Aesthetics of Asian cinema - 3 Idiots

Asian cinema refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Asia, and is also sometimes known as Eastern cinema. More commonly, however, it is most often used to refer to the cinema of Eastern (HongKong, China, Korea, Japan), Southeastern (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand) and Southern Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh). Today, I am going to discuss about the aesthetic of Asia (Indian) cinema by selecting a few examples from the film, '3 Idiots'. The aesthetics of Asia (Indian) cinema are mostly the singing and dancing part, the Indian traditional costumes, the traditional ritual ceremony, the typical plot of rich meets poor, distinct dominance, and etc. 

3 Idiots (2009) is an Indian film directed by Rajkumar Hirani started with the point of view of the narrator, Farhan Qureshi, telling a story of him and also a great friend he and Raju knew from university.  Farhan and Raju have been searching so hard for their best friend Rancho who has disappeared after the graduation. When they received clues of his whereabouts, they start a road trip to find their best friend back. 

First, let’s discuss about the performance art. In “3 Idiots”, there are scenes of songs and dancings, which are significant in Indian drama, no matter what genre or story plot it is. According to David Courtney (2012), most of the Bollywood film would be complete with a song and dance between the hero and heroine. When Pia falls for Ranchoo, she imagines herself singing and dancing in duet with Rancho. Meanwhile, having a group of dancers dancing the classical or folk dance with the main characters is also a signature part of Indian films.

Secondly, the Indian costumes are also the important part of Indian films. In India, even though western style of contemporary clothing like gowns, jeans, shirts tops can be seen in most Indian films, due to the influential of western culture, Indian film producers still maintain their traditional clothing for some scenes, and contemporary film like ‘3 Idiots’ is no exception. Indian traditional clothing is essential as different types of clothing represent the status and ethnicity of a person. Traditional clothing is also essential for different types of rituals, like wedding ceremony or funeral. For example, when Pia is getting married, she wears traditional Indian wedding dress instead of western style of wedding gown. Another example would be real Rancho's father funeral, all of the friends and families who attending the funeral were wear pale white clothing. 

Thirdly, the plot structure of Indian films is very much different from other films that follow the Three Act Structure. Most of the films have their climax somewhere at the second half of Act two or Act three in Three Act Structure. But for Indian films, they divide the story into few parts, and each part with its own climax. So the whole structure of Indian film is like continuously up and down until the ending. For the story of ‘3 Idiots’, it is divided into few parts telling different stories of each characters and how the three best friends get into one trouble into another one, and they solve them one by one.

In conclude, “3 Idiot” presents a story which is very much like other Bollywood films by putting the singing & dancing, and love story on the screen. The only thing there are different with other Bollywood films is the language using in the film. 3 Idiot mainly using english in the film rather then Hindi.