"Surely failing to graduate in an environment that places everything on having a paper diploma, including one's own image/self-worth, is more to the point of the suicide."
I can't speak for the parent poster but my criticism of the film is not with the themes, but with the trite way in which they are portrayed. I can't imagine an audience not understanding that this is what the filmmakers intended them to take away from the scene, but I can imagine them being put off by how they went about it.
> I can imagine them being put off by how they went about it
Remember that we're talking about the same movie industry where a man can slap another man and have him fly some 20 feet, after which he gets up and starts dancing with a lover. Relatively speaking, 3 Idiots was sane.
I can't speak for the parent poster but my criticism of the film is not with the themes, but with the trite way in which they are portrayed. I can't imagine an audience not understanding that this is what the filmmakers intended them to take away from the scene, but I can imagine them being put off by how they went about it.