3 idiots reloaded

I've just been to INOX to catch the matinee show of 3 IDIOTS.Although the tickets came at a high price(150/-),nevertheless they were worth it.Infact,I'm ready to pay a few more bucks just to have a hearty laugh again at that wonderfully crafted chamatkar BALATKARI speech by SILENCER,Chattur.Perhaps that was the only new addition to the script by Raju Hirani and Abhijat Joshi which improved upon the original work by Chetan Bhagat.The other additions went as far as only extending the viewing time by 45 minutes,even to the point of stretching it to boredom.And this brings to the fore the burning debate as of now-whether Chetan Bhagat was given adequate respect by not including his name in the roling credits of the film?Being an aspiring writer myself,I fully appreciate Bhagat's view that he was given a raw deal.For a writer,its not just the money that matters because I don't think that a cheque of 11 lacks rupees would have made any difference to his already more than handsome bank balance.He must have sold the copyrights of the script to Vinod Chopra productions in order to reach out to a far wider audience-a major section of the moviegoers hardly read any book.After all,how many of us had heard of Q&A by Vikas Swarup before it was adapted by Danny Boyle into the chartbuster Slumdog Millionaire.There also,there were minor changes from the original novel because it is mighty difficult to depict all the finer details in a cinematic time of 3 hours at most.But even the Hollywood men had the courtesy to rightfully acknowledge Swarup's contribution in the rolling credits of the film.And here,we find our most loved and read author,Chetan Bhagat by the country's youth who have taken to reading mostly because of him,being duped by Aamir Khan & Co in order to accomodate for their partner in crime,Abhijat Joshi who could contribute only 1 meaningful addition by toiling over the original script for 3 years!!!Perhaps that best explains why Raju Hirani comes up with a film in nearly a decade.I hardly imagine your work to progress at a faster pace when you have got such assistants for company.And the less said the better of the Ringmaster,Vidhu Vinod Chopra who claims to have coscripted Parineeta alongwith Pradip Sarkar in the opening credits of that film based on Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's novel.This is what I mean by height of Plagiarism.I wonder what the great posthumous writer must have felt on seeing his work being improved upon by a certain something called Vidhu Vinod Chopra!!!!!And who does not remember the ugly spate that broke out in public between Amol Gupte and Aamir Khan over the script of Taare Zameen Par.Now I seem to have found out the recipe of Aamir Khan's success at the box office.He only takes up those projects based on exemplary pieces of work by contemporary writers and then dupe them by not giving their due credit for their art and not even their deserving monetary profit as was the case with Gupte.This whole fiasco has a wider picture-if Indian writers and authors,an endangered species as they are,are not being promoted by the home film industry,Bollywood,then who will ?The current authors have a much better grasp of the Indian humour and emotions than their counterparts in the film industry who only know to make remixed copies of Hollywood flicks.So until Bhagat gets his due for the original story and fight it out in the courtroom as Chopra has decided to sue him,let us us all pledge to stand by him if the verdict were to be decided on an online poll and defeat this evil nexus of REAL 3 IDIOTS-RAJU HIRANI,AAMIR KHAN and VIDHU VINOD CHOPRA.

Tapeswar Paul.