History Film / ThreeIdiots

* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: [[spoiler: The imposter known as "Ranchodas Chanchad" (the servant of the Chanchad family and Farhan and Raju's long-lost best friend) and Phunsukh Wangdu (the person that Chatur wants to sign an important deal for his business) are the same people. Phunsukh Wangdu is actually his true name.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler: Two walking spoilers in fact. It is impossible to further discuss Rancho, the long-lost college friend of Farhan and Raju, without spoiling the fact that he is an imposter of the original Ranchodas Chanchad. Furthermore, the one who claims himself as Ranchodas Chanchad at Shimla is ''actually'' the real deal. This impersonation pretty much explains why "Rancho" cuts off his contacts with his two closest friends and Pia.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler: It is impossible to further discuss Rancho, the long-lost college friend of Farhan and Raju, without spoiling the fact that he is an imposter. Furthermore, the one who claims himself as Ranchodas Chanchad at Shimla is actually the real deal. This impersonation pretty much explains why "Rancho" cuts off his contacts with his two closest friends and Pia.]]

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Scenes set in Raju's house in the narrative, which "came out straight from a '50 film", are black-and-white. It is to emphasize how poor the Rastogis are.

** Virus, very much so. [[TookALevelInKindness Fortunately, he got better as shown in the ending of the narrative in which he bonds with his students and acknowledging Rancho as a worthy student.]] In the present scenes, [[spoiler: in which while he's understandably pissed that the Raju crashed at his daughter's wedding like what he did back when he was a student, it's quite benevolent that he didn't blow up and let his eldest daughter Mona restrain him. He also seems to let Pia go after she made her decision to call off the wedding, if not a bit done dealing with the madness that the eponymous trio casted upon him.]]

* NeverLearnedToRead: [[spoiler: Shamaldas Chanchad, the father of the real Ranchoddas, reveals this about himself in a flashback as a justification for using Chhote to get a degree for his son, since with all of his prestige, people laugh behind his back and he doesn't want his son to endure the same ridicule.]]

* OhCrap: Chatur, in the end, has this reaction [[spoiler: when he realizes that Phunsuk Wangdu, the scientist he was looking to secure a lucrative business deal with in the present day scenes, is none other than his old college nemesis, Rancho, who he had earlier mocked to his face about being a school teacher.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler: It is impossible to further discuss Rancho, the long-lost friend of Farhan and Raju, without spoiling the fact that he is an imposter. Furthermore, the one who claims himself as Ranchodas Chanchad at Ladakh is actually the real deal. This impersonation pretty much explains why "Rancho" cuts off his contacts with his two closest friends and Pia.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler: It is impossible to discuss Rancho, the long-lost friend of Farhan and Raju, without spoiling the fact that he is an imposter. Furthermore, the one who claims himself as Ranchodas Chanchad at Ladakh is actually the real deal. This impersonation pretty much explains why "Rancho" cuts off his contacts with his two closest friends and Pia.]]

* ScreamingBirth: The trio help deliver Mona Sahastrabuddhe (Pia's elder sister)'s child, in the university storeroom, using [[NoodleImplements an inverter, a vacuum cleaner and a car battery]] to construct a vacuum pump after she's too tired to push anymore.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Suhas fails a secret test of character [[spoiler: not once but thrice.]] At Mona's wedding, Rancho ruins Suhas' Italian shoes by spilling sauce on them, showing how Suhas cares a lot about money. The second time, Rancho makes Pia pretend she had lost the expensive watch Suhas had just bought her, Suhas responds by nagging Pia. Thanks to this, Pia decides to break their engagement. On the third occasion, when [[spoiler: Pia is going to marry Suhas ten years later, Raju ruins Suhas's wedding clothes with green sauce, showing Pia how he has still not changed as Farhan asserts; this time Pia decides to leave Suhas in the altar.]]

* AngerBornOfWorry: [[spoiler: Pia, Farhan, and Raju understandably go all violent after reuniting with Rancho. [[SlapSlapKiss Pia slaps him before kissing him after Rancho reaffirming his feelings for her]]. Meanwhile, Farhan and Raju get physically confrontational at their long-lost friend to release their pent up frustrations until their feelings finally replaced with happiness and share a [{GroupHug big hug together.]]]]

The film revolves around three students studying in the Imperial College of Engineering, Delhi. Out of them, Raju Rastogi (portrayed by Sharman Joshi) [[PerpetualPoverty comes from a poor family]] and is desperate to pass and get a good job. The second, Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), comes from a middle-class family, but has joined engineering [[WellDoneSonGuy to please his father]], while he really wants to become a wildlife photographer. However, their third roommate, Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchhad (Aamir Khan) is a [[BunnyEarsLawyer stunningly intelligent, radical-thinking young man]], who challenges the educational system with every step he takes, infuriating the headmaster of the school, [[SadistTeacher Viru Sahastrabuddhe]] (Boman Irani), and the headmaster's daughter, Pia (Creator/KareenaKapoor).

However, Farhan and Raju lose contact with Rancho after graduation. Many years later, Farhan gets a call from an old colleague of theirs, [[SmallNameBigEgo Chatur Ramalingam]] (Omi Vaidya), who says he has found Rancho. Abandoning everything, Farhan and Raju accompany Chatur and set out on a road trip to find him. But all is not as it seems...

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Millimeter seems to be close to the trio enough to [[spoiler: accompany them during the trio's expulsion after Rancho and Farhan were caught by Virus for stealing the exam paper in behalf of Raju. And he seems to know Rancho's true identity in the present scenes since he works for him as his assistant.]]

* BornDuringAStorm: [[spoiler: Mona's labor happened during a stormy night. Without Pia to assist her sister's birth due of leaving the house after her fight with her father, Virus wasn't unable to bring his daughter to the hospital due of the streets being flooded. Despite the trio helping the labor, the storm also presents complications due to power outage, forcing the trio and their fellow colleagues to grab lots of car batteries to power the common room, the computer to communicate with Pia via video conference for her to relay instructions, and most importantly the improvised ventouse. After the successful birth, the weather turns sunny again.]]

** The film begins with one such prank by Farhan to stay in Delhi to meet Raju, to find their long lost friend.
** Two pranks within one. Chatur gets the librarian to write a speech for him to recite on Teacher's Day. Rancho and Farhan divert both Chatur (with a prank phone call) and the librarian (by telling him Virus was ''remembering'' him, which he understood as Virus ''calling'' him over), and then changed some of the words of the speech. Chatur didn't even ask what it means, but blindly memorized it. HilarityEnsues.
* CatchPhrase: Rancho's "All is Well", which is also the film's ArcWords.

** Rancho made an inverter that could draw out power from car batteries named after Virus in an attempt get out of Pia's wedding. [[spoiler: It ended up powering the equipment, the improvised ventouse, for Mona's birth.]]

** The Fischer Space Pen, which Virus promised to give to a deserving student and which prompted Rancho to ask why a pencil wasn't used instead, which Virus can't answer. Years later, Virus finally answers the question (broken pencil lead can cause all sorts of problems in a zero-gravity environment) [[spoiler: as he gives the pen to Rancho, acknowledging him as a worthy student.]]

* CreateYourOwnVillain: If Rancho didn't humiliate Chatur, he would have just left him alone. However, if he didn't do that, the plot of finding Rancho will not happen because Chatur managed to find him to settle their rivalry [[spoiler:and along their way, finding clues about Rancho's true identity]]. Farhan and Raju didn't manage to find Rancho for many years so they tag along with Chatur.

* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: When Pia decides to [[spoiler:call off the her wedding and run off with Raju and Farhan to reunite with Rancho]], music starts playing as the trio(and Chatur) take off in their car while the guests and Pia's family looks on, only for Virus to stop the music in annoyance by covering the horn that one of the [[spoiler:wedding's]] musician was playing with.

** [[spoiler: Almost every single engineering student including the eponymous trio who are present during the birth of Mona's child. Justified, as they thought that the child is stillborn. Later, Virus sheds these when his grandson is delivered, and when he apologizes and admits that his opinion of Rancho is wrong.]]

* SavedByCanon: Viewers will know that [[spoiler: Raju will survive his suicide since he's alive and well in the present day scenes.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Joy Lobo, the senior engineering student during the trio's early years at ICE. Virus' unfair treatment of him that lead to the said student suicide prompts the mostly one-sided enmity between Rancho and Virus in regards of their clashing philosophies in regards to ICE's school system and education as a whole, which Rancho deems to be inhumane and nonconductive for teaching. While Rancho shoots the message and not the messenger himself, [[ItsPersonal it's becomes a personal vendetta for Virus and does everything in his power to bring the trio down, by all means necessary.]]

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler: Alongside CallingTheOldManOut, Pia gives her father a ''well-deserved'' one after he expels the trio and confesses that she had a hand over their expulsion by giving them the key to his office at ICE. She points out every single flaw of her father's philosophy that lead two men to die, including his own son (Pia's older brother), because he didn't care about their feelings other than their desire for validation, and their adherence to her father's philosophy, no matter how flawed it is. To top it off, she calls their deaths as ''murder'', not suicide, implying that she does see her father as her brother's killer, leaving Virus deeply shaken as Pia storms out.]]

* SavedByCanon: You'd know that [[spoiler: Raju will survive his suicide since he's alive and well in the present day scenes.]]

** The Minister invited for the Teacher's Day function at the college, when Chatur is talking about Virus in the Teacher's Day speech in which he's laughing his ass off. Until he starts talking about the Minister himself...

** [[spoiler: Raju's failed suicide.]]

* WardrobeWound: Rancho inflicts this on Pia's fiance, Suhas, to show her how vain he is. Later uses it a second time by pretending Pia lost the watch he bought her. [[spoiler: In the future, Raju continues the tradition by ruining his wedding robe. Intuitively knowing that Farhan will surely fail on convincing Pia to elope due of being kept in the dark in regards to Rancho and his sudden disappearance left her wondering whether their relationship is a dalliance to him, Raju uses the stained wedding robes and poses himself as the groom to convince Pia himself.]]

* SillyLoveSong: "Zoobi Doobi", which doubles as Pia's LoveEpiphany towards Rancho after she lets go of her negative reception towards him.

* ComebackTomorrow: In a much-delayed answer to Rancho's question about the Fischer Space Pen (why didn't they use a pencil), [[spoiler:four years later, after Rancho saves the stillborn child of Virus' elder daughter, Virus replies that when a pencil lead breaks in zero gravity on board spaceships, the graphite fragments can get into astronauts' eyes, and cause short circuits in the instruments. This symbolizes how both Virus and Rancho are NotSoDifferent in so many ways in regards of upholding their philosophies, that the former can't be wrong all the time ''just'' as the latter can't be right all the time.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Almost everyone.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Scenes set in Raju's house, which "came out straight from a '50 film", are black-and-white. It is to emphasize how poor the Rastogis are.
* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: Happens to Mona's newborn baby.]]

** Joy, a senior of the trio during their freshmen years. [[spoiler: Later, Raju did it as well due of unwilling to choose between his friends or his family. Fortunately he was saved.]]

** Virus, very much so. [[TookALevelInKindness Fortunately, he got better.]] Much notable in the present scenes, [[spoiler: in which while he's understandably pissed that the Raju crashed at his daughter's wedding like what he did back when he was a student, it's surprising that he didn't blow up yet and let his eldest daughter Mona restrain him. He also seems to let Pia go after she made her decision to call off the wedding, if not a little exasperated over everything.]]

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Viru "Virus" Sahastrabuddhe.

* SillyLoveSong: "Zoobi Doobi", which doubles as Pia's LoveEpiphany towards Rancho.

* TrueCompanions: The eponymous three idiots. So much so that Farhan and Raju travel from Delhi to Shimla (a whole state away) only to realise that a RedHerring led them there and Rancho is really in Ladakh (which is a cold and barren desert, another couple of states away). They don't stop until they find him.
** They quickly turn the car around and drive to Manali, 255km away and a six-hour drive in the other direction [[spoiler: after hearing that Pia is getting married on that day to stop the wedding and steal the bride.]]
** In the college flashbacks, Farhan and Rancho risk expulsion to steal the exam papers from Virus's office for Raju.
** The opening scene. Farhan is on a flight about to take off when he receives news that Rancho has been found. He fakes a heart attack to force the plane to land. After bolting out of the airport, he hijacks a taxi to fetch Raju, who jumps on without wearing pants.
* {{Ubermensch}}: Rancho openly defies all the systems of his university from ''day one''. He's a brilliant enough student to pull it off.

* WardrobeWound: Rancho inflicts this on Pia's fiance, Suhas, to show her how vain he is. Later uses it a second time by pretending Pia lost the watch he bought her. [[spoiler: In the future, Raju continues the tradition by ruining his wedding robe in an effort to stop Pia's wedding.]]

* DrivingQuestion: What becomes of Rancho and where is he now? [[spoiler: Before this question is to be answered, here is another important question: why did Rancho disappear shortly after graduation without any communication with his closest friends for a decade? Because the Rancho that the viewers and the characters know is an imposter who was forced by his employer to pose himself as his son to pocket the degree in his stead. Going back to the first question, he later managed to build himself up from scratch and is now a famous scientist and businessman, and is teaching children in Ladakh when he's taking a break from his research.]]

* DrivingQuestion: What becomes of Rancho and where is he now? [[spoiler: Before this question is to be answered, here is another important question: why did Rancho disappear shortly after graduation without any communication with his closest friends for a decade? Because the Rancho that the viewers and the characters know is an imposter who was forced by his employer to pose himself as his son to pocket the degree in his stead. He later managed to build himself up from scratch and is now a famous scientist and businessman, and is teaching children in Ladakh when he's taking a break from his research.]]

** There's also the scene where the trio visit the Sahastrabuddhe's residence so [[spoiler: Rancho can confess his love for Pia. The drunk Farhan and Raju pee on the front door and laugh it off as they escape with Rancho towards the school, where they oversleep. Then it's followed by [[spoiler: Virus expelling Raju, causing the latter's (failed) suicide attempt.]]

* DrivingQuestion: What becomes of Rancho and where is he now? [[spoiler: It's more like, why did Rancho disappear shortly after graduation without any communication with his closest friends for a decade? Because the Rancho that the viewers and the character know is an imposter who was forced by his employer to pose himself as his son to pocket the degree in his stead. He later managed to build himself up from scratch and is now a famous scientist and businessman, and is teaching children in Ladakh when he's taking a break from his research.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Rancho's key philosophy throughout the film is that people should pursue their passions to excellence, regardless of the consequences. Indeed, Farhan [[spoiler: faces great difficulty in convincing his parents that he wants to become a wildlife photographer, but he succeeds and goes on to get published]]. Raju [[spoiler: faces depression and anxiety over his predicament, to the point where he is driven to suicide, but he emerges stable and married]]. As for Rancho, he [[spoiler: has to abandon all his closest friends and virtually start from scratch upon getting a degree for his namesake; he is nevertheless able to become a successful, patented inventor and educator. And many years later to adulthood, he is finally reunited with his TrueCompanions and his college love, Pia.]]

* FramingDevice: The film's events are interspersed between two timelines: the trio's time at college narrated by Farhan; and in the present times of which Farhan, Raju, and Chatur travel across northern India to find and locate Rancho.

* DrivingQuestion: What becomes of Rancho and where is he now? [[spoiler: He's a teacher at a school in Ladakh. And a scientist as well.]]

** Back in the college days during the class taking a class picture with Virus, Rancho declares that the his friends will get a job. Virus scoffs at that declaration, knowing that Farhan and Raju are dead lasts in the class ranking. Furthermore, he calls Govid, his assistant, to shave his mustache if anyone of the two gets a job. Which Govid does when Raju successfully lands a job in his interview despite his low grades.

** Virus sarcastically makes a deal that if Farhan or Raju manages to get a job before the final exam, he'll shave his beard. [[spoiler: Much to his his dismay, he does, because Raju landed a job during his interview. Despite his initial opposition, he actually decides to stay shaved all the way to the future, no less.]]

* TheCakeIsALie: Virus challenges Rancho to teach his engineering class. He has the students define a fictitious term to make a point about the proper method of teaching.

** The film begins with one such prank by Farhan to stay in Delhi to meet Raju, to find their long lost friend.

** The mint sauce. It was first used by Rancho on Suhas' shoes to show his shallow and gaudy personality to Pia. It's later used by Raju for the same purpose (to show Pia that Suhas' personality hasn't changed) [[spoiler: and also to distract Suhas long enough for Farhan and Raju to steal away with Pia.]]

* IronicEcho: "Hey... TakeThat!" [[spoiler: Few minutes after Chatur insulted the reunited trio, it immediately bite him in the ass in the ending when he learned ''who'' is Phunsukh Wangdu. Farhan and Raju waste no time throwing all Chatur's insults against them back on his face.]]

** There's also the scene where the trio visit the Sahastrabuddhe's residence so [[spoiler: Rancho can confess his love for Pia]]. The drunk Farhan and Raju pee on the front door and laugh it off as they escape with Rancho towards the school, where they oversleep. Then it's followed by [[spoiler: Virus expelling Raju, causing the latter's (failed) suicide attempt.]]

* PerpetualPoverty: Raju. He seems to have grown out of this in the future.
* PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure: Raju briefly has this when Virus threatens to expel him if the he continues to be friends with Rancho. He moves to Chatur's dorm room for several weeks and avoids Farhan and Rancho, even when he finds their sabotage of Chatur's speech ActuallyPrettyFunny. Then Rancho risks breaking the law to take Raju's sick father to the hospital on board a motorcycle. Cue a tearful ManHug.

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Several ones, but the biggest one is that the Rancho that Farhan and Raju know throughout their years at Imperial College of Engineering isn't really the real Rancho. He is just a servant named Phunsukh Wangdu/Chhote who was being ordered by his employer to pose himself as his son (the real Rancho) in order to pocket the degree in his name, in which he accepted due of his strong desire to study. This act of impersonation explains why he disappears from his best friends' lives shortly after his graduation.]]

* SadistTeacher: Viru "Virus" Sahastrabuddhe. The pressure he placed on his students was so reprehensible, it pushed two men commit suicide([[spoiler: including his own son.]]), and one attempted suicide.

* [[BikerBabe Scooter Babe]]: Pia. Rancho has many fantasies where she rides up to him on a scooter and almost kisses him. [[spoiler: This happens at the very end]].

* SkewedPriorities: [[spoiler: Farhan and Raju are both shocked to learn that Rancho/Chhote's real name is Phunsukh Wangdu and are wondering if he happens to be the same great scientist that Chatur was talking about with over 400 patents, ''while'' Pia is in panic stating she doesn't like having her name changed to Pia '''Wangdu''' after marrying him.]]
* SlapSlapKiss: [[spoiler: Pia angrily smacks Rancho near the end of the movie after thinking she was played. Followed by TheBigDamnKiss.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Joy Lobo, the senior engineering student during the trio's early years at ICE. Virus' unfair treatment of him that lead to the said student suicide prompts the enmity between Rancho and Virus in regards of their clashing philosophies in regards to ICE's school system and education as a whole, which Rancho deems to be inhumane and nonconductive for teaching. While Rancho shoots the message and not the messenger himself, [[ItsPersonal it's becomes a personal vendetta for Virus.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Joy Lobo, the senior engineering student during the trio's early years at ICE. Virus' unfair treatment of him that lead to the said student suicide prompts the enmity between Rancho and Virus in regards of their clashing philosophies in regards to ICE's school system and education as a whole, which Rancho deems to be inhumane and nonconductive for teaching.