A review | Lage Raho Munnabhai
The core team [Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Bomman Irani and Jimmy Shergill] and concept [Hardhitting and throught-provoking messages through sentimental but class comedy!] of “Lage Raho Munnabhai” is the same as its prequel “Munnabhai. M.B.B.S”. But, this sequel stands on its own as another legend in Indian cinema.
Making a classic first-up might be easy a la “DCH” by Farhan Akhtar and following it up with a good but not as classy “Lakshya” is easier and doing a remake of an already established hit “Don” is the easiest. Even RGV is following the same pattern with “Shiva 2006″. It would have been very easy for Hirani and team to follow the same pattern and ensure a box office hit. But they have really done it the right way. “Sachchayi ke raaste pe chale hain”! And the output is really commendable. No not commendable, outstanding.
Munnabhai and Sirkeet (it’s actually circuit, but in mumbaiya you know…) are busy going about their bhaigiri business. No baggage from the prequel of doctors is ever brought in here. In fact you don’t even expect it. You are just so busy cracking up in laughter and stamping the floor with your feet in roaring laughter to the wit of Sirkeet and the put-on innocence of Munnabhai that you are totally into the movie by the time the first act is done. It is adequately known that they work for Lakhbir Singh aka Lucky (Bomman Irani) and help the builder build an infrastructure empire while Munnabhai is head-over-heels in love with a Radio Jockey called “Jhanavi”.
Then, Munnabhai poses as Professor Murali Prasad Sharma and cracks a quiz on Mahatma Gandhi that has “Meet Jhanavi in her studio” as a prize. The cracking of the quiz is as hillarious an act as are the “sambhodit” & “vinambra” ones. Munnabhai is subsequently invited home by Jhanavi to preach the old men in her house on “Gandhiji”. Now, Munnabhai is in yet another predicament. A kind of predicament that is very familiar to the audience by now. And just when you are expectingthe old wine of “Munnabhai. M.B.B.S” to be served from the new bottle, the movie takes you by surprise and throws you into a roller-coaster ride of emotions, mostly funny though. And the tearful moments brought a tear to my eye. And when the movie ended I found the audience doing a move in sync of wiping tears that have settled at the corner of their eyes waiting to slide down their cheeks. I wanted to clap after the movie was over, but I didn’t. Next time, I will. Yes, the movie is worth watching twice!
The hard-hitting messages in the movie is the hero. The humour is the heroine. And the way that they have hit a unique chemistry or chemical locha [lol!] is where the credit goes to the director. Everyone else is just a character unlike typical hindi cinema where stars take over. I still remember Jeh dot Asthana from “Munnabhai. M.B.B.S”. Now, I will remember the love-to-be-photographed model Lucky Singh! The character makes you laugh here, not the stars, and that’s why the emotions are so genuine.
Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra have written a story that’s ‘brave’ in plain words! To weave humour and emotion into it means you have so much of confidence on your dialogue writers [Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi] that they will carry it with aplomb. And man, have they succeeded?! I still laugh when I recollect a few scenes like “Please send a get well soon card to Lucky Singh, woh bahut bhimaar hai”. And the scene just before interval when Munnabhai says “Apun sorry hai re”, I cried then and I can feel the goosebumps while typing this!
Rajkumar Hirani is a director I am now going to nominate as the most worthy successor to hrishi da. Well, he is just been nominated. Not yet there. Two movies of his are classics and worthy of buying original DVDs and preserving for a lifetime. If he can come up with another one at this level, then he might be well up there. Great show Sir! Your style of movie-making is brilliant and the messages you sent across in both of them are not miss-able. We get the point. And very well too! Thanks!
Vidhu Vinod Chopra, thanks to you we now have another school of films coming up. The school of sensible and wholesome entertainment. Please keep at it with these genre of movies and I am sure we will not remember you as a great showman but as a superb producer. I also hope you regain your touch of movie-making and give us more movies like “Parinda”.
Shantanu Moitra’s music is another highlight of the movie. After “Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi”, “Parineeta” and “Yahaan”, this is his fourth movie. And he does a classy job yet again. As classy as the movie itself. My pick is the “pal pal” song. Amazing! And this movie creates another niche in music also. The songs are not typical “pallavi-charanam” kind of arrangement. They have conversations embedded in them and that takes the flavour of the movie forward. Shantanu Moitra’s job was more difficult in that aspect and he comes on tops in that too.
The chemistry between Arshad Warsi and Sanjay Dutt is what makes the movie click. It’s astonishing how they continue to find that wavelength and make us laugh and cry at will. Here like a good sequel, the great bonding between Munna and Sirkeet is established. The total acceptance of Munna by Sirkeet is a potrait painted very well. And when they tell you what’s right and what’s not, you are found nodding your head in total agreement!
Jhanavi played by the effervescent Vidya Balan endears you to her. You begin to love the way she says, “Good Moooooooorning Mumbai” as much as Munna loves it. You are in love with her when Munna is and you are watiing to see when she falls out of it just because Munna lied to her on being a professor. She is lovable and cute. Sweet and fresh. Vidya Balan continues from “Parineeta”. My nomination for the successor to Madhuri Dixit’s throne.
Bomman Irani is at his customary best playing the idiosyncratic sardar. Though he plays the bad guy; the comic touch provided to the character through his mannerisms and obsessions are such a great addition to the character that your heart goes out to him at the end. The sound of signing a deal, the poses to take photographs, the conversations with munna and sirkeet are all something that only Bomman Irani can carry off. My nomination for the successor to the long vacant Great Utpal Dutt’s throne.
Jimmy Shergill, Saurabh Shukla, Khulbhushan Kharbanda and Diya Mirza play small roles with significant impact on the movie. Everyone is noticed. Everyone has an impact.
Overall, a movie that’s in the league of eternal, superlative comedy. I would also go ahead and stick my neck out saying it is in the league of “Golmaal” and “Chupke chupke”. Go and watch it on the big screen. If you miss it, I can promise you that you cannot spend those two and a half hours in a better way. And the message that you get from the movie, you will carry it for a lifetime. A promise. “Bole toh mamu mat ban, jaake dekh ke aa aur bata tere dimaag main kya chemical locha hua bhidu!”
My Rating: *****
Legend:
*Stay at home
**If you have the time to kill, go ahead, but not recommended
***Watch if you are a film buff!
****Go watch it on the big screen!
*****Don’t miss watching this one on the big screen! Avoid piracy!
Links:
Official website
Official Blog
IMDB for Lage Raho Munnabhai(2006)
Good thing that I first saw your rating and hence I am refraining myself from reading it as I want to watch the movie. :)
good review adi ji..
will sure find time to go to the theater and watch this movie..
bole toh..hum bhi bhai ke bade fan hai.;)
hardu:
Watch it! watch it! And let me know how you liked it!
div:
Please do. It’s worth a watch for sure! :)
Wow.. thanks for the review, Adi.. cannot wait to watch it! I loved MBBS!
shruthi:
Paisa vasool hoga! Watch it! :)
Thanks fro your comment!
I can’t but agree more on the review. An immensely enjoyable movie, done in great style. :D
And its good morniiiiiing Mumbai, isn’t it ;)
And yes, I love the fading effect on your template everytime I click a link.
And you were right, Mysore made me famous. Churumuri carried my article last week. :D More on my blog.
And the link for the “official blog” is misspelt.
Have you watched Anthony Kaun Hai? Its hilarious too….amazing comic timing by Arshad Warsi and Dutt.
Viky:
So it was Good morniiiiiiing Mumbai and not Good moooooorning Mumbai is it? Will check on that the next time I see it! ;)
And thanks for the compliment on the fading effect. It’s a page transition tag that I picked up from one of the online html tutorials. Just search for “Trans html tags” in google and you might get it.
What is churumuri? Enlighten me. Or don’t bother I am coming to your blog on next click! ;)
I will correct the spelling mistake in the official blog link. Thanks for pointing it out.
Haven’t watched “Anthony kaun hai”. Next to do. But how many will I watch? Shawshank redemption, forrest gump and this one now? Well, well, let me see. Let me see.
Churumuri is a blog maintained by the best of Mysore’s thinktank – TS Satyan, TJS George, Bhamy Shenoy, HY Sharada Prasad, Sunaad Raghuram, UR Ananthamurthy and others…
Check it out, they swear by Mysore.
Hey, comprehensive review! Loved the movie to death! Apun ke dimaag mein bhi chemical locha ho rela hai! :P
Its an excellent movie no doubt. They have really used their imagaination very well. Arshad Warsi was superb. All actors were gpood actually. Only thing is that can gandhigiri work in all situations in modern day india.
Am I the only one who DID NOT like the movie? !!!
I liked the first one very much.. but this one fell short of my expectations.
The greeting of vidya balan… well you found it so nice.. I found it extremely irritating!
The Gandhi “concept” was good… but sometimes it was silly…
I guess I am the odd woman out ;-)
Hi Adi,
I watched this movie last weekend and loved it immensely..:-).This is great review,liked the movie even more after reading it ! For me the best scenes in the movie were when Circuit acts as if he can also see Gandhiji :-)and completely disliked Vidya Balan’s screech of ‘Goodmorning Mumbai’!!
Viky:
Yeah, went to churumuri and checked out the blog. It was good! What a place to get quoted I say! Sooper!
Sayesha:
Thanks!
I saw your review.. ahem..err.. rather praise… I knew you would like my review, that’s why I invited you over! :) So that we could both revel in the chemical locha! LOL! ;)
Hiren:
Finally, thats the point that the movie tries to drive home. That we can apply Gandhigiri in all aspects of our daily life. The movie says that we should have Gandhiji in our hearts. And if ask me, once that happens, everything else will fall in place.
Of course, your practicality question remains unanswered. I cannot answer that. If we begin to believe Gandhigiri I guess that will be the first step of the many we will need to take to answer your question! :) Am I right?
Sanjay Dutt seems to excel at roles like this.. (the lovable “bhai”)… his sense of comic timing is uncanny…
Odd woman shark:
If you didn’t like it, then you are the Only One I can say! :)
I didn’t quite like the “good morning” (Viky: that was to avoid confronting you!) shout of Vidya Balan, but I began liking it after Munna started liking it!
Gandhi “concept” was the heart of the movie. If you found it silly at times then, of course you wouldn’t like the movie.
But tell me one thing, didn’t you ever laugh till you had tears in your eyes while watch this movie? It was a loong loooong time since I ever laughed so much while watching a movie. The last one was “Hera Pheri” (Part I) I guess.
Jo:
LOL! Those scenes were just so hillarious! And do you remember that scene where Jhanavi comes to meet Munna and sirkeet in the jail and munna asks sirkeet if he also sees Jhanavi. I almost fell of my seat laughing at that scene though I was in tears. So many mixed emotions! What a wonderful movie! Can’t stop saying that! :)
Thanks for your comment!
I saw it a second time yday night, and it is “good morniiiing” only. :D
Watch Antony Kaun Hai, if you want more “tears-in-eyes” comedy of Munna-Circuit.
Vijay:
You are absolutely right. There are so many movies that we have loved Dutt in these roles. Overall, his comic timing is the best part of his acting armoury!
Also a few of his movies with Govinda are too good. But none as good as the “Munnabhai” series. Well, I really hope Rajkumar Hirani makes it a series!
Viky:
You lucky bugger! :)
I will have to watch “Anthony Kaun hai” asap! Can’t avoid it after so many recommendations na?!
Thanks!
And yeah, I ll take ur word for the “good morning” one. But I ll watch it again to reconfirm! ;)
And tell me one thing, did you laugh all over again at those places? And any new things that you noticed?
I couldn’t laugh EXACTLY at those places, since it was a different theatre, but the answer to your question is YES. And a lot of other places too…
I noticed a few hitches. At one point, she says – Your song is coming up right after this commercial break – Worldspace does not have any commercial breaks, if I’m not mistaken.
And she keeps saying “Good morning” even for the late-night show.
More dissection later.
Viky:
Aaaargh!! LOL!!
You are right about that commerical break part, even I noticed that the first time and even murmured that into my wife’s ear sitting next to me. But broke into laughter midway through the murmur!
In fact she was only the morning show host. I don’t from where they suddenly changed to the late night show. But then she says “Good morning” there too? Good observation! :)
Yes! I did laugh at some scenes… No doubt about that.. But “some” scenes I found it silly as well…
Well.. maybe I expected too much after the first one.
I simply loved the first one….
But anyway it’s good that so many people are liking it… Enjoy maadi! :)
shark:
Good you loved the first one yar! That was a great movie too! I can tell you this “Munnabhai” series will be an all-time great movie series from Bollywood. Also, the first of its kind! What a great movie! :)
I am not going to stop saying that! Looks like I have gone mad! :)
I concur with you.. I watched it on the first day of the release… I also enjoyed the titbit emotinal / suspense scenes.. where jimmy goes to his father n tells that he lost 7 lacs….
I enjoyed the scene where the old man, offers bribe to the office… superb!!!
vin:
Thanks for your comment! :)
I agree with you! Those scenes are just too good! When he starts stripping and giving account of how much each thing costs! I just couldn’t stop laughing! I went on for a few minutes after the scene was over also I guess! :)
yep!!i guess that secene of the retired teacher would be the best scene!! :-)
It is a must watch….. after a really loong time i’ve seen a wholesome movie with a perfect mixture of humor and sentiments…. I loved the way they mixed the message with the movie…Cheers to the whole crew for giving us such a good movie…
vin:
:)
The Arrow:
Cheers! :)
Thanks for your comment!