> 3 idiots (more than just 3 idiots)

Recently I watched this Indian movie "3 Idiots". The name seems to suggest it's a comedy, but it's more than that. It's an Indian rojak of comedy, romance, motivational, philosophical, maybe a bit of technical. Oh, don't forget the Bollywood dances that make it so musical as well.

The story revolves around this 3 roommates who are undergrads at the Imperial College of Engineering (don't bother searching, it makes you an idiot too). Each of them has his own reason to study engineering. One loves photography, but the father forced him to take engineering; one wants to break away from poverty cycle, and it seems like in India, being an engineer is the answer; another just has this passion for engineering. And there's this joker who would resort to anything just to top his cohort, including slipping porn magazines into his coursemates' hostel room.

The central theme of this movie is to question the norm in the education system. In one scene during lesson, the lecturer asked for the definition of "machine". So the engineering-freak gave simple answer like machine is anything that helps to make our life easier. Wrong. Then a mugger raised his hand and regurgitated the disgusting textbook definition. The lecturer gave that approving smile.

I never like definition questions. And I never like marks and grades. I don't recall teaching my students definitions nor mentioning about marks during my previous job, maybe that's why I don't fit in this system.

Anyway, I highly recommend this movie to educators, engineers and engineers-wannabe. I'm sure you will have something to take home from the movie.