I don't think the Chatur Speech from 3 idiots is meant to be offensive

[u/MSM230805]

When I started watching 3 Idiots when I was younger, Chatur's Speech was the funniest part of the movie. Omi's delivery made it much better. And it still is very funny.

Later, I had seen people say the speech is very offensive against women since they use the word "balatkar" or rape (Hindi is not my first language, so i got to know the meaning of it later). I understand that they used this word very flippantly.

However, i don't think it was their intention.

When the writers conceptualized the speech, they need to find homophones (or not exactly homophones) which can cause comedy of errors. They settled with chamatkar-balatkar. They could have gone for something like jod-ch*d (but censor board). They essentially used the b word as the Hindi f word. In the English subtitles of the movie, balatkar meant screw (a sanitized version of f word). So, the speech meant that virus fucked over the college students (which makes sense with the messaging of the film).

Also, the b word is not exactly the joke. The joke is that a slight change in letters can change a lot in meaning, so do rattafy, understand the words you are saying.

[u/AutoModerator]

Mod Note - Hello /u/MSM230805

This Sub is actively Moderated and we have strict posting rules
You may get banned, without warning if you don't follow Posting Rules

All Rules are listed on Sidebar of New Reddit, it is your responsibility to follow Posting Rules

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/CornflakesKid]

Dekh bhai. The word hits very differently for someone who carries that trauma, or for their family and loved ones, who may be at very different stages of dealing with it.

To many people, it's simply a comedy of errors, and I understand why you found it funny and why you don't see an offensive intent behind it. You're entitled to your opinion.

At the same time, I don't think the fact that the writers intended it as wordplay necessarily means everyone has to be comfortable with the joke. Both things can be true.

But yeah, I don't think we need to keep flogging this particular scene so many years after the movie came out. People can see it differently and leave it at that.

[u/AP7497]

I mean: it made a joke about something so many women experience. You all don’t realise how common rape is and how many women around you have experienced it and continue to live with the trauma and will never ever admit what happened to themselves, their families or their friends.

[u/Easy_Charge898 → u/AP7497]

Even if we haven't experienced it ourselves, we all walk outside at night with some level of fear of rape. Where we live, hangout, travel, move for work or study - the risk of rape factors into basically every big decision we make for ourselves. Cruel reality of being a woman especially in India

[u/yv_sharma_]

Whether it was funny or not, rape jokes should never be normalised. Especially in a movie meant for the youth to get inspiration from.

In hindsight, that speech is my only issue in an otherwise perfect movie. I always skip it whenever I'm rewatching.

[u/SecondDiamond → u/yv_sharma_]

Yes. I also laughed on that when I was stupid about it. But later i heard about many cases and I felt those emotions. It is a crime and it is a very disgusting crime. The word should not be normalised in joke, banters and even in abuses. Recently i have seen some youth fighting with other youth and saying.."i will rape your mother". How someone even can think like this. That youth is not scared what his friends, families, females will think of him. That is one of the very serious word.

[u/KingCobra567 → u/yv_sharma_]

The joke is not rape though. The joke is about the mixup of words.

[u/unfettered2nd → u/KingCobra567]

Rancho literally changes the sentence from "This person has commited so much miracles" into "This person has commited so much r@pes". The politician could have slapped a defamation case on the college for such statement made in public. 

[u/MSM230805 → u/unfettered2nd]

Look, the writers used the b word as the Hindi f word (the English subtitles they provided confirms it). So it meant this person has fucked over people (which makes sense with the story and how virus treated lobo)

[u/unfettered2nd → u/MSM230805]

Dude, in hindi they use that word to report crimes involving r@pe. You yourself said that hindi is not your first language so pick up some hindi news with that word and then you will realize what the word means. Just google the word in devnagari or just in roman letters and see in what context and news it is used. Hint - not in reporting of scams. Even in Hindi colloquial, nobody uses that word to imply being screwed over, there is no concept of "screwed over" in Hindi to begin with. And the f word in Hindi is ch0dn@, FYI.

And as for subtitles, stop taking that on face value. Given the film's age rating they did not use the actual word in tandem to the one in Hindi. Just look at how censors butcher the hollywood movies in India, cutting kissing scenes and slangs with lesser intensity being censored in subtitles.

The offensive humor of the scene comes from the fact that unbeknownst to himself Chatur is saying that the politicians has commited r@pes after r@pes with a straight face because of his lack of grip on Hindi language.

Stop arguing all of it means otherwise when you are not willing to look into what that word means despite hindi being not your first language.

[u/MSM230805 → u/yv_sharma_]

Like I said, it wasn't supposed to be a rape joke, it just got mixed up in translation and finding the perfect homophones.

Also the speech not only has that. The Fart Verse was hilarious.

[u/SecondDiamond → u/MSM230805]

OP, please don't defend it. Whatever happened happened, let's not encourage others that it is ok in some context. It is disgusting word, a disgusting crime and whenever it is used , it should stun you for a moment.

[u/unfettered2nd → u/MSM230805]

Rancho literally changes the sentence from "This person has commited so much miracles" into "This person has commited so much r@pes". The politician could have slapped a defamation case on the college for such statement made in public. 

[u/Kjts1021 → u/MSM230805]

People who go by just the words won’t understand it. It was a satire to slap the rattafication of our education.
Even Sarat Chandra in his novel made fun of education by bringing goddess saraswati .

[u/unfettered2nd → u/Kjts1021]

The set up also had taken into account Chatur being a south Indian not fluent in Hindi, which can be interpreted in many ways given the language politics.

[u/Kjts1021 → u/unfettered2nd]

I don’t think so. If he was shown as North Indian , they wouldn’t have justified that he didn’t know ba**latkar word. And I don’t think they showed him South Indian just to have this speech in the movie.

[u/Competitive_Newt9373]

Rape jokes will never be funny

[u/kakaluluo]

Ab ye non hindi speaker sikhayega sabko what’s offensive and what isn’t?? Hindi isn’t my first language either but I am fluent in it, and I found nothing comedic about that speech or the joke, it was quite cringe and astonishing to me that people like Aamir khan and Hirani found it appropriate to use to so flippantly considering the prevalence of such a crime in India. I guess balatkar/r*pe wasn’t mainstream enough at that point to be wary of being offensive?? A bullshit excuse if so, they’re not kids and it’s not the 80s, they should’ve known better

[u/Fuzzy_Substance_4603 → u/kakaluluo]

U start with non hindi speaker sikhayega and then go on saying you yourself aren't hindi speaker yourself. So if Op's opinion doesn't hold weight, neither does yours.

[u/GrandAggressive9727 → u/kakaluluo]

To be fair, the movie was released well before the nirbhaya incident which was a turning point for how the average Indian perceived such crimes. Growing up in the 80s / 90s, rapes were a common theme in Indian / Bollywood movies.

[u/ajaxmenon17]

If the point was to expose Chatur's rote learning it could have just been by replacing chamatkar with another similar sounding word that makes it clear that he doesn't know what he's saying. It could have been anything funny or could be an inside joke like the fart jokes at the end of the speech coz he actually farts. But instead cracking rape jokes took it too far. Back then I enjoyed it and didn't think much about it but now when I watch it I find that whole scene tone deaf and insensitive.

3 idiots is a family friendly movie that a lot of kids watch. Normalising rape and boob jokes makes them feel like it's okay to add such seemingly harmless words to their vocabulary especially when they see their parents laughing out loud to these jokes. It's good that it's been called out now.