Lage Raho Munna Bhai

About the film

Lage Raho Munna Bhai (pronounced [ləˈɡeː rəˈɦoː mʊnːaːˈbʱaːi] ; translation: Keep Going, Munna Bhai) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the banner Vinod Chopra Films. A sequel to Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003), the film is the second installment of the Munna Bhai series. Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi reprised their roles as the titular Munna Bhai and Circuit, respectively. New additions to the cast include Vidya Balan, Dilip Prabhavalkar and Dia Mirza, while several actors from the original, notably Jimmy Sheirgill and Boman Irani, appear in new roles.

In this film, the eponymous lead character, a crime boss in Mumbai, begins to see visions of Mahatma Gandhi. Through his interactions with Gandhi, he begins to practice what he refers to as "Gandhigiri" (a neologism for "Gandhism") to help ordinary people solve their problems.

Plot

Murli Prasad Sharma, alias "Munna Bhai," is a charismatic Mumbai gangster who becomes infatuated with Jahnvi, a popular morning radio jockey. To secure a live interview on her show for Gandhi Jayanti, Munna's loyal lieutenant, Circuit, and his gang rig a promotional history contest. During the broadcast, Munna masquerades as a distinguished professor of Gandhian studies, falsely claiming to live by Mahatma Gandhi's core philosophies of absolute truth and non-violent resistance (Satyagraha). Impressed by his apparent idealism, Jahnvi invites him to lecture the residents of "Second Innings House," a communal home for abandoned senior citizens managed by her grandfather.

To prepare for the lecture, Munna spends five consecutive days in a historical library undergoing intensive research. The acute psychological attrition and sleep deprivation trigger vivid visual and auditory hallucinations of Mahatma Gandhi, who begins acting as his moral conscience. Unaware of the psychiatric nature of his condition, Munna delivers a deeply resonant presentation that wins over Jahnvi and the residents. Meanwhile, Lucky Singh, an unscrupulous, highly superstitious real estate tycoon who frequently employs Munna's syndicate for clandestine land-grabbing operations, discovers Munna's infatuation. Lucky offers to fund an all-expenses-paid excursion to Goa for the elderly residents under the guise of philanthropy. While Munna uses the trip to propose to Jahnvi, Lucky exploits their absence to forcibly occupy and lock down the Second Innings property.

Lucky's hostile takeover is driven by a lucrative matrimonial alliance between his daughter, Simran, and Sunny, the son of an equally superstitious corporate magnate, K.K. Khurana. Controlled by his personal astrologer, Batuk Maharaj, Khurana demands the property because its specific geographic coordinates are deemed highly auspicious for the newlyweds. To preserve the high-stakes corporate alliance, Lucky also bribes the astrologer to falsify Simran's birth charts, concealing the fact that she is astrologically categorized as a Manglik (bearer of marital misfortune).

Production

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. Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. was a runaway success that prompted the duo to contemplate a sequel. The sequel was initially known as Munna Bhai Meets Mahatma Gandhi and was later titled Munna Bhai: 2nd Innings before the title Lage Raho Munna Bhai was finalized.

In an interview, Hirani admitted 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. 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 installment), but the risks of repetition were consciously averted.

One of Hirani's goals in making the film was to revive an interest in Mahatma Gandhi, a figure who 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:

Themes and impact

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. Others have also likened the series to the work of Laurel and Hardy. 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. Hirani stated that his work was deeply inspired by the films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

The interaction between the central characters of Mahatma Gandhi and Munna Bhai highlights concepts and ideas that draw upon the period of Colonial India and the Indian independence movement. Gandhi was a leader in this movement, challenging the British Empire's presence in India through the use of Satyagraha (non-violence). In the film, Jahnavi and Munna Bhai's non-violent protest against Lucky Singh serves as a metaphor for the Indian independence movement and the battle against the British Raj.

Key details