알 이즈 웰
TL;DR · Origin"Aal izz well" is a line from "3 Idiots," the film directed by Rajkumar Hirani that opened in India on December 25, 2009. The protagonist Rancho, played by Aamir Khan, repeat…
Origin
"Aal izz well" is a line from "3 Idiots," the film directed by Rajkumar Hirani that opened in India on December 25, 2009. The protagonist Rancho, played by Aamir Khan, repeats it with a hand on his chest whenever he is frightened or things fall apart; the film opened in Korea on August 17, 2011 (Wikipedia, "3 Idiots"). It is loosely based on Chetan Bhagat's novel "Five Point Someone: What not to do at IIT!"
The spelling is "Aal izz well" rather than "All is well" because it transcribes an Indian pronunciation. Within the film the phrase does not solve anything, and Rancho says as much: it fools the body long enough to buy time when the heart has taken fright. In its original context it is not a demand for optimism but a temporary device for not being overwhelmed by fear.
Spread
As the film succeeded well beyond India, the line traveled with it. The story takes on the punishing grade competition and suicides at India's engineering institutes head-on, so its message was forceful — and this line compressed that message into a single sentence, which made it easy to quote.
In Korea it settled in after release as a phrase for self-reassurance and for encouraging others. It gets used before things whose outcome you cannot control — exams, job applications, deadlines — and on social media it is also used ironically, said out loud precisely when things are plainly not well. Given that the original line was never said because things were fine but because they were not, that ironic use is not far from the source.
Usage
- Steadying yourself in a tense moment
- Ahead of something whose outcome you cannot change
- Ironically, when things are clearly not well at all
- As an encouraging greeting between people
