| “ | All is well. | „ |
| ~ Rancho's catchphrase |
| “ | Pursue excellence, and success will follow, pants down. | „ |
| ~ Rancho's philosophy |
| “ | Anything that simplifies, or saves time, is a machine. | „ |
| ~ Rancho's own definition of a "machine," as asked by the Machine Class Professor. |
Phunsukh Wangdu, also better known as Ranchhoddas Shamaldas "Rancho" Chanchad or Chhote, is one of the three titular main protagonists (alongside Farhan Qureshi and Raju Rastogi) of the 2009 Indian coming-of-age comedy-drama film 3 Idiots.
He is a college student at the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) from India who, along with his best friends, challenge against their principal Viru Sahastrabuddhe (also known as "Virus") from the latter's strict ideology that correlates to a student's academic competency within the institution. After graduating, he becomes a successful scientist, entrepeneur and teacher.
He was portrayed by Aamir Khan.
Biography[]
Phunsukh Wangdu was born the son of the Chanchad family's gardener, and nicknamed Chhote. After his father passed away, he lived with the Chanchad family, helped them with almost everything, and proved to be a prodigy in many subjects such as math and engineering. The family's son, Ranchhoddas, was a lazy boy who let Chhote do all the homework while he was playing. One day, Chhote got caught by the headmaster of Ranchhoddas' school, but Mr. Shamaldas Chanchad, Ranchhoddas' father, decided to let the charade continue since he knew that people disrespected him for not being able to read, and he also wanted an engineering degree for his son. As such, Ranchhoddas conferred his name to Chhote and went to London for four years. Under the name Rancho, Chhote goes to the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE).
When Rancho first goes to ICE, there's a tradition where the new students must show their underwears to the older ones. Rancho refuses to follow this, so an older student pisses on his room's door, only to be electrocuted thanks to Rancho's technological genius. He later befriends his roomates Farhan Qureshi and Raju Rastogi, as well as a young member of the ICE staff named Manmohan, nicknamed "Millimetre". Rancho soon proves to be an outlier among his friends, such as bathing wherever there's water instead of fighting for it in the bathrooms, or deconstructing machines to see what they're, and sometimes he even forgets to reconstruct them when he's finished. Seeing Joy Lobo, another student with a passion for engineering like him, abandoning his project due to being denied graduation by Viru Sahastrabuddhe, nicknamed "Virus", ICE's principal, Rancho takes the project in and completes it, only to find out that Joy has committed suicide, much to the devastation of his father.
In Joy's funeral, Rancho points out that Joy committed suicide due to being pressed by the school, but Viru refuses to believe it and challenges Rancho to teach, only to be humiliated in front of his students instead thanks to Rancho's secret test of character, which sparks a rivalry between them. Viru then forces Farhan and Raju to abandon Rancho and instead befriend Chatur Ramalingam, a student who is devoted to Viru's ways. Farhan refuses but Raju complies and becomes Chatur's roommate because his family is poor and he can't risk losing his career for friendship. During the meetings of Farhan and Raju's families, Rancho, Farhan and Raju later crash a wedding, where Rancho meets Pia, who turns out to be Viru's daughter and falls in love with her. Knowing that Pia is in an unhappy relationship with the snobbish Suhas Tandon, Rancho helps her to dump him.
To show Raju the consequences of learning everything word-for-word, Rancho and Farhan hijack the speech Chatur has prepared for Teachers' Day and edit obscene words into it. That day, Chatur reads it and is shamed in front of everyone, including the Prime Minister of Education. Despite this, Raju still refuses to see reason. Upon figuring out the truth, Chatur swears revenge on Rancho and tells the latter to meet him ten years later to see who's more successful. Before the final exam, Raju's paralyzed father has a heart attack and is thankfully saved in time by Rancho and Pia, who bring him to the hospital. Moved by this, Raju realizes his mistake and reconciles with Rancho and Farhan. Rancho later scores the highest in the exam and is thus allowed to sit next to Viru according to the rules, while Farhan and Raju have to sit behind everyone else since they score the last. He makes a bet with Viru: if either Farhan or Raju gets a job, Viru will not only admit that Rancho was right but also shave his prized mustache.
When Viru makes a speech in front of his students, he calls Farhan and Raju to the podium so he can use them as examples for bad students and humiliate them in front of everyone, as well as mocking Rancho in the process. That night, Farhan and Raju express to Rancho their hatred for Viru and discontent for how Rancho is always in the center of the school photos, and Rancho tells them that it's because he has always been confident in himself. However, Farhan and Raju doubt this since Rancho has still not confessed his love for Pia yet, so the trio later sneak in Viru's house for Rancho to do so, and Rancho expresses concern that they can't kiss each other due to being blocked by their noses, only for Pia and her older sister Mona to laugh at such a silly notion. Mona is currently pregnant, and Rancho's catchphrase "All is well" turns out to make the baby kick. However, in their drunkenness, Farhan and Raju piss on Viru's porch, causing the latter to wake up, so they are forced to flee, but not before Viru sees Raju's face. Despite their best effort to hide, they're exposed by Chatur thanks to a bottle they left on the floor, so Viru summons Raju to his room and forces him to choose between being expelled or helping him expose Rancho. Raju decides to commit suicide since he can't bring himself to do either, but survives and is comatose. Rancho, Farhan and their friends eventually manage to help Raju come back to his senses, and Farhan and Raju manage to secure their jobs, exactly as Rancho has predicted. Because of this, Viru's assistant Govind assumes that Viru has agreed to shave his own mustache and does it, much to Viru's horror.
Viru then seeks revenge by trying to make the exam too hard to deny Raju graduation, so Pia steals his office's spare key and gives it to Rancho. With the key in their possession, Rancho and Farhan invade the room and take a copy of the question paper, but Raju refuses to take it, instead wanting to pass with his own abilities. Unfortunately for them, Viru catches them red-handed and decides to expel them all. But just when the trio is leaving, they discover Mona, whose pregnancy is near delivery and can't go to the hospital due to the heavy rains. The trio and their friends then take Mona in and Rancho uses his technological knowledge to help her give birth to her son, who however is seemingly dead, much to everyone's devastation. Then Raju tells Mona "All is well" and the baby kicks, so Rancho tells everyone to say the same thing, which finally wakes up the baby. Moved by this, Viru finally admits defeat, gives Rancho his space pen and promotes him to Student of the Year. After graduating, Rancho disappears and cuts off all connections to his friends since he has promised Mr. Chanchad to do so. After giving all the degrees he has gained to the real Ranchhoddas, Rancho decides to go by his real name Phunsukh Wangdu and becomes a very successful scientist and entrepeneur that is sought by many, while still being a teacher at Ladakh in his free time.
Ten years later, Chatur is now the vice-president of Rockledge Corporation, who wants him to strike a deal with Phunsukh Wangdu. Unaware that the scientist is his very same former rival, Chatur is eager to do so and Rancho gives him information about the real Ranchhoddas' wherebouts, hoping to reconnect with his two friends. He also sends a letter and a train ticket to invite Millimetre to his school if the latter wants to relive the old days, to which Millimetre agrees and becomes Rancho's assistant. Eventually after a long and troublesome trip, Farhan, Raju and Pia reunite with Rancho in joy. Chatur then assumes that Rancho is merely a teacher and mocks him for his ways, and forces him to admit defeat. Rancho admits it anyways instead of telling the truth due to finding Chatur's idea stupid, and Chatur takes Viru's pen from him. When Farhan, Raju and Pia ask him his real name, Rancho reveals himself to be Phunsukh Wangdu and calls Chatur with his phone, deciding to teach the latter a lesson by pretending to refuse the deal. Upon realizing the truth, Chatur tries to please Rancho and acts like he never actually hates him at all. The film ends with Rancho, Farhan, Raju and Pia running away and Chatur chasing them on the beach.
Quotes[]
| “ | Machine Class Professor: Why are you back? Rancho: Sir, I forgot to take something... Machine Class Professor: What? Rancho: Instruments that record, analyse, summarise, organise, debate and explain information; that are illustrated, non-illustrated, hardbound, paperback, jacketed, non-jacketed; with foreword, introduction, table of contents, index; that are indented for the enlightenment, understanding, enrichment, enhancement and education of the human brain through sensory route of vision - sometimes touch. Machine Class Professor: [confused] What are you trying to say? Rancho: Books sir! I forgot to take my books. Machine Class Professor: Couldn’t you just say that simply? Rancho: I tried sometime before, but you didn’t like it the simple way, Sir. |
„ |
| ~ Rancho to the Machine Class Professor. |
| “ | Rancho: That day I understood that this heart scares easily. You have to trick it, however big the problem is. Tell your heart, ‘All is well, pal, all is well. All is well.’ Raju: Does that solve the problem? Rancho: No, but you gain courage to face it. |
„ |
| ~ Rancho and Raju's famous exchange. |
| “ | The chicken doesn't know the fate of its egg. Will it be hatched or become fried egg? | „ |
| ~ Rancho during the musical number "Aal Izz Well". |
| “ | These engineers are very smart sir, they didn't invent a machine which can measure the pressure on the brain. If they had, we would have come to know that this was not a suicide but a Murder. | „ |
| ~ Rancho to Viru about Joy's suicide. |
| “ | Viru: Nonsense! Is this how you'll teach engineering? Rancho: Sir, I wasn't teaching you engineering. You're an expert at that. I was teaching you... how to teach. And I'm sure one day you'll learn, because unlike you, I never abandon my weak students. |
„ |
| ~ Rancho after revealing his secret test of character to Viru. |
| “ | Rancho: Come on, help us. My friend's father is very ill! Pia: Go away! Rancho: Come on! You are almost a doctor! What is that oath you take... oh yes, Hippocratic oath - I will help a fellow patient, I remain a member of society with special obligations etc. Pia: [reluctantly allows him to get up on her scooter] Okay. |
„ |
| ~ Rancho asking Pia to help him deliver Raju's father to the hospital, to which she reluctantly agrees. |
| “ | We have a lots of exam but have only one dad. | „ |
| ~ Rancho to Pia after Raju's father had been successfully saved. |
| “ | Rancho: Sir, why this seating according to rank? Viru: Any problem with that? Rancho: Yes, this grading system is like a caste system. A-graders: Kings, C-graders: Slaves. It's not nice, sir. Viru: You have a better idea? Rancho: Yes. Results should not be displayed at all. Why publicise someone's flaws? If your iron count is low, will the doctor prescribe tonic or air your report on TV? You see, sir? Viru: So basically, what you're saying is, I should personally go to each student's room and whisper in their ears: "You have come first", "You're second", "Oh, I'm so sorry, you have failed". Rancho: No sir, I mean grades create a divide. I've topped so I'm next to you. My pals came last, they're in the back corner. Viru: At least they're in the corner. More time with you, and they'll be out of the photo. They will neither pass, nor get a job. Rancho: They'll get jobs, sir. There must be some firm that... [looks at Chatur] prefer humans to machines. They'll get jobs. I guarantee. Viru: You guarantee it? Rancho: Bet, sir? Viru: Govind! Govind: Yes, sir? Viru: [points at Raju and Farhan] Even if one of them gets a job in campus interviews... shave off my moustache. Rancho: [shocked] Sir! Viru: Happy? Rancho: Happy, sir. |
„ |
| ~ Rancho and Viru making a bet. |
| “ | Viru: Wait! I've not finished with you! On the first day, you asked me a question "Why didn't astronauts use pencils in space". If a pencil tip breaks, it will float in zero gravity, get into eyes, nose, everywhere. You were wrong, you were wrong, you couldn't be right all the time. You understand? Rancho: Yes Sir. Viru: This was an important invention. You understand? Rancho: Yes Sir. Viru: My Director said: "When you find an extraordinary student..." [puts the pen in Rancho's shirt] Go study. Pass your exams and leave. |
„ |
| ~ Viru finally accepting his defeat by giving his space pen to Rancho. |
Gallery[]
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Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Rancho always wears his casual T-shirts even in school photoshoots.
- There are foreshadowings of Rancho's true identity:
- Early on in the film, Rancho tells Farhan and Raju that he lives in a small village with a night watchman, which contradicts Viru's later statement that the Chanchad family are rich.
- Pia points out that it takes Rancho four years to confess his feelings for her, which we later learn because he is not the real Ranchhoddas so he doesn't want to come forward.
- Despite Rancho knowing almost all issues of Farhan and Raju, they barely know anything about him.
- It should be noted that Rancho is four years younger than the real Ranchhoddas and goes to ICE under the latter's name, meaning that he is most likely four years younger than his classmates.
- The real Ranchhoddas states that Chhote helped in almost everything, including making breakfasts, implying that Rancho knows how to cook.
- Rancho's counterpart in Nanban, the Kollywood remake of 3 Idiots, is Panchavan Parivendhan.