3 Idiots (2009)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
How old were you when you saw Shrek?

(00:02):
I never watched Shrek.
Oh, Kiwi, man.
Your child sucks automatically.
I watched Shrek on like 70.
70 years old?
You went in the future to watch Shrek.
It's part of it.
It's like those on 70.
What is that?
It's like a 3D film

(00:24):
with chairs moving and water spilling.
What do you mean on 70 though?
They did market it like 70, 80, 10D, like that.
Oh, like 70.
Oh, and like some theme park?
Yeah, Universal Studios.
That's your first exposure to Shrek?
No, no, no, no.
Before that, I had Shrek stickers.

(00:45):
That's so cute.
Welcome to Fear of Seres, Desi Films Decoded,

(01:06):
podcast where four friends from different backgrounds
unlock the world of Desi cinema.
I'm Winnie, the Desi who's never been to India.
Hi, I'm Kili.
I'm from India and I love films.
Yay.
I'm Nikki, one of the three idiots in this podcast.
I'm Adam and I don't like films.
Boo.

(01:27):
So today we're doing three idiots,
which is considered by many to be a classic,
but after watching with you cynical people,
I'm not sure if that was the sentiment shared
around the group.
Well, let's get background first.
Cause like I heard a lot about it,
but yeah, Winnie, what's your background there?
My background.

(01:47):
I watched it a few years ago.
I remember really liking it.
I didn't want to decide with you guys
cause I was in Nepal.
So it's not fresh in my head,
but I remember it being impactful.
And like, I understood why it received
the amount of attention it did.
Yeah.
And you didn't feel that way.
Well, I mean, we'll talk about it.
No, I think, again, I think it was hyped up too much
by everyone that's seen it.

(02:08):
So what you missed out Winnie was that,
I mean, we were hyping it up so much
and then rewatching it.
I was delighted to see it again,
because this is a movie that I've seen back in college.
A friend of mine mentioned it in high school
and the song Zubi Dubi is pretty,
like it lives rent free in my head basically.

(02:30):
But yeah, what you missed out
when we were watching the movie is that
these jokers are just joking a lot about the movie,
making fun about the movie.
Are you serious?
I'm almost glad I missed out on that.
You just ruined a perfectly meaningful movie.
Like the logic, the Bollywood logic.
I think it was a mistake that we saw PK first, okay?

(02:53):
We talked about this.
It's very similar.
So same actor, Amer Khan, right?
Yeah.
Doing a very similar role.
Yeah.
And, you know, so I'd already seen PK.
I'm not familiar with Amer Khan.
Like, so, you know, this is all new to me.
Yeah.
PK was so similar that watching it,

(03:14):
the older version was like,
okay, I've seen most of this.
And it comes from that same school of thought.
I have this kind of theory I have
where some of these movies are just encouraging you
to be clever for clever's sake.
It creates a bunch of fucking assholes.
Like that, like, just try to be clever, you know?

(03:36):
And so like, I don't necessarily like the theme of it.
And we can get into it.
Like I'm all for talking back.
I remember, I think I mentioned it in the PK
that like why I didn't like PK that much when it came out
was like, I'm like, oh, I have seen this guy
doing the same thing before.
That's why, that was one of the thing
that put me off during watching PK,

(03:58):
I think when I watched it for the first time.
I think I mentioned it before.
Oh, so you-
During PK podcast.
You guys had the same experience,
you watched, like Killy watched Three Idiots first.
So he didn't like PK and Adam watched PK first.
So he didn't like Three Idiots.
Did you like Three Idiots, Killy?
I feel like Three Idiots more than PK.
Okay, so for me, what happened was like,
so I, if Three Idiots is kind of loosely adopted

(04:21):
from a novel called Five Points Someone
by a writer called Chetan Bhagat.
It's an English novel.
I read it when I was in,
just getting into the university.
And it was a pretty fun novel.
It was like people coming of age in the university
and then like university struggle,
engineering college struggle.
And I was going to an engineering college

(04:43):
and like what people do there,
like these like studious people who didn't do anything bad
or anything like funny during their school episode.
And then they go to transition to university
and then starts drinking and a lot of stuff.
So I really loved that novel, the character journey of it.
So I was, it was marketed, Three Idiots was kind of marketed

(05:06):
and hyped up like, oh, this is like Five Points Someone
on screen.
So I went to watch Three Idiots thinking
that it's Five Points Someone on screen.
But when I watched it, it's hugely different.
Like it's very different film.
So, all right, so let's break down the plot,
like just the big temple moments
and then we can dissect different parts of it.

(05:27):
So yeah, Nikki, break it down.
Okay, Three Idiots, Three Idiots starts three characters,
right?
Amir Khan, you know, as we've all known from PK,
he plays this quirky character.
I think his name, his name was Rancho.
How old is he in the movie?
This is something I don't remember.

(05:47):
Is this important detail?
Yeah, kind of.
Okay, so he's joining university.
So going by, going by, going by Indian education system,
he would be 18 to 19.
Okay, cool.
18 to 19.
Somewhere between 17 to 19, right, like that, that range.
So right from the get go,
so right from the get go, we know that Rancho is peculiar.

(06:09):
But he has a fascination with learning.
He's also good at questioning authority figures.
He likes to make inventions on the fly,
which I think is an inspiration.
I read somewhere that the movie was inspired
by some inventors in India,

(06:29):
which is where that character trait comes from for Rancho.
I mean, it's a very idealized point.
It's like we are seeing inventors.
It's every mom's dream of their nerd son.
Every Indian mom's dream to have a son like Rancho.
Yeah.
Probably every mom, not even just Indian moms.
Is it?
Oh yeah.
To have a genius kid.
A genius kid that like owns like a boat or invent stuff

(06:53):
and everyone loves him.
And saves babies.
And saves.
Oh yeah.
And can be a midwife?
Come on.
So yeah, he's the guy, he's the character
that is the central figure where he questions,
you know, university norms,
like hazing and the pressure of studying.
He's joined in by two friends,
Farhan Qureshi, played by R. Madhavan.

(07:16):
He's the really introvert, nerdy looking guy,
the one with the glasses,
who has a very, who has a keen interest in photography
but then his parents expect him to do engineering,
which is something that he doesn't want to do.
But then he, you know, he's doing it to, you know,
please his parents when his heart's really into photography.

(07:36):
And then you have Sharman Joshi as Raju.
So Raju is more of like a guy that is living in poverty
and he's entered this university to, you know,
get them out of the, you know, the poor lifestyle.
So, you know, that he,
he is also pressured to do well,
which is going to be like a central theme in this movie.

(08:00):
And then these three are, you know,
what the movie calls the three idiots
because they're always getting into trouble,
kind of like, I was thinking more like
Western college sitcom.
Well, I don't think they even ever acted like idiots.
It's just virus.
The professor of virus was calling them idiots, right?

(08:21):
He's played by Boman Irani, as we all know,
as the guy with the seizures back in Happy New Year.
He is, his name is Dr. Viru,
or as the students call him, virus.
But then he's like this strict and controlling.
I don't think he's just, not just the professor.
No, he's like the, the provost or the dean or something.
He was like the dean or the principal.

(08:41):
He's everything.
He's everything, basically.
He's bad dad.
He's the bad dad.
And of course, it's not a Bollywood movie
without some love interest.
So he has a daughter called Pia,
played by Karina Kapoor once again.
We're seeing the same actors and actresses,
but yeah, she's this, Karina Kapoor's character

(09:01):
is this like doctor and I think-
Not in university.
Not in university.
And she plays Amir Khan's love interest.
I don't know.
I feel like that re-watching it,
I feel it's kind of forced, a little bit forced,
but you know, I still love the movie.
I don't know what you guys,
I know you guys don't like it, but to me it was-
So they meet.

(09:22):
It's a good movie.
And then, yeah, they fall in love.
And then, but why do they hate Amir Khan?
Cause he's like questioning the system.
Like I know if Dr. Virus was like giving a speech
about how he has this pen and it was supposed to be

(09:42):
for the astronauts, for the space astronauts.
And like nobody has ever owned it
because it only goes to the brightest student.
And then Amir Khan's character was like,
why don't they just use pencils?
I think that was the punchline.
It's like, you know, just, he's just being a smart ass.
And like, that's what we're gonna get
from Amir Khan's character.

(10:03):
He's just like being a smart ass.
He's just questioning things that,
the illogical things that Dr. Virus is saying.
Yeah, so he's a person who challenges the norms.
I think for me, so I've seen this movie
from a international film festival back in my college
here in Thailand.

(10:24):
And I think we, I don't know.
I think about why they selected it for the film festival
is because I think there's a lot of parallels
between our education, Thailand's education system
and India's, because I think there's a lot of pressure

(10:44):
for students to do well.
People aren't really questioning teachers or anything.
We're just supposed to memorize answers.
You know, I think it sets a great example
for students at the time for me.
It's like to, you know, always think critically, I suppose.
Yes. Yeah.

(11:05):
I think that's, Adam, how do you feel about that
as a Westerner?
Well, no, no, talk about that more.
Well, cause, so you, what was your schooling?
So I go to international school, right?
But then when I entered university,
it was a very Thai style university.
So it's one, it's Jilalongkorn University,

(11:26):
which is considered one of the top universities, right?
And entrance and the people trying to apply
for this university, like if you come from a really,
like really, if you come from a Thai school,
if your educational background comes from a Thai school,
to get into this university is considered
like a major achievement for families.

(11:46):
Like, I remember when I decided to enter the,
do the entrance exams, I thought it was easy, right?
I mean, I guess maybe because I've just been,
I just had like a more privileged lifestyle.
But anyway, I saw this girl,

(12:07):
she comes from like this Thai school.
I think she was, her family was a friend of my mom
and were friends with my mom.
And then like, she could not get into the university
and they were crying, like they were literally crying
because it was just the amount of pressure
that's placed upon these kids are just overwhelming.

(12:28):
And I think, and it's like, that's not even the worst case
because I think not just in this university, right?
But like in Thai universities in general,
like the concept of like studying hard
and working to enter like universities or passing exams,
whatever the case, the pressure is so overwhelming
that if they're not, if the kids are,

(12:50):
if the students are not doing well,
they might commit suicide,
which is something we see in the movie, right?
Yeah, which is very similar to India.
So we get to learn a virus's character.
He's like this really strict guy.
He wasn't gonna, there was this one kid in the movie
that he wanted, he couldn't finish the project in time.

(13:10):
And like the, the, the virus threatened him saying that,
you know, I'm not gonna let you graduate, you know,
if you're not gonna get this done on time.
And then, you know, Amir Khan's character saw that,
saw the, saw what unfolded.
And then he decided that, okay, he's gonna help him study.
He was like a mechanical engineer, like making a drone,

(13:33):
which is like a big deal for a student to make.
In the film's context, right?
So he was doing something different from everyone else.
Like he was making some gadget, which gonna work
and then stuff like that.
And he was like,
for like a science fair,
little, little off, little off
and couldn't finish it totally.

(13:53):
And since the deadline passed and then he,
Well, he said he had like family trouble, right?
He also had that emotional weight.
His father was like sick and everything.
And then, you know, turns out that before he gets
to help him, we find out that the guy hung himself
in his dorm room.

(14:14):
And I think that's like, I feel like when I first saw
that scene all the way back in college,
I thought that was powerful because-
Being that system, like it's, that scene is really powerful
that because at that point of time,
we were getting to know like so many cases of suicide
from engineering colleges, like top engineering colleges

(14:36):
in India, like IITs and everywhere,
where IITs is like this milestone that people achieve.
Like they have to study super hard in their,
in their class to like 10 plus two curriculum.
It's like MIT.
Yeah, it's like getting into MIT.
So it's really tough and people do anything to get there.

(14:58):
There is a whole coaching system kind of situation going on,
like where they will send their kids to just study
for the exam so that they crack the exam.
And it's like unbelievable.
It's so strict and so pressurizing kids,

(15:18):
so much pressurizing kids.
So those stories were coming out at that point.
And then this film kind of uses that plot as a plot device
in the film.
So it really worked at that point of time.
I'll talk about my education background,
but also, you know, I've worked with a lot of kids
in this region, in this age group.

(15:39):
So like I've done admissions for very, very, very rich people
applying to school and for not rich people,
applying to school, looking to come to America and stuff
in Thailand and Nepal and India a lot, right?
That's kind of my main area that I work with.
So like I do experience like a lot of these kids

(16:00):
in this age group too.
Me growing up, I went to like a private elementary school
where it's very, very small,
like one class per grade, right?
Like tiny, like there's 24 kids in my grade period,
like really, really small.
Six sections and stuff.
Yeah, like you were just with the same kids
from kindergarten to eighth grade.

(16:22):
Like, and you never changed.
And like you had one teacher, like it was tiny, tiny,
but the education was really good.
And I learned a lot and read a lot and stuff,
which set me up.
Cause then for public school, I went to just a high school
where there was 5,000 kids total.
So it was like a huge, massive difference.
And just cause I was like set up well in junior high

(16:44):
and stuff and like was pretty literate, you know,
and like, you know, could write papers and stuff,
you know, high school is easy,
but I don't think it would have been as easy and stuff.
But I was on like, you know, the advanced track a bit.
I was with a lot of friends that wanted to go to university.
It was never a tremendous pressure.
Like you were supposed to go to university

(17:04):
and I knew some kids that were aiming high,
some kid was applying to Yale and stuff.
And that was cool.
But a lot of the kids, so I, you know,
so I went to high school in LA, it was a lot of Asians.
A lot of them were just staying in like the,
the university of California system, you know,
so they're going to like UCLA or, you know, Berkeley

(17:25):
and stuff and those were really hard to get into.
I wanted to just be out of state.
So I didn't focus on that,
but there was like pressure to get into like top schools
and people had aspirations, but there was no like,
you know, college mills or like, you know,
doing extracurricular or anything like that.
And I was with the advanced placement.

(17:46):
So they did care a lot about grades and stuff,
but just wasn't, I didn't perceive it as that serious.
They might've at home, but for me,
like I didn't have much pressure either way.
Like it was just assumed to go to college,
but which one didn't really matter too much, you know?
Working with kids here, you know,
some people like to criticize like,
oh, they don't, it's like rote memorization.

(18:08):
They don't teach critical thinking, blah, blah, blah.
I honestly don't think they didn't teach critical thinking
in America either that much.
I think it depends on the school.
Definitely more than in Asia, for sure.
You're allowed to like have discussions and questions
that your professors, your teachers,
you're not allowed to do that here.
It's a sign of disrespect here.
That's like a major difference.
That's very, like that's very different with India.

(18:29):
Like in India, like if you question your teacher,
if you show that you are like interested
and everything, you are rewarded.
Can you disagree with your teacher?
Because I think that's kind of like the big difference
I noticed like studying in Thailand.
So there would be teachers and bad teachers always, right?
So there would be egoistic teachers

(18:51):
who don't like at all people questioning them
and their methods, but there would be teachers
who would be like very open to discussions.
And so there we had like experience with both of them.
And in Indian education system,
the teacher holds so much power over everything.
So it basically comes down to what that teacher
as a person is.

(19:12):
And maybe sometimes the culture of that school
or something like that.
So it's very like low level decision.
Like it's not like a top level decision
how the education system is managed.
But like I had a good chance in like privilege

(19:32):
to get a good school,
which was like a private public school kind of school
was a good, like one of the top schools in the town
where I'm from.
And then I also got into a university
which was like a very well sought out engineering school
in West Bengal state.
And it's like out of roughly around 150,000 student,

(19:56):
like top 1000 students or something like that
can get into that engineering school.
So I got there.
So you are supposed to be smart, quote unquote smart
because you're getting there.
And then like in any university,
if you ask, if you disagree, if you ask question,

(20:19):
you are usually like,
usually most of the teachers are welcoming to that.
They would, but you have to be nice about it.
You cannot be like a brat about brat
and just ask for sake of asking.
You have to ask for the knowledge purpose
and then they will entertain.

(20:39):
But they had their ego issues.
The teachers had their ego issues.
Definitely.
I had faced like there are a few teachers
which were good teachers in teaching the subject
but had huge ego.
There are teachers who were not good teaching their subject
but had good like huge ego and would really ruin you

(21:00):
if you like, you know, argue with them and stuff like that.
How about there were good people as well.
So it was a mixed bag.
But overall, like you, if you do that,
people will look up to you.
Like if you do smartly, like if you argue
and if you ask questions smartly,
people will be like, oh yeah, he's a smart guy, a smart girl.

(21:23):
In Thailand though, it's wrong.
It's not encouraged.
It's not looked down upon.
Yeah, yeah.
I think culture plays a big role here, right?
Because in Asian culture,
there's always a respect for seniority.
If anyone's older than you, authority,
like you do have to bow down to that to a certain degree.
Right, so you do look up to your teachers
and your professors.
Whereas in the States, you kind of like,
they're just people.
You don't really have this massive respect towards them.

(21:45):
You can call them by their first name.
In Thailand, you have to call like sir or mister, right?
Like very formally.
That's true in India as well.
Right, so like I feel like in the States,
this kind of relationship of being able to just talk
to your professor like an equal,
it does encourage critical thinking.
It encourages more leeway as well.
Like you see that in virus as well, right?
Like the principal in the movie,
the reason he's so egotistical is because of culture.

(22:08):
It's because he thinks that he is entitled
to that kind of power.
Whereas teachers in the States would not feel that way
because they're just a professor in the day.
This thing of exerting power over students
is very also very Indian.
Like it's there in India.
Like while I'm saying that you are allowed to question
and argue, but there is a but, but like there is a level.

(22:31):
If you irk the professor in certain way,
the teacher certain way, then there will be retaliation
and that retaliation would be bad
that they have the impunity to retaliate against students
in the education system, which is like very bad.
And they have ruined like,
there are so many stories I've heard from friends

(22:51):
in IITs like for the example I was taking,
I was bringing earlier,
there had been so many stories of like teachers
marking students like, oh, they have wronged me.
And then they will retaliate in a wrong way
because they are in the power position.
So that's very rampant.
That happens a lot.

(23:11):
Yeah.
So in that way, it's very similar.
And that's a prevailing theme
throughout the movie as well, right?
Anytime the three idiots does something against virus,
he's like, I'm gonna make this exam harder.
Gonna make sure you suffer.
So the structure I agree encourages critical thinking,
like absolutely.
Like being able to talk to your teacher is huge.
And in Thailand it's sad because like they just don't,

(23:32):
it's difficult to teach like Thai people sometimes
because they just like are afraid to ask questions
and it's like not very dynamic.
And it's very like conditioned in them to be that way.
Like they're being polite.
But they have a big cultural,
or big culture shock when they go to America
and like they're required to ask questions all of a sudden,
they don't know, like they're not used to that at all.

(23:53):
Like class participation.
But I just wanna say, I think the big difference
and why you see like all these suicides and stuff
that happens is at least the time I've been in Asia,
a majority of the kids like do their subjects
because their parents ask them to.
And in America, I think that is less.
Like, and I think that changes a lot.

(24:15):
Like I think it is like when the student
is choosing their major and going to study what they want,
there's a lot less pressure.
But when, like if I was forced to be an engineer,
I would destroy myself too.
Cause I can't do that.
Like I don't have a mind for that.
You know, that's not what I wanna do.
So I, that stress and the tension
and all the suicide, yes, it comes from pressure

(24:35):
from the school, but I think it's also just
from kids doing majors they don't wanna do.
That their parents want them to do.
I think it's also interesting that I think
for a lot of Asian kids, like myself personally,
I didn't have that much pressure like in my household,
but I had so much self-imposed pressure
just because of the culture I was in,
maybe the friends I had.
So it was very much like putting pressure on myself

(24:56):
to always do well, excel in exams
and try to get a scholarship and stuff,
even though that was not directly exerted upon me.
So it's almost environmental as well to some degree.
I think engineering study in India involves around like
the, that Raju's character, that's a very, very common theme
in like engineering schools.

(25:17):
Like it's like the class mobility,
like education is the only way
that will give you class mobility.
Like you know, you can move to your upper class.
Which is a lie, but go on.
Like, yeah, I mean, which at the end of the day
doesn't work out like that, but like, yeah, it's like,
oh, you may be like one of those people
like who could change your financial burden.

(25:39):
But I have seen, I have met many people.
Like why did you go to engineering school?
Because I was good in science
and I loved science subjects when I was in school.
And so I had two options, like three options actually
like to study science as a like theory
or go to practical courses like engineering or doctor medical.

(26:01):
I kind of got into both in government college.
And then I, so getting into government college
is a, was a big deal because I was told that like
my parents cannot afford, wouldn't afford
the private college education.
So I have to go to the government college
and getting into government college was like
public college was like very difficult.

(26:24):
I mean, that's where like the competition comes in.
Right, so I kind of got into medical as well
but like I got to know that you have to study a lot
for five years to be a doctor
and then also study again and again.
And I was stupid, I was 18, I was stupid.
I thought like, okay, no, I don't wanna study that much.
So I heard that, oh, if you're,

(26:45):
once you go to the engineering college
you will graduate anyway and you will get a job
because I got into the good one and then you'll get a job
and then I'm set.
So I was like, okay, I'll take the easy way out.
Engineering school easy way out.
I studied sociology dude, I took the easy way out.
No, I mean, it's like, it's the easiest way
to get a decent job.

(27:06):
Yeah, yeah.
So that's why-
Did your parents have any influence on your decision?
Oh no, actually they wanted me to be a doctor
because if you get medical and engineering
you have to go to medical.
That was the mindset that because a doctor is,
being a doctor is way more prestigious than being an engineer
where like in my son is this varies from places to places.

(27:29):
It's not like a generic thing to say.
So everyone expected me to get and people like my relatives
and everyone was asking me like,
why are you not going for medical?
Like you got the chance, it's so rare.
But then I was like, no, I just want to study engineering.
I cooked up some stories that I want to be an engineer
and the shit like that.

(27:51):
So yeah, so then I ended up in engineering school.
I'm so glad you didn't become a doctor.
Imagine saying Dr. Killy.
We would not be here today.
I was like, thank God he's not doing surgery on me.
Thank God, thank God.
I mean, he'd be saving babies.
You'd be right, Joe.
My nickname came from university.
So if I were in medical college
maybe my nickname would be something different.
But yeah, the person would be-

(28:12):
Dr. Kill People.
I think I would have been a good doctor.
So Nicky, university.
Did you have pressure on where you went?
Yeah, a little bit actually.
My parents actually wanted me to go to the one
that I ended up in.
It was a lot of pressure.
In fact, now I'm being reminded of it.

(28:35):
I actually fought with my parents.
I didn't want to be the best.
I just wanted to choose my own university,
go where I want to go.
But it seems like there was that pressure
of disappointing my parents
of not going to the one that they want me to.
What did you study?
I studied communication arts.

(28:55):
So they pressured you on the university you should go to.
Did they have any influence on the major you chose?
Not on the major they chose.
It had to be on that.
What did they want you to major in?
It could be anything.
So it's similar to Winnie.
There is not a lot of pressure in career choice or whatever.
Just that they want me to go to a very reputable university.

(29:21):
That's literally it.
And Chula is one of the top.
I mean, it's debatable now whether it's the best.
No, I think all Thai families,
if their kids get into Chula, that's instant friends.
Did your parents go there too?
Yeah, my parents went there.
Chula is prestigious.
Chula has, I think, lower fees, I guess,
for the Thai studies, I guess.
The international, like English medium is...

(29:43):
Yeah, I think that's for most universities,
the international program is always a little bit more expensive.
But Chula, hold on.
I think even in my school, Thai students would go study SATs
for months, months just to get the score to get in.
Education in Thailand is very expensive.
That I learned after coming here.
Only international schools.
International.
Yeah, but this is the problem.
So with Thailand, the English education is so bad

(30:04):
that if you do have a kid that doesn't speak Thai,
kind of their only option is, unless it's a bilingual school,
it's international school.
And that's like 15 to 30,000 a year.
Yeah, yeah.
It is so...
Like Thailand is great to...
What?
USD.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It's up to like 1,000,000 baht.
I love you, yeah.
I love you too, it's 1,000,000 baht now.
It's very expensive.

(30:24):
It's as much as a university.
Yes.
Or more.
It doesn't make sense.
And there's no middle ground, right?
Like you either go to Thai public school
or you go to an international school
and pay around that much.
It's not like they're paying the teachers a lot of money also.
The international schools, they are.
I'm saying if you go...
That's the only option because the Thai schools don't do English.
Like the public schools.
Yeah.
That's something.
What I also find very interesting is that...

(30:45):
So I went to international school.
I'd say it was one of the cheapest international schools, right?
Less prestigious than the one Nicky went to for sure.
It's kind of fine.
But like, so...
A lot of them were Thai.
A lot of them were Thai speakers.
But we learned in English and everything.
But then the moment they get into university,
to Chulalongkorn and such,
they lose all their English.
It's almost like all the international school dynamics

(31:08):
just disappear because they enter like the Thai university system.
Yeah.
That happened to a lot of the people that went.
So what happens there?
We just adapt becoming Thai basically.
Well, I mean, you are Thai, but like...
But like, you know, I was...
Like talking and like...
What's the medium of instruction in Chulalongkorn?
Like what program you were in?

(31:30):
Like what was the medium of instruction?
It was in English, but the teacher would...
The professors would usually speak Thai just to make it easy for everyone.
I see.
And there were moments that, you know,
made me and a couple of others go like,
well, that's not...
So and this is the other thing I want to mention here is,
yes, there's pressure in Thailand for some certain universities,

(31:50):
but you're never going to fail.
Yeah.
What?
Oh, I don't know about that.
So like there's one university called ABAC, Assumption University.
And it's notorious for being very easy to get in,
but very difficult to get out of.
Yes.
I have a bunch of my classmates who stayed there for like six, seven years.
Literally.
That's actually not that uncommon.
They did not graduate until like I was already like working on my third year.

(32:16):
Their business model.
But like I'm serious, like in Thailand, it's just true.
Like you don't really fail.
Like you're not going to...
Like you're going to be...
You're going to fail out.
They're not going to fail you.
Yeah.
Yes and no, I would say.
I know teachers that aren't allowed to give Fs.
Yeah.
I know the people that...
Yeah, I know a person that didn't do well and he turned out OK.

(32:40):
But how did he not do well?
Like he must have done really not well.
Yeah, like he skipped classes, didn't give a shit about exams.
And yeah, I mean...
In America...
Yeah, they like spell it.
In America, you miss a midterm, it's over.
Like in Thailand, you have so many cushions that if you like fail out,
it's like you did not go to school at all.

(33:01):
Like period.
All right.
I'm not going to like mention names, but they're like people, celebrities to this day.
They were my classmates.
They didn't do shit in university.
They skipped classes.
They just parted their asses all year.
It was a point.
In the past, with color, strong colors.
They were like valedictorian.
They didn't do crap.

(33:21):
And then like it kind of pissed me and a bunch of others who worked really hard just to get good grades.
Yeah, it validates your hard work.
Yeah, it really does.
And then to this day, there's this one guy that I can think of right now.
So I'm a journalist, right?
I mean, I go to lifestyle events.
And sometimes I bump into this guy and he's doing well.

(33:42):
He's like a model, social media influencer.
He's like a web show host.
And he didn't do shit in university.
It's so unfair when you think of it that way.
So is it because the university is like literally not allowed to fail these kind of people or they just use their family money and family legacy?
I have no idea.
It could be a lie.
So that's a bigger debate on the education system itself.

(34:05):
Like how education system has become another tool for capitalism to like, you know, like so you're kind of investing on yourself to earn more money.
Yeah.
Rather than like the classes on you rather than getting knowledge or education.
It's like you're investing.
And so that's why we're seeing in a way that, oh, they didn't do well, but they're doing well in life because like we are thinking that education is something.

(34:35):
It owes us to make you put us in a better spot in the capitalistic system where we because we invested our effort and our money.
Yeah.
So we are supposed to get it back.
Being the top investment, being the top student shows how much you will debase yourself for the good grade or boss in your job.

(35:00):
So like if you are the best, it means you followed all the rules and were the best employee possible.
And that's why you get top grade.
So it's basically like how much will you, yeah, like debase yourself and do whatever it takes.
Honestly, I've known so many dopers from universities and stuff like who doesn't like corporate because maybe it's like their ethical.

(35:22):
At some point, they took an ethical decision or moral decision that like they don't want that life.
They want different life and then like just go for like further academia or like do a mid job forever.
Full disclosure, I did graduate magna cum laude and I don't think I'm a great employee, but I think because I like saw the game a little too much.

(35:45):
Exactly.
Because you're smart.
If I could turn back time, I think I would have focused so much less on education and studies.
I think I dedicated so much and like it worked out.
I got a full scholarship.
I got to go to the States.
Like he's in Korea now, but like I feel like I missed out on a fun childhood.
You know, like when you're nearing 30 and you're like, oh, this is like you go straight from school to like work and you don't get that break.

(36:08):
So I feel like it's so important in college and in school, high school to just like just relax and have fun a bit.
Like, yeah, I got into the university and I thought like my life is done.
And then I stopped studying.
Wow.
We'll get back to the movie really quick because we have to, but I just want to mention.
So when I did admissions for the really, really rich Thai kids, you would meet them at like 12 years old to start their profile.

(36:33):
Nikki, did you ever see an admissions counselor?
I did. Yeah.
So like, you know, you'd see kids when they're like 12 or 13 and that's when you start them.
They have to like get a patent or like make a company, do a service, whatever, have a huge portfolio.
So by the time they're 16, they write a really good personal essay and go like a top university.

(36:55):
But these 12 year olds are making CVs and stuff.
And it's just crazy.
And again, there's usually a huge disconnect with the with the parents want and what the kid wants.
Because no 12 year old wants to do this at all.
What I try to tell these kids that go to college, because I wish I learned it better, too, is the whole reason.

(37:15):
And I'll say what I tell them, look, Harvard puts their classes online for free.
Right. Like the the the knowledge offered is not the secret part.
That's not what you're paying for. Right. That's free.
You can just read the book like that's that's nothing.
But you're paying for the people next to you.
And so like you need to network.
And if you're not like talking with your professors and building relationships with them and your fellow classmates,

(37:40):
like, just don't even bother going to school. It's pointless.
Like the point of school is like to network and build that.
Like you can learn fine. But again, that's free.
That's that's just go read that book like network while you're there.
Other like that's how you take advantage. Yeah.
But bring to bring home the point like I think the the the film we are talking about.

(38:02):
Yeah, it's kind of kind of emphasizes on that point of the education system.
And what's the point of education system? Because the guy Rancho is not getting a degree for himself.
He's just getting the knowledge, which is like epitome of like getting a knowledge, but not caring for the degree.
But he's not even getting knowledge because he's just being a smart ass to teach.

(38:25):
So my point is like the the the direction that the director wanted to go, the film and the message to take away is really novel.
And I really admire that. And I really love that part.
But how did how he did about it, like how the way of like delivering the message is where it hit me.

(38:46):
Like, I'm like, wait, but you got the message.
So obviously, I got the message because it was very effective, of course, like it was on our face.
Yeah. But yeah.
So basically, Amir Khan is like the ultimate Reddit college dude who he shows up and he like argues with the professor with like facts and logic and owns the professor.
And everyone's like awed by him.

(39:08):
And he's like this peculiar guy because, yeah, he breaks all the norms, whatever.
But like, again, he's you you learn later that he just is going to like learn stuff, but he's not.
He's learning. He just he's there to kind of be a smart ass.
He's not learning shit. Maybe he's learning, but they are not showing us the learning part.
They're not showing the learning part. Yeah.

(39:29):
The film is just showing us his argumentative side.
I think he's just there to teach them.
He's there to reform the education system.
He scored well. He scored well in the exam and everything.
Yeah. So I think we should like, yeah, let's talk about the plot, like how the film goes about it.
What's the twist and has there like, why is it? Why is he just there to learn?

(39:51):
OK, so it took us like, I don't know how to get to this point, but the movie is told in like two different moments.
Like one takes place in the present day where all the characters lead successful jobs.
And the other is when they which was takes place like 10 years before that, which is when they're in college.

(40:11):
So the movie, the movie actually begins with Farhan and Raju being called by this other character that I failed to mention.
Chatur, Silencer. So this Chatur character, he's like the foil to Amir Khan's character.
He's the one that relies on being obedient.

(40:34):
He's the student that wants to be like top student through through memorization, memorization,
rote learning, that's what they call it.
And even this show aside of him where he's distracting other kids to so that he could do bad in exams so that he can top easily.
So he's like very antagonistic to the whole thing.

(40:55):
So what we find out is that he was that Chatur was supposed to give like a speech praising virus.
Yeah. And then like, you know, just as a prank, Amir Khan's character decides to like alter his speech a little bit.
Yeah, because he doesn't know Hindi.
Because he's so interested in learning.
Because he doesn't know Hindi and like he had to do like a whole Hindi speech.

(41:20):
So he made it right by the librarian.
So librarian wrote the speech for him and he changed Chamathkar to Balathkar, which is like wonderful or great to rape.
And so his his whole speech was like full with rape in windows, which was like super, super funny.

(41:44):
But what did the subtitles say?
It wasn't. It said screwed.
Screwed. Yeah, but it's like it's like the purest Hindi term for rape.
Right. Fuck or screw.
OK, so he delivers.
I guess I guess the translation is lost on non-Indian speakers.

(42:05):
Puns on a certain language.
It's really tough to write because puns is their puns.
Right. Like, it's really tough to write subtitles like.
But so that happened, so like he gave the speech, Chatur gave the speech.
Everyone was laughing at him. The virus was not pleased.
Chatur gets embarrassed for life.

(42:27):
And we get the scene where like the three idiots are celebrating at this.
What is that tower, Keely?
I think it's a water water tank.
It's not like a land maniacs.
Yeah, it's like a water tank tower.
I think I think it was a water tank tower or some sort of a mobile tower.
Or some tower in the university.

(42:48):
So, yeah, they were just laughing about the prank that they just pulled.
And then Chatur comes up looking all humiliated, like crying.
And he was like, he's making a bet with with with Amir Khan's character.
Like 10 years from now, let's see who is more successful.
And that's how the film actually begins.
It begins in the present day where Chatur calls these
Amir Khan's friends to the top of this Animaniacs tower.

(43:12):
And they're like, so what we, the audience and the characters find out
is that they don't know where Amir Khan's character is.
They think he's like dead or something.
And it's not...
He didn't keep contact with any of them.
He didn't keep in contact.
So it's the whole movie, the present day plotline is them going on a road trip.

(43:35):
There's a plot twist is that they managed to get to Rancho's mansion.
And they find out that it's like a funeral of his father.
But then they discover that Rancho is actually not really...
It's just Rancho.
But this is the real Rancho.

(43:56):
And the person that they've known their whole lives throughout college is
someone pretending to be Rancho, which is like, wow.
So Rancho died?
The real Rancho?
His father, it was his father's funeral.
His father died.
And then we find out that like in the past, when...
So Amir Khan's character, he was like...

(44:16):
Gardener's son.
He's the Gardener's son.
And I guess this kid likes to learn.
And I don't remember, he gets shamed for something.
Yeah.
So what he used to do is like...
I remember in the past timeline in the university, he was telling the
a random boy in the college that, oh, if you want to study,

(44:41):
you don't need anything else.
You just need a uniform and you can go sit in any classroom and study.
So that's what he used to do when he was a kid.
He was not in the school.
So he would just get his master's son's uniform or some uniform and go to the
school and sit in at the random class to just study, just learn things.

(45:02):
So that's what he used to do.
Yeah.
And do homework for his son.
Yeah.
So the Gardener's son, he likes to pretend to be other students from other schools.
And the real Rancho is like, hey, I'm going to use this to my advantage.
Do my homework, study up and stuff.
Which is symbolic of lower caste just propping up, do nothing, assholes.

(45:25):
It just reminds me of people, actually, it's actually a thing in Thailand, right?
People filling in other people's spots.
Oh, non-stop.
Yeah.
So, you know, I don't think it's far from reality.
This is actually something that...
I mean, all the rich kids pay for tutors or people to do their homework or write
their essays or take their tests for them.
Like it happens all the time.
Yeah.
But nobody needs that anymore because we all have chat GPT.

(45:48):
Everyone is a rich kid now.
It's cool.
Yeah.
You can tell who use AI.
Cheating is democratized.
What I really like about this movie, it sounds like, is like they make a distinction between
learning and getting a degree or like, you know, getting some kind of recognition.
You see from Rancho, like he really just wants knowledge.
He doesn't care about getting...

(46:09):
Okay.
Okay.
When we come to the plot where who he really is now, then we can take home the point that...
Yeah.
Yeah.
What was the message?
Yeah.
Go on, Nikki.
But we already said he's a Gardener.
Yeah, that's it.
No, no, no.
He was...
No, then he'll reveal who he is, right?
I think that was the place.
No, that wasn't the big reveal, Kili.
He's the scientist whom...

(46:30):
Okay, yeah.
Chatur is looking for his reason for coming to India.
Another reason was like he's trying to locate this amazing scientist,
Phuong Suu Kwan Suu Wang Ru or something who is somewhere in the mountains and like
has like infinite number of patents or something like that and to sign him up for his company.

(46:53):
And at the end, it turns out that that was the actual Rancho.
Like that was the American character.
All right.
So he did...
Oh, so Rancho became a...
He's a scientist, actual scientist who has like so many patents, but he's a teacher in kids school.
Okay, okay.
He's a perfect son again.
All right.
So, okay.
Let's rewind a little bit.

(47:14):
So, yes, they did find out that the gardener's son, Amir Khan's character is Phuong Suu Kwan Du.
He's supposed to be this like entrepreneur scientist who lives in a very secluded part in the...
I think it was like a...
What's the region that you said?
Ladakh.
Ladakh, yes.
It was in Ladakh.
Yes, a friend of mine just went and read something.

(47:37):
Anyway, so Chatur keeps chastising that he's gonna like do some partnership with the
partnership with this Phuong Suu Kwan Du guy.
Yeah.
And then I guess, yeah, the twist is that we find out that at the very end, Amir Khan is that man,
is Phuong Suu.
Yeah.
So...

(47:57):
Yeah, so, okay.
A couple things.
Number one, because the movie takes place in present day, right?
It's Amir Khan as, yes, the perfect son.
He's a super smart scientist that teaches kids, of course, and lives just in a remote place,
just waiting for the girl of his dreams to come back again.
He's 44 in this, in present day, and he plays the college kid at 18 years old.

(48:25):
And Disney spends so much AI money to put these actors back in time and Harrison Ford
looks like his younger self.
They don't do any of that.
It's just like they do makeup.
And it was convincing for me.
But when I found out his age, like, okay, imagine if we had a movie with Tom Cruise

(48:47):
being like a bachelor student, because that's what it is.
It's the power of Phuong.
I think the point of the movie went way over your head.
This is your key takeaway.
That's not my key takeaway, but I will say...
That was a huge distraction.
It was like Adam would never let this part go.
Like, he was so fixated on the way the game was.
We've watched Shahrukh Khan play himself and his father, and this still got you?

(49:12):
You should know Bollywood by now.
But I'm trying to imagine the American equivalent.
Like, if Brad Pitt now was playing a bachelor student, and I'd be like,
what?
This doesn't make any sense.
Because especially, like, it works if you don't know who the actor is more.
Because I was like, yeah, college student.
He looks a little old, but whatever.

(49:32):
He looks very good for 44.
I'll say that.
He looks very good for 44.
And they didn't use any A.I., D.A., J.A., C.G.I.
They just like put some makeup on.
Yeah, okay.
You have a hoodie, you're 44.
Or you're a college student.
But like, if you know the actor and you've grown up with him your whole life,
and he's playing a bachelor student in college, it's weird.

(49:52):
I think that's why he picked up that mannerism, that quirky mannerism.
Because he was not doing that in the present self.
Like, quirky mannerism.
Like, how he was behaving as a college student.
Like, the one that you were talking about, that he's that quirky behavior that he takes to P.K. as well.
Right?
But he was, if you, like, watch it closely, like,

(50:16):
he was not doing that when he's in Ladakh as a scientist.
Like, in the present tense.
He was not behaving like that.
He was behaving a little more normal.
Sure, yeah.
So I think that was his differentiating part in his acting to portray a younger guy, though.
Oh, so in that case?
Young, they were like, queers, weird behavior.
In that case, he thinks that 18-year-olds and aliens act the same way.

(50:39):
Yes, because he's so far removed from 18-year-old age, so he thinks that 18-year-olds are aliens.
So again, it's not his acting.
It's not, again, I think it's worse if you know who it is, because I didn't, so it wasn't a problem.
But once I realized, I was like, oh, I was trying to imagine like, like, George Clooney now.

(50:59):
Yeah, so context-
Like, going to his first class.
How do you do, kids?
Is that not real?
Is that not-
Totally distracting?
So it's like contextually, no, it's not distracting for Bollywood watcher or like,
Indian film watcher, because it happens so many times that we have, like, we don't, like, even

(51:19):
take that to mind.
Now, here's the other thing.
It was never a discussion.
It may be like a think piece on an article, like, how good Aamir Khan look as a college kid,
or like how he pulled out, pulled off a young kid's version on screen.
That's an article.
But I've barely seen a discussion on that point that, oh, why is this old guy

(51:45):
playing this young kid role in the film?
Because it's like so common, and for guys, for guys, it's very patriarchal, it's only guys.
Girls, whenever they cross 30, they have to do the role of mother or elder sister of the hero
or something.
They cannot be a hero anymore, like love interest anymore.

(52:07):
It's changing, but those are like exceptions.
But anyway, that is for the guys.
They will be 50 or near 60, and they will play 20s, 30s.
That is wild, though.
Like, because again, like, you know, like, like Brad Pitt is like 60 something.
He looks great for his age.
I mean, like, Adam, also, just to say that I think white people and brown people age
a bit differently.
Sure.
Yeah.
No offense.

(52:27):
No, it's true.
But I'm just saying you know that he's Aamir Khan.
He's a huge superstar.
And like, you know, so we did the math.
He is only four years younger than Virus, the professor that he's fighting against.
That's actually funny.
So there's like this old professor who's like, and they're fighting, and this elder guy,
he's only five years older.

(52:49):
And then his love interest was 30, not sorry, 29 or something.
Yeah.
So so in the movie, he's dating older because he's a bachelor student.
But in real life, he's still like six years older than her or something.
Yeah.
I'm bad at math.
Not six, over 16, over 10 years.
They got my main theme takeaway, but that was very distracting the entire time.

(53:15):
And I kept having to check with them like, wait, so.
Because then all of the actors with him are the same age.
But the way I remember it, Adam was fixated for like 30 minutes.
I still am.
For like 30 minutes long.
Like he just kept talking about the age.
I can't make it kill you, look up everyone's ages on the phone.
He calls us person.
He missed a lot of plot points at one point, and we had to rewind it back and then start

(53:37):
again from a certain point.
I'm like, okay, Adam, what's the story?
Yeah, Adam, I think we're about like 10 Bollywood movies in right now, if not more.
And I think you should know by now that you cannot rationalize Bollywood.
Imagine, imagine, imagine.
Throw the logic away.
We need like, think of it that time, like when we imagine Shah Rukh Khan to play his
baby role or you were imagining it.
Baby Shah Rukh Khan.

(53:59):
And I put a face of Shah Rukh Khan on the baby's body for the Instagram video.
Yeah, so it's totally believable.
I just think it's funny that Hollywood spends like, you know, $10 million to D.H. Harrison
Ford.
And meanwhile, like India is just like, no, just throw the actor in there.
Screw it.
All right, if you didn't know America, you know anything about Bollywood movie, would

(54:20):
you realize that he's much older than the college student?
I wouldn't have known he was 44.
There we go.
That's what I'm saying.
I'm saying, but if you know him, it's weird.
Now, my theme takeaway, though, is that, okay, so he's going to school and the big and this
guy and everyone's killing themselves because engineering school, it's a lot of pressure
and we all want the good jobs and we all want the job interview, you know, and there's

(54:41):
tremendous pressure.
And here this guy that shows up and he just like challenges the professor with a bunch
of like meme Reddit logic facts of like, but actually you can use a pencil in space, which
is what the Russians did.
It's not like a huge trivia thing.
And and then you find out the end, like he didn't need the degree.
He just went to learn and all these other guys, you know, like they eventually, you

(55:02):
know, did what they wanted to do.
The guy that wanted to be a photographer became a photographer and that's great.
You know, like you should pursue your passion.
My big point is, yeah, I think people go to school for the wrong reasons and then are
unhappy.
The takeaway is wrong because you do go to school for that degree.
If you're going to learn, just read the book.
No, I would say an environment plays a huge role in learning.

(55:26):
So when I went to film school, like now, like at one point, film school, people were going
to film school to get to use the camera because the camera was a rare thing to get to use
their edit table.
But when I went to film school, it's all digital already.
So there is no point.
But what film school helped me, like I really haven't used my alumni base yet or something

(55:48):
like that.
But what happened was like the feedback system was very good.
You know, like when you were working, you getting so much feedback and the people around
you.
So you went to school for the exact right reason, but and we just want to learn to think,
but these kids that needed to do class mobility, need to get the good degree.
And just, of course, it's a bigger reality.

(56:11):
It's like education system is not existing in silo, right?
It's existing in this whole world, like rest of the world.
So yeah, so that's why that education is a device to get the degree.
So you're right.
Like people are going to get the degree and that's the harsh reality of education system.

(56:33):
And that is like not because their parents are telling them to, it's because the situation
is like that.
Like it's I mean, parents are not evil people just forcing their kids to do things like
I said, they also want certain things from their kids, whether pressurizing, how much
pressurization or everything is debatable is various from culture to culture and everything.

(56:55):
But it's the sad reality.
Like they want that from their kids and the kids are kind of pressurized.
So it's like an unending event of like an unending cycle.
Like they are going to do the same thing, the similar, maybe in a different degree to
their kids.
But what should be the main takeaway from the movie or like why was it impactful for

(57:18):
you Winnie?
I think to, okay, sorry.
I used to omit the part where you added Winnie, sorry.
There was a line about like life is a race or something like that.
And then it had a lot of implications on the rat race about how that's not the only way.
So I don't know, I think a lot of us like bend over backwards just to make sure that
we get this degree.

(57:38):
Because when you're 18, this seems like the most important thing, right?
Like you have to choose a degree, you're coming to a life path.
And you have to do this all the age of 18 when you have no wisdom, no experience, you
don't really know what you want.
And you commit yourself to this path and you just keep going down the rabbit hole further
and further.
And I think this movie is just a way of like pulling you out and saying like, it doesn't

(57:58):
have to be that serious.
Like life is really not that serious.
And for some it is like, you know, like Kelly said, class mobility.
I think that's why I studied so hard to make sure I can move up and have a better lifestyle
than I grew up having.
And maybe now I can look back in hindsight and say, I should have had more fun in school.
But also like I am here where I am today because I did put in that effort.

(58:20):
So I think it's-
You did really well.
Right, right.
But I think it's like, it's about finding the balance.
And I think this movie is not saying like, no, don't study.
It's not important.
It's just about like, you know, find the balance.
Where you can still pursue what you enjoy, you know, and you don't have to like give
up everything.
You don't have to base your whole existence on the validation of one exam score or one

(58:40):
test.
And I think it's a slippery slope because if I were, if I was a parent, you know, I
think I would still, I try not to pressure my children, but I would have an expectation
that they'd go to college still.
So it's a bit of a-
I think, I think in the, see in the environment of where like one direction narrative is

(59:01):
always peddled out that you need this, this, this, this, this, this film kinda when it
came out, the product of his time, right?
So when it came out, it kind of put that questions on big screen, the opposite question on big
screen, like legitimize that concern of like following passion, following, like not taking

(59:22):
like not be part of rat race and stuff like that.
So that, that struck a chord with everyone because it was like, now it's way more talked
about, but that point like no big stream, like big media was, we didn't have any big
media like that kind of focused on that point.

(59:45):
I think that's why it kind of worked out as in the audience that, okay, yeah, that's
like this big piece of film, like, you know, questioning the education system in this way.
It's like, despite what you've been told throughout your life, there's not only one path to success.
And that's all that.
And I think in other parts of the world, maybe that's not the prevailing message, but I think

(01:00:05):
in India, especially that very much is the message.
There's so much pressure to like just go.
I think Indian parents are always like engineer, doctor, or what's the other one?
Lawyer.
Yeah.
Engineer, doctor, lawyer, anything else, it's a failure.
All right, so this movie is just opening up a realm of possibilities and you have this
character that likes to do photography, which is very common, but also never taken seriously

(01:00:28):
in an Indian household.
Or I think most Asian households.
That's a hobby.
That's not a career.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I don't know.
I guess the takeaway I had was similar to Winnie's is like, it paints this reality that most
Thai people can never really have is like, it's not everything has to be about getting

(01:00:49):
good grades or whatever.
And to add to the photography thing, it's like, I did ask my father, he's a diplomat,
and then I asked him, did you always want it to be a diplomat?
And he was like, no, I wanted to be a photographer, but it wasn't a viable career choice.
Yeah, photography is very tough.

(01:01:12):
These fields are actually way more tougher than the regular profession that our parents
push us for.
But these are like way tougher to achieve.
I do want to hear your perspective though, Kili, because you went to engineering school
and then you did your master's in film school and you did a big deviation in careers.

(01:01:36):
I have this moment of looking back and thinking that whether I should have done that or done
film workshop side by side, my job and continued my job, because I ended up in corporate career
anyway, again.

(01:01:57):
But again, I have this thing that, okay, I tried, maybe I will be somewhere in future
okay, so I took the path, I took the chance, I know how to deal with the struggle and I
know how it feels and everything.
So I will not die thinking what if I would have done that.

(01:02:21):
So I would choose my own path.
And it's also like, yeah, actually, because I went to a good engineering school and got
a good job, I could do this as well, because I could earn a lot of money to save and pay
for my master's education and have the safety net that, okay, I have enough confidence in

(01:02:43):
me that I can do this and then do whatever.
So I would never actually like, when I was 18, I would have never thought of like studying
film because I don't come from that kind of class space where people are going as a young
kid to be a filmmaker, study to be a filmmaker or art as a viable career option.

(01:03:07):
People who are really into art, they go and they fight against so much of odds and they
fight so many things.
It's so much struggle.
I was not that strong when I was 18.
I wouldn't have done that.
So I did that when I was 27, so I was like, okay, I can do it.
So I could-
What was your job at a bachelor's?

(01:03:27):
Oh, I didn't do engineering.
It was not engineering.
It was in consultancy.
I was working for one of the big four firms, consultancy firms.
So it was like tech consultancy.
Yeah.
But I think that's a great example because you went with what was a career move, maybe
like smart in the conventional term.

(01:03:49):
And then you did a passion move.
You balanced it out.
I didn't focus on career.
That was my take that I'm not focusing on my career.
I'm focusing on trying to do things that I want to do.
And whether I fail or success, be failure or a successful person, that's upon again

(01:04:10):
of things to see in future or in now.
But I did those things.
So I believe in you only live once.
So there you go.
That's why you're doing this podcast and playing Tekken.
Yep.
If I die, I can't play Tekken.

(01:04:30):
That was the biggest realization I've ever had.
When I die, I can't play Tekken anymore.
And that was a huge revelation to me too.
I thought even as a kid, you could play Tekken after you died.
And when my parents sat me down and said, no, in fact, Tekken also goes away when you're
dead.
I was like, holy crap.
I'm starting to start playing it a lot now.
I saw this meme that says like, okay, be in front, sit in front of your computer as long

(01:04:57):
as you want to, because when you die, you can't get to do that anymore.
It's a really empowering meme.
Yeah, guys, like be in front of your computer, play games.

(01:05:19):
That's not an endorsement.
That's not a fierce stares endorsement.
This is not.
Yeah, I don't endorse that message, please.
Fierce stares endorsement is go outside and play with friends.
Don't stare at a screen.
Look, I'm going to-
I'm going to play with friends looking at screen.
Okay.
So I'm going to read, this isn't a meme, but I asked you guys when we were watching this
movie if you knew what I was talking about, but back in the day, there used to be email
chains.
And this was like, before people reposted dumb fake stories on Facebook, they used to

(01:05:44):
literally forward these emails to each other.
Before that, they would literally send letters to each other's houses, which is crazy stories.
People just like spreading weird stories.
For email chains that you're talking about, like if you don't forward this, you're going
to die.
Yeah, like, so this is a story, forward this to your friend, blah, blah, blah, right?
So I'm going to read the end of this, but we've all seen this story in some form of

(01:06:07):
another.
But this one is a Christianity one about a student challenging a professor that doesn't
believe in God, right?
Or doesn't believe that- he doesn't believe in God because he says evil exists, so if
evil exists, then that means God makes evil.
Okay, so the student stands up and challenges him, and at the second half of this, I'm going

(01:06:31):
to read, finally the young man asked the professor, sir, does evil exist?
Sir, so you know he's like Indian.
Now uncertain, the professor responded, of course, as I have already said, we see it
every day.
It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man.
It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world.

(01:06:53):
These manifestations are nothing else but evil.
To this, the student replied, evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist
unto itself.
Evil is simply the absence of God.
The professor sat down.
The young man's name, Albert Einstein.
Boom!
Really, boom!
Mike Chop.
And this is the movie, is like just owning the professor by debating him, which is fine

(01:07:21):
too.
I guess, okay, that was my main thing, and again I agree with the message, don't take
study seriously, but owning people in a debate never ever works.
I learned from debating family members, coworkers, friends until I learned to stop doing that.
I don't like debating.
Debating is a slap.
I love debating.
I like debating, but I don't believe that debating can influence people much anymore

(01:07:45):
now.
That doesn't work.
And also like putting so much, okay, it can influence, people can put across their points
and oppose each other, which is a very healthy thing.
But saying that, oh, you own the debate, that means your points are valid.
That's like, I used to feel that is the debate's goal when I was younger, but now as an older

(01:08:11):
person I'm like, that doesn't mean shit.
Like if someone is winning the debate, that means they just do that debate.
It doesn't mean that that point is stronger than the other point.
So all these debates are like, it's good for debate.
Debate is for debate's sake, like arts for arts sake, like debates for debate's sake.
There is no, debate is not for establishing one argument over other.

(01:08:35):
Maybe it was when the knowledge was restricted, when knowledge was not shared, as not democratized
as now, like people didn't, like then knowledgeable people would come from different aspect of
life, different culture, different background, be in one place and debate each other because
there is no other way of contradicting each other.
But now there are so many points, ways of contradicting each other.

(01:08:58):
So debate is like a more point now.
One more key takeaway that I do want to mention before we wrap up is I think when it comes
to values, we all live life by a set of values and it can be different, it can be the same,
but I think most of us have different values and then we live in this capitalist system,
education system that forces us to have one set of values being we need to be career oriented,

(01:09:19):
we need to earn money.
And then those that have to, those that prefer to just live a free spirited life, have good
relations, live simple, we don't need that much money, they kind of get pressured and
conditioned to follow this one capitalist path.
And it's becoming harder and harder to resist this, right?
Especially with inflation and everything, you feel like you need to earn money, you

(01:09:40):
need to have this mindset.
So I think at a young age for all our listeners, I don't know our age demographic of listeners,
but like just trying to hold on.
Around four to five years old.
Like just try to hold on to your actual values, not getting conditioned, not getting influenced
by the education system, by the capitalist system, because at the end of the day, we're
all going to die.
So yeah, might as well just live life on your own terms.

(01:10:03):
I don't think I'll die.
I think that's wrong.
But yeah, Adam's like, wait, there's no tech in heaven.
I ain't going.
I said no, God.
I want to play tech.
No, no, no, you're right.
Like we all live in a bigger farm later on.
My message to the kids out there, if you're listening, because again, I've worked with
tons of kids that are doing whatever they can to get to America or whatever.

(01:10:23):
And honestly, please don't go into debt to go to school.
Yeah, that's America's trap, right?
It's like you need this degree or you'll be unemployable, but you're going to walk out
here with at least 30 grand, if not 100 grand in debt.
Yeah.
And then America, unfortunately, wants you to leave as soon as you graduate.
Now you can possibly get a job, there's no guarantee.

(01:10:45):
So if you go back to wherever you came from with American debt, it's the opposite of what
you thought would happen.
Yeah, you just shot yourself in the foot before you even started working.
Instead of making a ton of money, you owe a lot.
Exactly.
And what did you get?
You went to an American university.
Whatever you can do to avoid that, please, you don't need that.

(01:11:07):
And if you do go, just network the hell out of it.
I just want to know, because so many kids think there is secret knowledge in American
universities, there is not.
They don't learn more.
So they don't learn differently that much.
You can learn on your own and please be clever in that way, but don't go to any random university.
Go to a really good one or just don't bother.
If you're going to take out a loan to go to university, like a big amount, just go buy

(01:11:29):
a house.
Just take out a loan and go get a mortgage.
Start a business.
Honestly, get a corner shop.
I feel bad about that fiance of Karina Kapoor.
Suhas, the guy.
Yeah, he's like a materialist.
Fucking food on his shoe and he gets pissed.
OK, he has an angry shoe.
But why would you spill food on his like someone's new shoe on a wedding?

(01:11:53):
Like he would get pissed.
Like I mean, can't did that.
And then like you he gives some expensive watch and then the girl loses it.
And then he gets angry.
So it's somehow funny that he's getting angry over the girl losing like a few hundred thousand
dollars worth of watch.

(01:12:15):
And you feel bad for him?
This is like he's being like the film kind of did.
Did him dirty.
Just to him.
Right.
I think the film is trying to go like a bit anti-capitalist, right?
You're a bit too realistic there.
You want to get that.
But also for who you really are.
This is giving Adam being fixated on the character's age is vibes right now.

(01:12:41):
And she doesn't end up dating anyone else.
She just wait.
She just is like, all right, I guess I'm not going to marry that guy and then just waits
and finds him like 10 years later.
Yeah, she said she's such a pretty doctor.
And she's again like she hates that guy.
And then she ends up again with that guy.
Like I mean, dude, I don't think I'm going to come forward.

(01:13:02):
I think I'm going to come forward.
Pretty in this one.
Shots fired.
Shots fired.
Shots fired.
I miss casual.
She should be a university student.
If Adam could have it his way, he just had casual in every movie.
We have to watch kuch kuch hota hai then.
She's a university student there.
There is this college no one studies ever.
And we get Shah Rukh Khan again.
That's Karan Johar's college.
That's the first movie Karan Johar did even before Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Kaam.
We should watch it sometime.
Yeah.
It's a college where no one studies.
Before Karan Johar came out, Karan Johar was in the movie.
Karan Johar was in the movie.

(01:13:23):
Before we really wrap up, just one more thing.
There was the climax scene.
Delivering the baby with the webcam.
We didn't mention that.
We didn't mention that.

(01:13:43):
Baby, is that such a huge part of the story?
Now I realize this entire time, Nicky was just itchy to get to the baby scene.
That's it, bro.
I finally realized what he was doing.
It was so important to me because we just kept riffing on it.
Like non-stop.
There was a scene where it was the ultimate scene that shows that Virus will let this

(01:14:03):
all go.
Because it was...
Who was pregnant?
Oh yeah, it was Karina Kapoor's sister.
She was pregnant and then there was a big heavy storm, big flood.
And this was to the point that Virus was going to expel the three idiots.

(01:14:24):
There was even a moment where...
What's his name?
You waited this whole time.
This was your one moment.
You've been fixating on this scene for the whole time.
There was a scene where Raju was committing suicide because he wasn't going to pass for
playing the prank.
Urination prank, by the way.
There's a lot of urine in this movie.

(01:14:45):
There's a lot of urine.
There's a lot of urine in this movie.
But then, yeah, this is the climax scene where they cannot get...
Virus' daughter cannot get to the hospital in time to deliver the baby.
So then it's all up to our three idiots to deliver the baby.
And what do they do?
The thing that we found ridiculous was that they were doing a video call with Karina Kapoor's

(01:15:08):
character and the operation was done through video call.
And I know that back then, I don't think we'd have good quality video.
It would be like...
It's just a little unrealistic.
Re-watching it kind of took me off a little bit.
It was the scene that...

(01:15:28):
I guess when you think about it, it's like a scene that defied all odds.
It's Bollywood.
Because later in that scene, the electricity goes off.
And he was making an inverter from the cars to supply electricity.
So he used that to turn the electricity back on again.

(01:15:50):
And then he uses a vacuum cleaner as a suction pump.
Oh yeah, he used the vacuum cleaner.
Actually that inspired me to buy vacuum cleaner.
So it's like, okay, if there is any pregnancy emergency at my house.
No, that's a joke.
Oh my God.
Okay.
I thought you were being serious.
I thought you were being serious.

(01:16:10):
He uses vacuum cleaner, changes the pressure with his amazing engineering skill that he
learned over four years by challenging professors, that he can control the pressure of the vacuum
cleaner.
And then that's how he delivered the baby, which was amazing.

(01:16:32):
Every time you watch a Bollywood movie, I feel like I'm surrounded by three idiots.
Wow.
So we're all just waiting for this.
I knew that.
I had a point.
I was making it before starting the podcast.
Three Musketeers is not three.
There's a fourth one.
Three idiots is not three.
Are you saying Winnie is the fourth idiot?
I am the observer.
I'm observing the three idiots.

(01:16:54):
I will say the other thing I was fixated on was, and I guess I was wrong about this, but
there's two times where there's this prank where this guy pisses on an electric spoon
or something.
That works, Adam.
I told you that works.
And so Winnie, did you know this?
If you piss on something that's electric.
Openware.
I haven't tried.
So no, I haven't noticed.
You get electrocuted.

(01:17:14):
Yes, because urine is conductor of electricity and it's coming from your body.
So it kind of makes a connection to your body.
Well, I think we should wrap this up so we can do a little science experiment right after
this.
Who volunteers?
You try it.
I don't want to fry my nuts.
I have Nicky hold the spoon in his mouth.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
Give it to me.
This is what I mean, three idiots.
We can do this experiment with something else.

(01:17:42):
We can put a flow of water, like dirty water, like B, which can be a conductor of electricity
to a live wire and at the end we keep a tester and then check the voltage reading, like maybe
with the voltmeter.
Rancho has entered the conversation.

(01:18:04):
Where did you learn all that?
Did you study for free somewhere?
I've been taking classes for six years to learn how to shock people with piss.
So now I've lined all the urinals so everyone gets shocked every time.
I have jars of urine in my home.
I've been practicing for years.
I finally figured it out.
I just didn't realize that piss was such a solid stream.

(01:18:26):
I thought like-
Is yours not, Adam?
You okay?
Mine's like Morse code.
I do the great Gatsby in Morse code every time I piss.
So I guess I did learn something from the film.

(01:18:47):
I do like that message.
Don't ever pee on open live wire.
For all the degenerates watching this, that's the key message.
If you see an open electricity, open fence or like anything like fences that has like
where never try to pee on them.
Which I'm sure happens a lot because like I'm sure it's your instinct to be like, I'll
get this fire out with my piss.
Fire is fire.
Not fire but like an electric fire.

(01:19:10):
If I see like a Tesla, I just start trying to piss on it.
If it's in flames.
Yeah.
Closing thoughts?
Yeah, I still think it's a great movie.
I mean, if we have to do like facts, it was like one of the highest grossing movies of

(01:19:32):
its time.
We keep on watching highest grossing films.
Yeah, we always watch highest grossing films.
But this might be the highest profile movie we've watched because this movie is famous
globally, right?
Yeah, so like to me-
So was Happy New Year.
Not the movie.
Shut up.
Just because Thailand didn't know the mastery of the craft of Happy New Year doesn't mean

(01:19:52):
the world didn't know.
Oh my God, Kiwi, get out of here.
It was one of the highest grossing films in Russia.
It won Cannes Film Festival.
Oh my God.
In England, it brought like people together.
You know, all these podcast listeners are going to go quote this as facts.
Winnie, you're right.
We're three idiots.

(01:20:13):
Money equals good and Happy New Year was really good.
And so was this movie.
But like three idiots, Nikki, you've watched this movie before.
Okay, so yeah, I mean, there's a lot of nostalgia for this because in high school, I have this
Indian classmate.
I was in theater class and she did like a musical number, Zubi Dubi, the song.

(01:20:37):
That was my first exposure.
I thought it was nice and then I figured-
Do you have a crush on this girl?
No, I don't.
She's not good.
She's not good.
It is amazing.
The song is good.
And then like the film festival-
She's not a video game character.
The film festival that I went to watching this movie, it was like, I think it was literally
like my first true exposure to Indian cinema.

(01:20:59):
So that's why maybe that's why I hold it up in high regard because it's like, I thought,
okay, this is the basis for good Bollywood movies.
But now that I'm in fear of stairs, I'm learning a lot more.
But it didn't, I mean, we were making fun of the movie here and there, but I still would
recommend it to people.

(01:21:20):
I think it's a good starting point.
Yeah, it's a good watch.
It's a good starting point.
It's a good fun watch.
Watch it with your friends together.
It's a fun, like most of the Bollywood films are made like a festive celebration with people.
Yeah, they are kind of designed that way.
It's a body film to watch with your buddies.
Build up that way.
Yeah.
So do that.
It's a fun fact.

(01:21:40):
Like after watching 3D rewatching 3D again with us, Niki, whenever he was opening a conversation
on chat, it would be Zubi Dubi Zubi Dub.
Adam didn't understand what I was saying.
He thought I was being a full retard or something.
I don't know what this is referencing.
It's funny because when we watched PK, that song in PK also got stuck in your head.

(01:22:04):
Yeah, it did.
When Zubi Dubi came on Adam was like, oh, now I know what you're talking about.
Now I understand what you're saying.
And I think to myself, oh my God, because when I was saying Zubi Dubi, I was actually
expecting that people got it.
And now I just realized that some people might not get it.
And now I'm just looking like outing myself like some idiot that just rambles or says

(01:22:28):
silly shit.
I thought it was silly, but no, it's all good fun.
I don't think it's a bad movie.
I understand, especially if you're in college being like, yeah, I get like I like this.
I get it.
The message is great.
You know, yeah, fuck professors.
But like, no, fuck their doctors and their daughters.
And like, yes, school has a lot of pressure and I'm glad that it's a dress.

(01:22:54):
You know, that's nice.
And it's a nice buddy film.
And there's like some fun moments and stuff.
I just I don't like movies that like encourage you to be like a clever jackass.
You know, you have really bad experiences.
I just like I'm like, dude, can you just like chill and like stop trying to be so clever
and just and so like that is what like triggered me.
I'm like, oh, I get it.

(01:23:14):
Because if I saw this when I was young, I'd be like a very annoying little kid.
I tried to be all clever and like with you know, and I and I already kind of was.
So it's just me like projecting.
Yeah.
But I was like, I don't like to say I think just to add on a little bit, I think for for
as a Thai person, I think it just paints like this fantasy of what we could do.

(01:23:37):
You know, we could like be a smart ass.
We could question.
I think so.
It's not as people.
It's not something we dare to do, but it does paint that that reality.
And it really one of the classmates of mine turned into a wannabe rancher and it was really
irritating to be around.
That's what I'm talking about.
OK, but you see, that's like probably the minority.
I'm sure it just.
Yeah, just one person who didn't have voices.

(01:23:57):
One in four people.
Or how many friends did you have to one in so just half.
Yeah, 50 percent of people become clever assholes.
In the classroom, there was one person.
I think objectively, it's still a great movie.
Right.
And I'm a sucker for movies with social commentary.
Like, I'm not a movie person.
I'm more of a social issues person.
So I appreciate movies that gets you thinking, gets people talking.

(01:24:19):
I think this movie actually got a lot of people to open up about the pressure they had experienced.
Right.
So I think it's a great movie.
It's impactful because of that.
It makes a change.
And my only takeaway is how do you say it?
All is well.
All is well.
All is well.
Goodbye.
Bye bye.

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Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

3 Idiots (2009)

On Purpose with Jay Shetty