3 Idiots: Difference between revisions

The film begins with a wildlife photographer, Farhan Qureshi ([[R. Madhavan]]), boarding an airplane from [[Delhi]] when he receives a phone call from Chatur Ramalingam ([[Omi Vaidya]]), his biggest rival from college, who claims to be knowing the whereabouts of his long-lost college friend, Ranchhoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad ([[Aamir Khan]]), also known as Rancho. Shocked at learning this, Farhan immediately fakes a heart attack to create an emergency landing of his flight and is rushed back to the airport in a wheelchair. However, Farhan later manages to escape from the airport in a taxi and meets with another college friend, Raju Rastogi ([[Sharman Joshi]]). Subsequently, the duo races to their former college campus, the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE), and meets up with Chatur, who reminds them both of the bet he had made with Rancho 10 years ago, about who would end up more successful in the next 10 years, and boasts to them both about him being the prosperous vice president of a reputable company in the United States. Frustrated, Farhan and Raju berate Chatur for his action when Chatur reveals that he has located Rancho's home in [[Shimla]] and the three of them begin their journey from Delhi in search of Rancho.

Over a flashback 10 years prior, it is shown that both Farhan and Raju joined the prestigious ICE in their first year of college. The duo soon befriends their roommate, Rancho, who comes from a wealthy family and is passionate about experimenting with different scientific theories. Rancho's carefree approach to education always results in him being at odds with the director of the ICE, Dr. Viru Sahastrabuddhe ([[Boman Irani]]), who believes in a strict and competitive education system and is nicknamed "Virus" by the ICE students. When a senior student named Joy Lobo ([[Ali Fazal]]) is denied graduation by Virus on grounds of failure to follow his project deadline, Rancho recreates Joy's project of a drone camera with the help of Farhan and Raju in an attempt to cheer him up. Unfortunately, Joy commits suicide by hanging in his room before he can see the drone camera come to life, provoking Rancho to confront Virus about the extreme pressure placed on the ICE students but is rudely rebuffed. One night, the hungry trio gatecrashes a marriage ceremony to enjoy the dinner and befriends Virus' younger daughter, Pia ([[Kareena Kapoor]]), only to later realise that the marriage is for Pia's older sister, Mona ([[Mona Singh]]). Although initially upset by Rancho's behaviour, Pia falls in love with him after Rancho pranks her shallow, materialistic boyfriend, Suhas Tandon (Sanjay Lafont), in an attempt to demonstrate his obsession about money and status. As a result, Pia breaks up with Suhas after he rebukes her for wearing an antique watch which belonged to her late mother.  

Meanwhile, Virus warns Farhan and Raju about the effects of them being friends with Rancho by pointing out the modest financial situations of their families, provoking Raju to move in with Chatur, a [[Tamil people|Tamil]], Uganda-born, arrogant, competitive student who believes in learning by rote memorization but is not fluent in [[Hindi]]. Chatur is nicknamed "Silencer" by the ICE students as he consumes some memory-enhancing pills with the side-effect of silent but lethal flatulence. In an attempt to teach Chatur a lesson about memorization, Rancho and Farhan make obscene modifications, like "''chamatkar''" ("miracle") to "''balatkar''" ("rape") and "''dhan''" ("wealth") to "''stan''" ("bosoms"), to the script of Chatur's Teachers' Day speech. After a disastrous speech in front of Virus, the Minister of Education and the ICE professors, a humiliated and furious Chatur drunkenly challenges Rancho to meet with him after 10 years and see who is more successful. On the night before their final exams, Raju's paralyzed father (Mukund Bhatt) suffers from a medical emergency, but Rancho enlists Pia's help and rushes Raju's father to the hospital on time on Pia's scooter. After hearing from Pia and the doctor how the timely intervention saved his father's life, Raju realises his mistake and reconciles with Rancho and Farhan. At the end of their first year in the ICE, Rancho comes first in the class, while Farhan and Raju are last and second to last, respectively. During the yearly class photograph, Rancho makes a bet with Virus that if either Raju or Farhan gets a job from  the on-campus interviews, Virus will shave off his moustache.

Back in the present, Farhan, Raju and Chatur arrive in Shimla to meet Rancho, but are extremely shocked to come across a completely different man (Javed Jaffrey) identifying himself as "Ranchhoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad", whose face is pasted over that of Rancho in their first year class photograph with an ICE degree of Rancho's name. When Farhan and Raju ask Chatur how he got Rancho's address, he reveals that he managed to do so when his secretary had come to Shimla to make a business deal with "Phunsukh Wangdu", a sensational scientist and inventor with 400 patents to credit. On learning this, Farhan and Raju confront the so-called "Ranchhoddas", who is initially reluctant to reveal anything and threatens the duo with a gun, but when Farhan and Raju threaten to flush his late father's ashes down the toilet, he explains that he is the real Ranchhoddas and the "Rancho" at the ICE was his family's gardener's son, who was incredibly intelligent and gifted and was adopted by the Chanchad family after being orphaned. While Ranchhoddas himself went to [[London]] for four years, his father ([[Arun Bali]]) paid for Rancho to attend the ICE on his son's name on condition that he cut off all contact with everyone there after graduating. Rancho, who was more interested in learning than in getting a degree, agreed but warned Ranchhoddas afterwards that "two idiots" would come searching for him one day. Ranchhoddas tells Farhan and Raju that he is grateful for what all Rancho did and provides them with his real address in [[Ladakh]], where Rancho is promptly leading a simple life as a schoolteacher, and Farhan, Raju and Chatur begin their journey once again from Shimla in search of Rancho.

Back in the past, the trio is shown to be approaching graduation in their fourth year at the ICE. One night, Rancho points out to Farhan and Raju why they consistently place last; Farhan's passion is wildlife photography, not engineering, and Raju lacks self-confidence. When Farhan and Raju promise to confront their problems if Rancho confesses his feelings for Pia, the trio breaks into Virus' home in and Farhan and Raju urinate on his letterbox in a drunken state. During the trio's escape, however, Virus spots Raju and gives him an ultimatum the next day to either act as his witness in rusticating Rancho or being rusticated from the ICE himself. Neither wishing to disappoint his family nor betray his friend, a distraught Raju attempts suicide by jumping from heights and passes into a coma, but successfully recovers over the next few months with the support and care of Rancho, Farhan and Pia, while Virus also rescinds his rustication. With a newfound perspective of his life, Raju confidently attends his on-campus interview and manages to secure a job in an engineering firm, while Farhan also convinces his orthodox father (Parikshit Sahni) about his passion for wildlife photography and contentment with the job he secured with his role model, wildlife photographer Andre Istvan, in Hungary. According to the bet made by Rancho, Virus' private barber, Govind (Rajendra Patwardhan), shaves off his mouatache and in an attempt to protect his fragile ego, Virus drunkenly decides to sabotage Raju's chances of success by holding an unfairly difficult exam. However, Pia visits Rancho in a drunken state and provides him with the duplicate keys of Virus' office, encouraging him to copy the exam papers for Raju.  

The story forwards to the journey where Farhan and Raju suddenly remember Pia and decide to take her along with them to Rancho. As Chatur protests against the detour, stating that it would jeapordize his meeting with Phunsukh Wangdu, the duo ties him up inside the car trunk and gatecrashes Pia's marriage ceremony with Suhas in [[Manali, Himachal Pradesh|Manali]]. Farhan sneaks in to reunite with Pia while Raju disguises himself as a housekeeper for Suhas. Pia initially refuses to go with Farhan, despite hearing Suhas screaming at Raju for ruining his expensive marriage suit, leading Farhan to realise that their plan has worked. Raju escapes in the heat of the moment with the marriage suit, assuring Suhas that he will return it in mint condition, but instead proceeds to fill in as the bridegroom. As Pia finds this out, she grows concerned over public reaction to the ruse, causing Raju to reveal himself and confront Pia over her love for Rancho, even as Suhas arrives in a gown. As she spots Farhan at the entrance, with the car doors opened, Pia breaks free from the bond and escapes with Farhan, Raju and Chatur in front of the shocked Suhas, Virus, Mona and all the marriage guests to go to Ladakh and meet Rancho.

The story rewinds to their final year at the ICE where Rancho and Farhan use the duplicate keys provided by Pia to break into Virus' office and are successful in copying the exam papers for Raju. Despite Raju refusing to use the exam papers, Virus discovers what happened and angrily has the trio rusticated from the ICE in the middle of the night, causing Pia to admit her role in the events and confront Virus over her brother's suicidal demise, which was misinterpreted by Virus as an accident, simply because his passion for literature and desire to become a writer was overruled by Virus, who was insistent on his son becoming an engineer. As the trio is leaving the campus in the middle of heavy rainstorms, they come across the now-pregnant Mona, who goes under labor pain moments after a distressed Pia walks out of the house, and is unable to be driven to the hospital. Applying their knowledge of engineering, the trio brings Mona inside the table tennis room in the campus and successfully conducts her delivery by modifying a vacuum cleaner into a makeshift venthouse with the help of Pia from the hospital through a video call. Realising the fault in his ways and how genius Rancho is, a grateful Virus acknowledges him by handing him over a valuable space pen, which he promised to give only to his most  extraordinary student, and rescinds the trio's rustications once again. Rancho, along with Farhan and Raju, tops the university in the final year, but abruptly leaves the graduation ceremony in a taxi without informing anyone and has never been heard of again.  

Over the end of the flashback, Farhan, Raju, Pia and Chatur reach Ladakh and at the address provided by Ranchhoddas, they are astonished to find a thriving school that is probably run by Rancho. The group also meets Manmohan, formerly an errand boy at the ICE nicknamed "Millimeter" by the students, and now Rancho's assistant in Ladakh, who reveals that Rancho has keenly followed Farhan and Raju's careers. Finally, Farhan, Raju, Pia and Chatur have an emotional reunion with Rancho on a sandbar where Rancho admits that he is still in love with Pia and the two of them share a passionate kiss. Chatur condescendingly insults Rancho's apparent status as a schoolteacher and declares that he has won the bet. He even makes Rancho sign the document of "Declaration of Defeat" and walks away in supposed victory. However, Farhan, Raju and Pia ask for Rancho's real name when Rancho reveals himself, in a plot twist, to be Phunsukh Wangdu, the successful entrepreneur, whom Chatur's company is courting. Following this revelation, Rancho contacts Chatur, who is a few distance away from the group, and considers calling off the deal. A flabbergasted Chatur accepts defeat and Rancho, Farhan, Raju and Pia run away laughing. The film ends with a humiliated Chatur chasing after Rancho, Farhan, Raju and Pia and Farhan quoting Rancho's words on success; "Pursue excellence, and success will follow, pants down".