My friend gave me Chetan Bhagat's ' Five point Someone' book to read because he argued strongly for his proposition that the movie 3 Idiots is 90% copy of the book. I had also heard argument from some other friends that 3 Idiots is as as different as chalk is from cheese. I therefore decided to read it.
Surprisingly, copyright law does not offer any guidance on this. In literature, copying even a small scene is considered to be a breach of copyright. In a song, however, even a small difference of drum beat in an original song is not considered to be a copy of the original song. Copyright in the field of drug and patent seems to be in a more firmer foundation, although some argue that it also needs overhaul.
And more importantly, in the field of arts, copyright seems to be ignoring the basic source of creativity. Creativity is about tweaking old ideas, combining two ideas in a different recipe or even just transforming the old idea in a new context of today. For instance, a song is about playing the seven sounds - sa,re,ga ma, pa, da, ni, sa in a different juxtaposition. One can claim that no new song can be created from the same components, if one goes by the strict definition of what is copy. Every new song today can easily be traced to some old song !
So is 3 Idiots ( 3 I ) a copy of Five point sometime ( FPS)? If we try to answer this question just by our emotions, we would be just pouring fuel to the fire without shedding any light. So let us use our head instead. Here is therefore an attempt to answer this question by using the basic principle of literature. In literature, a story is defined by four elements: theme, plot, characters and style.
- How similar are the themes of 3 Idiot and FPS? 3 Idiots theme is about 'Do what is close to your heart' or 'Live in today' while FPS seems to be 'Even an average score person is not-so-average in many respects'.
- How similar is the plot of 3 Idiots and FPS ? Basic plot of 3 Idiot ( based on 3 friends) is similar to FPS plot. However, there are many differences if we peel the onion. While the story of one protagonist ( Sharman) is very similar to FVP story, story of main protagonist ( Aamir Khan) is entirely different. While the story of antagonist ( Boman Irani) is similar to the FPS plot, story of third protagonist , Madhavan, is entirely different ( his painting interest has been brought out starkly to push the main theme in 3 idiots). Story of heroine in 3I is different than in FPS. Chatur's story is completely different in 3 Idiots.
Due to the difference in theme, some events in FPS have lost it's significance in 3 Idiots. For instance, although 'copying the paper' event is similar in both, it has been used very differently in 3 Idiots. In FPS, copying the paper is used for climax, but in 3 Idiots it is just an event to build up the climax. Heroine's sister's pregnancy has been used as a climax event in 3 Idiots.
- How similar are the characters of 3 Idiots and FPS ? Characterisations of main protagonist is dissimilar. Aamir Khan is shown to be extraordinarily intelligent than Ryan in FPS, but he shares the same characteristics of 'doing anything for friends' with Aamir Khan. Sharman's main characteristics of 'being afraid of the world' is not starkly brought out in FPS as it is in 3 Idiots. Boman Irani's characterisation seem to be very similar to FPS. Even the basic background of his son committing suicide is similar. Heroine's characterisation does not seem to have any similarity.
- Style of 3 Idiots versus of FPS. Although style is very different ( Flashbank versus first person style) this cannot be compared strictly simply because the mediums are different.
Given the above similarities and dissimilarities, my view is that 3 Idiot is very dissimilar to FPS, although many commonalities exist. What is your verdict?
