New Delhi, June 20 -- What might Aamir Khan's last decade-and-a-half have been like had he not done 3 Idiots? I'd imagine his fans, and maybe the man himself, would look at the 2009 film as a positive turning point. It was, after all, a wild success, one that set Khan up for other, even more successful films in the same vein. He was already gravitating towards morally instructive projects; Taare Zameen Par (2007), his first as director, was about a gifted dyslexic child. But 3 Idiots showed how happy audiences were to be lectured at if you made yourself look silly and made them feel smart. Always tagged as a 'thinking actor', Khan now seemed determined to make audiences think, even if his films often did the thinking for them.

Sitaare Za...