the original state and reproduce anything ( plant like an example) using our own capability.
Its time to change and we have to think and make a start.
Rahul Katyayan said
Yeah, Prshant! I agree, as John Maxwell said in his famous book that Talent is not enough and I love your formula.
Being logical and considering all the bitter realities around you seriously is only going to help you in this life. You can not run away from the facts.
True, that creativity could not be suppressed but when a creative person is not understood by his near and dear ones , he lives a life which is horrible than the death.
Kya zindghi set karna aur fir bina kuchh kiye mar jaane ka naam hi zandghi hai?
Recently, I read in newspaper where Zaakir HUsain very proudly mentioned that he had instructed his children never to do a 9 to 5 job because he wanted them to do something “CREATIVE”. We again had an argument and my wife told me if this person think that 9 to 5 job do not have any creativity? And if his children will not do a 9 to 5 job, will they become an elligible candidate of being creative???
Would like to hear more from you…
Prashant Srivastava said
If you consider my point … I am not talking to be logical… it is not going to give you everything. I pointed out my openion to keep always a parent-children relationship live for all ideas where your own thoughts should be superwised by your own intelligence and sometime it should be left alone and free like parents leave children in the park where they find it safe to do anything they like.
I beleive the creativity should not and can not be controlled however can be compressed for ages and certain liabilites that leads to human frustration.
Though it is down to person to person what makes him happy.
My mean to being logical is not being boring. you can still be enough creative and make your life the way you want.
Indeed I did not find that poor family any bit humorous. this was even sadder when their own son was feeling ashamed on the laught of his own friends.
My Formula for success is (this may differ for everyone)
“Talent + Control = Personality”
“Personality + Education = Person”
“Person + Oppurtunity = Sucess”
So I take Talent the key element for all success but alone is not enough.
Awaiting your comments.
Cheers,
Prashant.
Rahul Katyayan said
Hi Prashant,
When I came out from picture hall, I had an argument with my wife who said that this movie is not for children and they should not see it. I was not agreed but soon we started hearing the news of many suicide by children.
I do not understand why did they show a poor mother, a sick father and a aged sister in such a poor light ??? Was it really humorous?
Thanks for visiting the blog and sharing your views. I appreciate. Though, I do not follow the idea of being completely logical. We are human after all, not machines.
I just wanted to stress on the point that we should appreciate a real talent and people on top should not shy away from giving opportunities to newcomers because of theirs insecurities.
The existing system need to be changed.
Sumit said
Destiny is combination of many factors not one or two, social and economical fabric of society and country are couple of them.
Perosnal circumstances, family, friends etc, there are so many other factors which decide destiny of individual…Again it’s all together different topic, let us park it for some other time….
Prashant Srivastava said
Hi Rahul,
Much appreciated your writing. Well said. I will go with this article.
Indeed life is not only about taking the risks; it is about managing the risk on your chosen path. Human are not grown alone like trees whose fortune is made the day was planted to grow and destiny was locked to follow the principle of the nature and standing idle praying for all aspects of life. The only limit it can achieve by going further down for search of water and up for the search of appropriate sunlight and If ALL IZZ WELL then it will flourish.
Where Human are entirely different. They have been given the capacity to accomplish everything with two powerful forces of mind.
1. Logical mind with an ability to think about right and wrong and make plans with controls. (Like a Mature person)
2. Emotional mind that is governed by what someone wants and starts working without a plan in the mind. (Like a Kid)
Unfortunately this movie is only concerned about emotional mind not logical mind. And suggests to let the kid (hobby) decide what he/she wants to do without enough calibre/knowledge or consulting parents.
Even you can try committing suicide leaving your parents to die with hunger/disease. This part of the move was a sad part where a selfish gesture was shown.
Life is to take responsibilities and grow with the pace using your logical mind and managing risks that comes as a part and parcel of the life. We know millions of people leave home driven by strong emotional feelings thinking they will replace top film actors but end up their life in misery.
I also want to be a superman and fly in the air but is that possible?
Rather I take it this way: Life is to take the well calculated challenges that will let you achieve your goals of the life and support your hobbies and if your hobby starts paying you more then go for that.
Good luck.
This movie misguides the people promoting to follow the kids and states that if you follow your heart you will achieve all happiness of the life without much efforts. Is that true? I liked making mud clays when I was a kid and now hate that work… thanks god I did not make that my career.
Rahul Katyayan said
Thanks for your comments, Sumit!
I believe that destinty of an individual is all about the social and economical fabric of a society and a country and how it allows a person to grow
Sumit said
Very true….commercial gain is the unfortunate reality of the society…either you accept it or leave it, choice is very individualistic….
Journey from Rancho to Wangdo is not always easy, that’s where destiny plays major role……
Sumit said
I am no authority to comment on right or wrong, for me it’s never absolute. I commented based on my understanding of affairs.
I haven’t seen Gulal so I can not comment on the content of movie. I accept your view, it must be excellent. I commented on it’s commercial success on Box Office.
Movies with gloss and big stars have better chances of spinning big money that’s the perception of producers, movies like MINK, Singh is King, Avatar etc validates it. All these movies had very ordinary story but full of gloss. With this perception producers are ready to pay these stars exorbitant amounts but try to save when it comes to other aspects of film production.
Rahul Katyayan said
Gulaal is something we ‘d look up to again and again in future. We can not forget that Gurudatt’s only three movies are considered classics of Indian cinema but were never understood in his time and finally he gave up. If we really care for art and talent, we need to stop chasing after money. But who will understand? Stars who take money for dancing in marriages can never become a savior of art. Public easily forget that all this “gloss” is fabricated and they can not see the cruelty behind these plastic smiles
Nishant said
Gulaal couldn’t have been better considering it took 7 long years to get made. 2wice the producers backed out of it. It’s one of those films that nearly got shelved. Gulaal still might have made some profits, as every single actor and crew member worked for free.
Rahul Katyayan said
Thanks for visiting, Sumit!
Yeah, Amir is right about not giving any “extra” money to writers because movie might flop. There is only one thing that the same argument does not apply to the stars who charge filthy amount of 50 Crores , while a talented writer like Anurag Kashyap work on a salary of Rs. 20,000 ( $500 for your convenience) for a movie which usually take 1 to 2 year in completion.
And after this salary, he looses all the rights on his creative work.
Tell me what is most important thing than a story in movie?
When Javed saab asked Amir Khan if you became a star because of ” Papa kahte hain” aur aap ki wajah se Papa kahte hain hit hua?” , he was right on the target.
Maine Pyar Kiya, Qayamat se Qayamat tak, Sholay, Zanjeer made the people stars and credit goes to those loving songs, music and story.
And I disagree with you when you say that Gulaal would have been a bigger grosser if the movie had had stars. Gulaal was just perfect. Let it be an honest effort, an innocent cry.
Sumit said
Problem is different, it’s all economics. Public is celebrity stricken, they are ready to pay premium to watch their loved celebrity same time not even bothered to spare a glance to substance.
It’s all gloss, who cares of substance. Gloss fetches better return on investment not the substance. I can give you guarantee TZP wouldn’t have been this big grosser on Box office without Amir Khan. Same time Gulal would have been bigger success with a bigger and established star cast.
On Copyright issue, Amir’s argument is pure economics, why should producer pay any additional money to song writers, if movie is successful, nobody shares producer’s loss, when the movie is flop.
Rahul Katyayan said
True, Even Gulaal had a brand new cast and did a reasonable good business. I am sure that this new breed of directors ( Anurga Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Dibakar Banerji, Neeraj Pandey etc) are going to chnage the face of Indian cinema completly. I really wish them a lot of success. Thats the only way to welcome the new talent. We are bored with this “ghisa pita drama” and “sadi hui acting”.
Nishant said
looking at the brighter side. a low budget musical/entertainer made under UTV’s Spotboy with zero stars.. fresh music talent, has grabbed 6 filmfares. 3 Idiots did that too, but in a way it lost to Dev D as.. as most of us know(/have read) the original story behind the Best Story award! So even though All is Ghanta Well, All Is Not Lost 🙂
Rahul Katyayan said
Also, I do not find the additional twist and turns in the script very impressive. Friend lost in today’s world of internet? Aamir Khan doing a Munna Bhai with fake identity? Kareena doing a runaway bride ?
I found all these scenes completely immature, illogical and Idiotic.
Rahul Katyayan said
Good to see you here, friend! This article is dedicated to you. I can see your fucking influence in my writing 😉
Nishant said
All Chris Nolan needed to do was change the name of the characters n change Gotham city to something else ‘n could so easily have done what VVC & company did. Chris Nolan could’ve claimed to have created “The Dark Knight” itself..fuck DC or anybody associated with it. But that’s Chris Nolan, he’s the man. Batman Begins team not just gave credit to DC but were the first to show DC’s logo in the beginning of a batman film.
Loved your write-up Rahul ‘n the images used in it. signing off. your fb friend 🙂