Get this one straight -You cannot be successful in the real sense of term if you chase success. As Rancho (read Aamir Khan) puts it, one should rather chase excellence, and embrace the urge to learn something new, something that actually makes the difference. Director Rajkumar Hirani is here again with a strong social message for the hierarchies and the grass root executors of modern system of education. Let the children gain knowledge and don't turn them into machines that run after grades instead of learning.

Three Idiots is a well-knit narrative that speaks about the roller coaster ride of three engineering students who went on to become best buddies. On the one hand it is the present odyssey of Farhan (Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi), to find their lost friend Rancho and on the flip side, it is the reminiscence of the past – a past full of smiles and tears, blunders and revivals.

As you peel of the layers of an apparent story of college students, the real fruit that comes out is the honest effort on Rancho's part to make a difference and fight against the orthodox ideologies of the director of their Engineering College, Viru (Boman Irani). Aaamir Khan alias Rancho, detests the very idea of putting pressure on students and when he raises his voice against it, he instantly gets marked in the bad books of the college dean.

Besides the constant striving of Rancho to teach a lesson to the success-addicts, the film also portrays the niceties of the relationship called friendship. The three friends ace the tests and flunk classes together. They dance on the tables and sit on the corner. They are driven by the principle of Rancho- to welcome life as it comes and befool one's coward heart. They live life on the edge and dare to do things which others can hardly think of.

Overcoming the crude reality and unknown hostilities is not always easy, but it is through this story the director seems to suggest that real idiots are not ones who listens to their heart's call, but those who flaunt their mugged-up answers and measure their progress in terms of grades and expensive possessions.

Thanks to cinematographer CK Muraleedharan for his excellent collage of landscape, especially of Ladakh and Shimla, that made the journey of 'two idiots' worth watching. As Farhan and Raju moves up the serpentine roads, the viewers are taken more into the incidents and accidents that graced their college days. Neat screenplay and witty dialogues worked as the required icing on the cake. The element of humour resides almost everywhere in the film, but that does compromise on the sentimental quotient.

The baby delivery episode is among the many other instances in the film where we find a prudent application of engineering and the credit goes to the director for such out-of-the-box thinking. Kareena Kapoor did a decent job as doctor and an object of love for Rancho, although she seemed to go awry in some instances.

Crystal lyrics accompanied by matured music direction have made the songs lively. Aamir Khan, maintaining his usual élan, carried himself pretty well as a college student. This man does not take life as a profit and loss account and all he wants is 'some rain', 'some sunshine' so that he gets 'another chance' to 'grow up once again.'