3 Idiotas

Until recently my only exposure to Indian cinema was Satyajit Ray. Like a lot of Americans, my knowledge of Bollywood was based entirely on film clips and American take-offs of lavish musical numbers.

I searched a few lists of top Bollywood films and settled on 3 Idiots, which turned out to be a wonderful decision. The movie is terrifically funny and engaging, seamlessly moving from comedy to tragedy to musical numbers.

The story centers around a brilliant, iconoclastic technical student who spends the movie telling people to follow their dreams. While generally lighthearted, the movie strongly addresses the apparently terrible stresses on Indian college students. But in spite of some dark moments, overall this is about as feel-good as you can get. Feel-good to an absurd degree? Sure. But what's so bad about feeling good?

When I think of Bollywood I think of big musical numbers, and there are a handful here, although they're a tiny part of the three-hour running time. Still, they are tremendous fun.

To sum up, I saw a Bollywood movie, I laughed, I cried, and now I want to see more.

UPDATE: I saw more. So many good movies out there!