Murli Prasad Sharma alias
Munna Bhai, a gangster who is in love with the voice of Janhavi, a radio jockey, devises a plan to meet her when she announces a quiz contest featuring the life and beliefs of
Mahatma Gandhi, to be aired on 2 October, the
birthday of Gandhi. To prepare for the contest, Munna's sidekick Circuit kidnaps and bribes a group of professors to provide the answers for Munna. After winning the contest, Munna is granted an interview with Janhavi wherein he presents himself as a professor of history and a Gandhi specialist. Janhavi subsequently asks Munna to present a lecture on Gandhi to a community of senior citizens who live in her home, called the 'Second Innings House'. To prepare for this event, Munna engages in intense study at a Gandhi institute. For three days and nights without food or sleep, Munna reads about the life and ideologies of Gandhi.
It is during this period he studies so much that he gets hallucinations of Gandhi, which he addresses by his nickname "Bapu" ("father"), appears and offers help and advice to Munna. Gandhi encourages Munna to tell the truth about himself to Janhavi, but Munna resists this advice. With Gandhi's help, Munna succeeds in impressing Jahnavi and cultivates a new
lifestyle based upon
Gandhism. Munna starts to co-host a radio-show with Janhavi and Gandhi's image, guiding his audience to use
Gandhigiri to solve everyday problems.
Lucky Singh, an unscrupulous businessman, employs Circuit and Munna Bhai to conduct
underworld activities for him. His daughter Simran is engaged to marry Sunny, the son of the powerful businessman Kkhurana. Kkhurana is superstitious and his activities are controlled by his astrologer, Batuk Maharaj, whose particular use of
numerologyled Kkhurana to add an extra "K" to his real name (Khurana) as well as to the conclusion that the 'Second Innings House' would be the most auspicious place for Sunny and Simran to live. Maharaj also convinces Kkhurana to reject the marriage between Simran and Sunny when it is revealed that Simran is considered to be a
manglik (an individual whose
Vedic astrological makeup is believed by some to be devastating for marriage, mostly leading to the death of the spouse after a certain calculated period of marriage). Lucky tricks Kkhurana by saying that one of his typists had entered the wrong time of birth. Lucky appropriates the 'Second Innings House' by sending Munna to Goa (keeping him out of the way) and then blackmailing him to let the matter pass or risk losing his love Janhavi. In response, Munna launches a "non-violent" protest to reclaim the house. He calls this protest "Get Well Soon, Lucky" and asks his radio show's audience to send Lucky flowers to help him recover from the "disease of dishonesty".
During this time Munna tells Janhavi the truth (via a letter he gives to her). Heartbroken, Janhavi leaves Munna. Munna receives another setback when he is tricked by Lucky into revealing his conversations with Gandhi before a public audience. At this conference, Munna finds that only after he has learned something about the real Gandhi's life can the Gandhi image talk about it, which serves as proof for a psychiatrist in the audience that Munna is hallucinating.
Later, during Sunny and Simran's wedding, it is revealed to Simran that she is a manglik and she goes to the railway station adorned in her wedding dress to commit suicide as she does not want to start a relationship based on a lie. But the taxi driver is Victor D'Souza, a man whose problem was solved on Munna's radio show. He explains to her that suicide is not the right choice and contacts Munna for advice. He comes directly to the wedding and cleverly questions the astrological Maharaj and attempts to persuade Kkhurana to allow the marriage to happen. However, Kkhurana is not convinced due to his stubbornness and tells Sunny to leave with him in the car. Nevertheless, Sunny objects and Simran and Sunny exchange garlands.
Gandhi's monologue at the end of the film, however, questions this conclusion. Munna, despite these defeats, continues to use Gandhigiri, a decision that transforms Lucky, revives Janhavi's affection. A Second Innings couple adopt Circuit as their son and Sunny and Simran had a happy life. Lucky then begins studying Gandhism, Gandhi and Gandhigiri, resulting in him too hallucinating Gandhi. Kkhurana has also removed the extra K in his name to become Khurana only, denying Maharaj's false prediction.
The
Munna Bhai series began after
Vidhu Vinod Chopra agreed to produce
Rajkumar Hirani's 2003 film
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. when no one else would (Hirani had worked as an editor on Chopra's 2000 film
Mission Kashmir). They also collaborated on the script.
[15] Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. was a runaway success that prompted the duo to contemplate a sequel. The sequel was initially known as
Munnabhai Meets Mahatma Gandhiand was later titled
Munnabhai 2nd Inningsbefore the title
Lage Raho Munna Bhai was finalised.
[16][17]
Hirani admitted in an interview that he felt the burden of expectation while writing the screenplay for
Lage Raho Munna Bhai, as he had to create "something to match" the first film.
[18] Initially there was some effort to incorporate scenes or characteristics of the first film into the sequel (such as the idiosyncratic laugh of Asthana, portrayed by
Boman Irani in the first instalment), but the risks of repetition were consciously averted.
[18]
One of Hirani's goals in making the film was to revive an interest in
Mahatma Gandhi, a figure whom he felt had been forgotten in contemporary India. To highlight this fact, Hirani recounted (during an interview) an incident with a
chaiwala boy (who brings tea to the crew) during production:
- The boy was curious, he was a big Munnabhai fan and kept asking the name of the film. The first working title was 'Munnabhai Meets Mahatma Gandhi,' and Shantanu (Moitra, the music director) told him. So he said, 'Munnabhai to theek hai, yeh Mahatma Gandhi kaun hai?' ('Munnabhai is fine, but who is this Mahatma Gandhi?') So this is the sad state of affairs today. I was shocked. And it's not just the chai-wallah. A few days ago on TV a lot of politicians were asked India-related questions on the news channels, and I can't believe a lot of them don't know 2 October is Gandhiji's birthday! Many didn't know his first name. They kept saying, 'what's in a name, we respect his ideals,' but come on! How can you not know his name?[19]
The other screenwriter,
Abhijat Joshi (who teaches in the department of English at
Otterbein College in
Westerville, Ohio), stated that he had been conducting extensive research on Gandhi,
[20] which inspired producer Chopra to involve Joshi in the creation of the second
Munna Bhaiscreenplay.
[20]
While writing the screenplay, Hirani and Joshi stayed together for more than four months. They developed scenes by going out for a walk and discussing the scene. They would not return home until they had created a scene that would make them laugh, or cry, or had some provocative thought.
[20] While there was a shortage of resources during the shooting of
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., the crew did not encounter a financial crisis during the filming of
Lage Raho Munna Bhai, as the team managed to receive whatever was deemed necessary (including a Jimmy Jib, a specific kind of camera crane, just for a single
crane shot).
[18] The film was shot on location in and around Mumbai, with
Goa as a backdrop for the "Aane Charaane" song.
[18]
Only two characters—those of Munna Bhai (portrayed by Sanjay Dutt) and Circuit (portrayed by Arshad Warsi)—were retained from
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Several actors from
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., appeared in
Lage Raho Munna Bhai as different characters.
[21] Vidya Balan was chosen to play the leading lady Jahnavi as her voice was thought to be appropriate for that of a radio jockey.
[22]
The actors used several techniques to develop their characters. Warsi encountered some initial problems reviving his character from the first film. Hirani recalled that on the first day of the shoot when Warsi said his first line, "he didn't sound like Circuit at all. He sounded like Arshad Warsi speaking with an accent."
[21] Warsi admitted that he had "forgotten" the character of Circuit and had to watch the DVD of
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. three times before being able to film the scene correctly.
[21] Dutt also confessed that he had to watch the first film eight to nine times to recapture the "persona" of Munna Bhai.
[21] In addition, Dutt stated in an interview that he did not read Gandhi's autobiography
The Story of My Experiments with Truth as a preparation for
Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Rather, he comments, his father,
Sunil Dutt (who portrayed Munna Bhai's father in
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.) and his mother (the late actress
Nargis) were his role models as they "were basically Gandhians. We were brought up with those values."
[23]
Dilip Prabhavalkar, who portrays Gandhi, read Gandhi's works "once again" to prepare for his role.
[24] Boman Irani prepared for the role of Lucky Singh by spending time with Sardarjis (male
Sikhs) in auto spare parts shops to research his role.
[25] Vidya Balan met with a couple of radio jockeys and watched them at work.
[26]
Influences and allusionsEdit
Each film in the
Munna Bhai series features Munna and Circuit in a story that is comprehensive unto itself and is not continued or referred to in another in the series. Director Hirani has compared this format to the films of
Charlie Chaplin and
Laurel and Hardy, as well as to the
James Bond series.
[18] Others have also likened the series to the work of Laurel and Hardy.
[27]Some, however, have negated this comparison, stating that the series is more akin to the
Road to... "buddy films" of
Bob Hope and
Bing Crosby.
[28] Hirani stated that his work was deeply inspired by the films of
Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
[19]
Social influenceEdit
The thematic attention to Gandhi's theories in
Lage Raho Munna Bhai revived an interest in
Gandhism in India under the new term
Gandhigiri[30] and "made Gandhi suddenly hip" with Indians "staging nonviolent protests, starting Web sites, handing out roses to enemies and putting on peaked white caps from the Gandhi era."
[31] Arunabha Ghosh, in December 2006, noted in
The Economic and Political Weekly that, "Gandhi, the man, was once the message. In the India of the post-
liberalisation brand, gandhigiri is the message."
[32] Amelia Gentleman of
The International Herald Tribune/
New York Timesstated in September 2006 that:
- "The real excitement was a Bollywood film [...] which [became] the unexpected box-office hit of the year [...] With its big Bollywood soundtrack and dance routines, the movie brings Gandhi firmly into the mainstream and theatres have been packed for the past three weeks. The Congress Party recommended that all party members see the film. The Delhi authorities declared that tickets to the film would be sold tax free because of its assiduous promotion of Gandhian values."[33]
Mark Sappenfield of
The Christian Science Monitor argued in 2006 that the film was appealing because, "Gandhi gets his hands dirty. He appears as an apparition only visible to the wayward gangster, counselling him on how to help others deal with everyday problems."
[34] Swati Gauri Sharma suggested in
The Boston Globe that what the United States "needs is a film that encourages people to take up Gandhigiri,
Kinggiri, or
Kennedygiri. If it worked for Bollywood, it could work for Hollywood."
[13]
Gandhigiri-style protestsEdit
After the release of the film,
Gandhigiri-style protests began to take place in India.
[11] In 2006, farmers staged a protest with flowers in the
Vidarbha region,
[35] and people who organised a protest in
Lucknow claimed to have been inspired by
Lage Raho Munna Bhaito use roses to convey their message.
[36] In Lucknow, students claimed to have been inspired by
Lage Raho Munna Bhai to do volunteer work, planting trees "to conserve nature which is bound to benefit public health."
[37] Mafia don Babloo Srivastava claimed to have been inspired by
Lago Raho Munna Bhai to distribute roses as a "message of love and peace".
[38] In 2008, Indian
Greenpeace activists delivered thousands of roses to
Ratan Tata, chairman of
Tata Motors, to reconsider his plans of building a port at the nesting grounds of
Olive Ridley sea turtles.
[39] The "Send
Pramod Muthalik a Valentine's Day card" campaign in 2009 was inspired by the film.
[40]
In the United States during July 2007, Aman Kapoor, founder of the
Immigration Voiceforum,
[41] initiated a Gandhigiri protest inspired by
Lage Raho Munna Bhai.[42][43] Over a three-day period, hundreds of flower bouquets were sent to the
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office by Indians who were legally in the US but caught in a
green card backlog.
[41] On 17 July, the USCIS reversed the decision that led to the protest.
[44][45][46]
Lage Raho Munna Bhai revived an interest in books about Gandhi.
[47] In particular, demand for Gandhi's autobiography
My Experiments with Truth increased after the film debuted, including requests from prison inmates.
[48][49]In addition, due to its influence, the film was made tax-free in
Mumbai.
[50]
ScreeningsEdit
Screened on 10 November 2006 in the
United Nations auditorium,
Lage Raho Munna Bhaiwas the first
Hindi film to be shown at the UN.
[7] The film was introduced by
Shashi Tharoor, UN
Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information.
Taran Adarsh of
Bollywood Hungamaobserved that, "there was thunderous clapping at the high points of the film, like the pensioner shedding his clothes. The applause at the end of the screening was unending. A vibrant question and answer session followed with director Rajkumar Hirani, writer Abhijat Joshi and actor Boman Irani, who flew to the U.S. for the screening."
[51][52] The
Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) noted that, "an evening that had started with massive security arrangements in the sombre UN setting, concluded in a festive atmosphere in the lounge of the UN with diplomats from other tables joining in raising a toast for the film."
[8]The
United Nations General Assemblyannounced on 15 June 2007 that 2 October, the day of Gandhi's birth (
Gandhi Jayanti), was to be "the
International Day of Non-Violence."
[53]
The
Prime Minister of India,
Manmohan Singh, was given a private screening of
Lage Raho Munna Bhai. After viewing the film, he stated that it "captures Bapu's message about the power of truth and humanism."
[54] In a speech during his visit to South Africa, Singh said, "I was heartened to see recently that back home in India the most popular movie this festival season is a film about a young man's discovery of the universal and timeless relevance of the Mahatma's message."
[55]Singh announced the creation of a new Public Services Bill to combat corruption in a press release dated 17 November 2006, and cited
Lage Raho Munna Bhai as one of its influences.
[56]
Lage Raho Munna Bhai was further screened at a global judiciary summit in
Lucknow in December 2006. After viewing the film, Justice Kenneth Mithyane from South Africa commented, "The movie has re-enlivened the non-violence philosophy practiced by Mahatma Gandhi who continues to remain close to the hearts of the South Africans." Fatima Chouhan, a young member of the South African parliament, noted that, "'Munnabhai' will be widely appreciated in South Africa. I'm carrying a couple of video discs for my family and friends."
[57]
It was part of the
Tous Les Cinema du Mondesection of the
2007 Cannes Film Festival. T
Lage Raho Munna Bhai was well received as the audience had lined "up in long queues to catch the film that had been strongly recommended in festival reviews [...] not one person who entered the screening left before the end of the two-hours-thirty-minutes film."
[9]In addition, "the screening of the movie at the festival saw people sitting on the aisles as the theatre was completely packed [...] there was also a big group of French students that clapped till the credits were finished."
[10]
Home media and screenplayEdit
The British
DVD of
Lage Raho Munna Bhaicontains a bonus DVD which has a 98-minute five-part
documentary on the making of the film, interviews with members of the cast and crew, and information on the creation of the song and dance numbers. It also has a special feature called "
Munna meets Bapu."
[62]
Lage Raho Munnabhai – The Original Screenplay was released in December 2009. Published by Om Books International in association with Vinod Chopra Films, it was launched at an event with the original cast and crew. The text includes an introductory note by
Abhijat Joshi which details the drafting of the screenplay. It also includes a number of stills from the film as well as character profiles.
[63][64]
Critical responseEdit
Lage Raho Munna Bhai received critical acclaim.
[19][34] Subhash K. Jha said that "Munna and Circuit, arguably cinema's most adorable and roguish reformists since
Laurel and Hardy go about the business of generating humour out of the pathos of the human condition. The sequences, all fiercely and famously path-breaking have us in splits [...] Watch the love-lorn Munnabhai answer a Gandhian quiz on a phone-in radio quiz with the help of kidnapped professors' it's one of the most comically animated sequences seen in the movies of the new millennium."
[65] Taran Adarsh of
Bollywood Hungama gave the film four out five stars, calling it "a sparkling example of qualitative cinema" arguing that it "not only entertains, it also enlightens."
[66]Nikhat Kazmi of
The Times of India observes that "Vidhu Vinod Chopra gives the great Indian family one more let's-go-goodwill-hunting entertainer, even as director Raju Hirani proves that sequels needn't have the been there-done that feel..."
[67] Rajeev Masandof
CNN-IBN gave it four out of five stars and states: "Like those good old-fashioned Hrishikesh Mukherjee films, it also reinforces the importance of human goodness and basic niceties. Even if you might argue that some of Gandhi's principles seem outdated today, you cannot help but cheer for Munna and his gang as they achieve the impossible with love and kindness. And that is where this film transcends conventional boundaries. It entertains you, yes, but it also makes you yearn for a perfect world. Judge it by any yardstick that you may, Lage Raho Munnabhai emerges a clear winner. Much of that credit must go to its actors who pull out all stops to make it an enjoyable ride."
[68] Poonam Joshi of the
BBC gave four out of five stars stating that, "everything about this film works [...] It's rare to see a film that bounces between humour and sentiment so seamlessly. And it is rarer still to see characters become etched in the memory so enduringly that audiences become almost protective of them. It's testimony both to the quality of the writing and the performances, that Munna and Circuit have taken on a life of their own."
[69] Vinayak Chakravorty of
The Hindustan Times gave four out of four stars stating that it "cleverly works its way around the obvious hurdle that almost all sequels face: The film recreates an original milieu without a hint of the déjà vu downer. And that precisely ranks Munna Bhai 2 as one of the best entertainers this year." He commended the it for showing "the heights Hindi cinema can scale despite staying within its
masala parameters. Lage raho, guys."
[70]Phelim O'Neill of
The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars noting that, "as western romantic comedies become more vapid and even stalkerish, this delivers a credible message of peace, while never forgetting to be magnificent entertainment."
[71] Shastri Ramachandaran of
The Tribune wrote, "True, there have been
memorable films on Mahatma Gandhi by distinguished directors, namely
Richard Attenborough and
Shyam Benegal;one offering a respectful cinematic acquaintance and the other being didactic but inspiring. For all their earnestness, neither film stirred the popular imagination like LRM has done now."
[72] Vaidyanathan from
BBCdeclared that, "Lage Raho is not only as good as
MBBS, but much better" calling it "a brilliant emotional roller coaster ride."
[73] Jeremy Page of
The Times discussed its enormous popularity upon release and noted the "serious point [the film made] about the need for tolerance, restraint and self-sacrifice."
[74]
Finally, filmmaker
Kabir Khan cited
Lage Raho Munna Bhai as a model film for him as it "had an issue, but it was never once in your face.
Rajkumar Hirani kept it all so subtle and yet conveyed the message so well. It was as commercial as it gets and audiences too were thoroughly entertained. That's the way to make movies because it not just made all parties happy but also had a satisfied director at the end of it all."
[75]
According to
Tushar Gandhi, Gandhi's great-grandson, it introduced the philosophies of Gandhi to a new generation, adding that "Bapu would've spoken the language of Gandhigiri if he were alive today. I really feel this film says something that needs to be told."
[76]
Other critics offered more negative reviews. Ajit Duara argues in
The Hindu that "the accomplished cultural sophistication and political genius of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has to be dumbed down to the astoundingly moronic levels of
Lage Raho Munnabhai."
[77] Filmmaker
Jahnu Barua was also critical, stating that "Gandhian philosophy is serious business and
Lage Raho Munna Bhai is not the right way to show it."
[78]Jug Suraiya of
The Times of India wrote that "thanks to Munnabhai, at best what exists of Gandhism is Gandhigiri, a watered down, Dale Carnegie's
How to Win Friends and Influence People version of the original."
[79]
Box officeEdit
Lage Raho Munna Bhai was the third highest grossing
Bollywood film of 2006, earning
₹1,250 million (US$17 million) gross in India alone and was rated a "Blockbuster".
[5] The film collected a further
₹498 million(US$6.9 million) during 2007 as the film enjoyed a tremendous golden jubilee run playing at a selected 210 cinemas until October of that year, being the only film to achieve this feat since the 1995 release
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. It was also financially successful overseas,
[80] earning
₹70 million (US$970,000) gross in the United Kingdom,
₹113 million (US$1.6 million) gross in North America, and
₹50 million(US$700,000) gross for the rest of the overseas proceeds, for a total of
₹223 million(US$3.1 million).
[81] Its total worldwide lifetime gross is
₹1.93 billion (US$27 million) the equivalent to just over $40m when adjusted for inflation 2016.
[4]
AccoladesEdit
| Professional ratings |
|---|
| Review scores |
|---|
| Source | Rating |
|---|
| Rediff |   [83] |
| Planet Bollywood |   [84] |
On 25 February 2016, Sanjay Dutt was released from Yerwada Central Jail after completing his sentence (2013–2016) for
illegal possession of firearms in 1993. Vidhu Vinod Chopra announced on 29 September 2016 that production on the third Munna Bhai film starring Dutt in the title role would begin in 2017.
[87]
