math in madness

The cult of Andaz Apna Apna continues to impress and I have done my bit towards its continuing popularity. So I was watching it for the umpteenth time yesterday when I discovered a hidden mathematical message in the movie. It was almost like figuring out the mathematical references in Alice in wonderland.

The scene I am referring to is where Amar while recounting the fictitious Mohan Bagan football match shuffles the poisoned glass of juice (sharbat e jannat :D) with the non-poisoned glasses and gives all of them back to everyone. As it happens, in the end either Bhalla or Robert have the poisoned juice while the others evidently having drunk the non poisoned ones. At this point Bhalla swaps his drink with Robert.

Now this is a variant of the Monty Hall problem. With a twist. Bhalla’s decision to swap the glass turned out to be wrong, reinforcing my opinion.