HIP, HIP, HURRAY: Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi let it rip in 3 Idiots

Jaadu ki jhappi. Gandhigiri. Aal izz well.

Rajkumar Hirani has his hat-trick of feel-good entertainers and Aamir Khan has his hat-trick of Christmas successes. 3 Idiots is on course to become the biggest Bollywood blockbuster of all time and the Calcutta box office is eyeing a record run.

“Ghajini was the biggest starter in Bengal with Rs 2.85 crore in the year-end week of 2008. 3 Idiots has netted Rs 4.15 crore in week one exactly one year later,” says Arun Mehra of Aum Moviez, the distributor of 3 Idiots in this region.

“We released the film on more than 100 screens across the state and even in its second weekend, it’s doing business of Rs 60 lakh-plus daily. It should easily go on to become Bengal’s biggest box office earner, ever,” adds Mehra.

Loosely adapted from Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone — how loose is now the subject of an ugly scrap — Hirani’s three-hour film slams the education system while raising a laugh and shedding a tear. The mix of fun and funda, gyan and gags, powered by Aamir’s star power (after Taare Zameen Par in ’07 and Ghajini in ’08) has hit box office bullseye.

“Like the two Munnabhai films, 3 Idiots too belongs to the feel-good genre where you laugh and cry when you watch the film,” Hirani said during his Calcutta trip last Thursday. “We expected the film to do well but we had no idea that it would become so big.”

Make that huge. Fame (South City), the six-screen multiplex on Prince Anwar Shah Road, had 20 daily shows of 3 Idiots in Week One and despite a couple of new releases, the number of shows hasn’t gone down in the second week. “Every 30-45 minutes there is a show, yet we are going house-full every evening,” is the word from the plex.

That has something to do with the Idiots fans going back to watch the film at least one more time. Says 26-year-old Karan Agarwal: “It was really, really funny and all my friends decided to go a second time. Also, an Aamir movie releases after such long gaps and he is so good in the film as Rancho.”

Bollywood buff Pinki Bhaia, 34, goes further. “3 Idiots is the best film I have ever seen. It’s a movie of one-liners that makes learning fun,” she says before her third watch.

No wonder Aamir Khan thanked Calcutta when he spent New Year’s Eve with his fans here. “The response from the audience here has been wonderful and I had to come here to share my happiness,” said the little big man from B-town. “The people in Calcutta are very emotional and maybe that’s why they are enjoying the film even more.”

Distributors and exhibitors expect the Idiots craze to continue. “3 Idiots looks like a lambi race ka ghoda,” says Captain Virendra Marya of INOX. “In the coming Fridays, till (Salman Khan’s) Veer releases on January 22, 3 Idiots will be the priority for us.”

Will Salman be brave enough to stop Aamir the Idiot or will it take Shah Rukh to stand up and roar My Name Is Khan on February 12?