High on Munnabhai
The 2003 film 'Munnabhai MBBS' captured popular imagination with the antics of the gangster duo Munna and 'Circuit'.
But just when you thought there was no way it could get better - the good news is that the original film has truly been outdone by its successor.
The follow-up film 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' is even bigger and better, makes Mahatma Gandhi fashionable and for once the popular and critical response has been unanimous - this one is a winner!
A great entertainer
'High on Munnabhai' is the only way to describe the euphoria over 'Lage Raho Munnabhai'. The film opened to packed houses and gushing reviews. In fact, 'Munnabhai' has got a four-star rating on an average from an otherwise nitpicking critic community, not to mention a thumping thumbs-up from the ticket buying public.
"It's excellent. You cannot compare the two films. Mazaa aa gaya (I enjoyed myself thoroughly)," said a movie-goer emerging from a screening in Mumbai.
Not a rehash
Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi in 'Munnabhao Lage Raho'
So why does 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' work so well? Maybe because it makes you laugh like you have not laughed in a very long time! Or maybe because it features great acting, be it that of Sanjay Dutt or Arshad Warsi or Boman Irani.
However, the success of the film lies in more than just the sum of its parts. 'Munnabhai' works because, all in all, it is an entertainer with a heart and a mind. It is a message film, but somehow manages not to sound preachy. The film tells you that Mahatma Gandhi can still be relevant to our times, and makes a rip-roaring entertainer of it.
Scripting success
Director Raj Kumar Hirani, to his credit, does not just rehash a winning formula here, but tells you a new story which, incidentally, took him two years of intensive scripting.
"I realised pretty soon while writing that we had exhausted all the jokes…We had taken this whole mantle on our heads to make a film with the success of 'Munnabhai MBS' behind us, so the film was very difficult to script — it had to be better than the last. If not, there would be no point in making a second film," says Hirani.
"I constantly feel that if people walk into the theatres and see something that they've never seen before, it will be interesting for them," opines Hirani.
Cult glory
The audience certainly seems to have appreciated Hirani’s efforts. In fact, multiplex chains which hadn’t released the film due to squabbles over profit sharing have all come around now to give the producers the revenue share they had wanted. Also, the producers have released an additional 40 prints to meet the demand of an audience which seems to want more. Overall it has been a pretty good turn of events for Munnabahi and Circuit, arguably two of Hindi cinema’s newest cult characters.
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