Over the holidays, I kept spotting tweets from Indian and non-Indian friends alike gushing about 3 Idiots. The just-released Bollywood blockbuster has broken box office records throughout India. I’m no expert in Indian cinema or popular culture, but figured so many happy pings couldn’t be wrong, so I ventured out for a screening (at an otherwise struggling art-house theater which was this night *packed* with a cheering, Hindi-speaking crowd). Verdict? Yup, it’s awesome, and the tech themes may make this accessible for those of you who otherwise might not make the leap to watching Indian films. @robinsloan said it best: “It works as fun movie AND a portrait of India today AND a maker manifesto.” The film is a cautionary moral tale about about aspiration at all costs, and a social commentary on India’s educational system. The hacker-protagonist played by Aamir Khan preaches DIY tech education as an empowering journey to world-changing knowledge, not a shallow means to upwardly mobile ends. Bollywood movies somehow manage to cram in more sheer total stuff than US pics. This one’s no exception: there’s a hot “wet sari” scene, a bathroom dance number with aerial toilet steadicam shots, a climax of of parental drama that involves comparison shopping between laptops and SLR cameras, an obviously fake rubber baby, and beautiful Himalayan scenery. Blogs, webcams, and aerial surveillance drones glide effortlessly through the script. Not once, but twice, a homemade penis-electrocution hardware hack serves for comic (and bladder) relief….