Review of Lage Raho Munnabhai

Lage Raho Raju aur Vinod bhai



It was 2003, when a film released turn paths and genre of hilarious movies. The movie wasn’t some cheap double meaning movie, one that has sexual tag attached to this sexual talk deprived country, nor was it a situational comedy neither was slapstick or rib ticking type. This was learn and laugh movie, one you don’t get to see at all in emotionally drenched, family tied, romantic and extravagantly coloured Bollywood. Vidhu Vinod Chopra of Parinda fame had it enough of sitting in director’s chair after debacle of Mission Kashmir. So he sat out to produce a film and hired Raj Kumar Hirani to call cuts. The result was Munnabhai MBBS, which gave a jump pad to lots of careers. Sanjay Dutt loomed in skies of tops; Arshad Warsi who had lost hope in his film career directly zoomed out to audience in this one. Raj Kumar Hirani and Gracy Singh got excellent welcome package with blockbuster and awards to take home with. Boman Irani was defining the comedy after this one. Phew…so much and just 1 movie, sounds impossible and guess what movie didn’t need to have huge mansions, colourful outfits revealing the unwanted parts of body or any pun filled jokes. It was straight from heart movie to our hearts. Come back to 2006, the team still on highs of its first movie decided to do a sequel as every one in industry was busy announcing sequels or remakes. The result= Lage Raho Munnabhai. So, continue reading to see what Munnabhai continued……P.S. alongwith his Circuit
Sequel but new plot with no tags from its prequel except two central characters: Munnabhai(Sanjay Dutt) a local ruffian of some slum area of slum filled Mumbai who loves to bash up people, bully them to pay the money to their lenders and earns by non social behaviour, which is very social according to me and all people in Mumbai and also loves to listen radio, not Vivid Bharti but FM. He likes to hear a lady’s voice daily screaming ‘Good Morning Mumbai’. He is so infatuated with her voice, that he imagines her and falls in love so much that he asks his dear friend, follower, co-partner etc etc jewellery laden Circuit (Arshad Warsi), to find out ways to approach her. They also have a friend Punjabi builder (Boman Irani) for whom they work to carry out demolitions where people do not leave out of wish. Now, it so happens that our RJ Vidya Baalan) organises a radio quiz on 2nd October. The Gandhi questionnaire by her is solved by apun ka Munnabhai with help of history teachers kidnapped by the gang to answer the questions. According to reward, Munna goes and meets the lovely gal in her studio who is impressed by his Gandhi knowledge and requests him to give a lecture on Bapu in her old age home run by her father. Oooops, where will he get the Gandhi history, half heartedly he steps in state Library and starts reading Independence books and Gandhi biographies till a day ghost of Gandhiji(Dilip Prabhavalkar) appears to him. The ghost creates ripples in him and his life leading him closer to his love. Then something occurs, his gagng unknowingly destroys old age home of patron with whom he is busy holidaying and connecting to girl and her old ones. The Paaji has acted nasty and now blackmailing him to tell his love interest real profession of Munnabhai. Tired tormented he seeks help of the Gandhi ghost, who preaches the non-violent way of protest. And, now film turns to learn with laugh aspect with satyagrahas and protests in Gandhi manner of ruffian lingo Munnabhai.
Vinod’s protégés haven’t failed him, even after leaving him. Be it Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Pradeep Sarkar or others, but Raj Kumar stands out not only by still being with him but also mastering his talent film by film. Script deserves a standing ovation alongwith a chapter in books of Film institutes of India. Though I am personally not happy with sequel when I compared to prequel, but then it would be wrong to do so. The film has whole new approach with complete freshness in its handling and bringing to us. Sanjay Dutt has again proved that Munnabhai is puurfecto role for him and Arshad has inhaled Circuit and brings out on screen so classy making it difficult to exhale out of laughing for us. Screen stealing is expression righteous for his a la carte talent exhibition. Boman has managed to do great job but J DOT ASTHANA rocks for him. Vidya Balan has done good job And Dilip Prabhavalkar has also done fabulous copy work of Gandhiji.
Film has not only created wonders on screen and box office, but also in economy and daily life where Gandhigiri has become household name and favourite topic to study for children. Honesty and non-violence, truth and trust which had just become printed synonyms of Thesaurus and Oxford have now brought to practical use by this film. Inner voice and consciousness is also relived by this masterpiece. For whole team, Lage Raho….making films of this genre and teaching us while we are short of laughing all the way.

Rating- ****1/2
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