Lage Raho Munnabhai
February 14, 2007 | Filed Under Jumboji, Mumboji, Point of View, Theatre & Movies
Jumboji: Why Munnabhai out of the blue?
Mumboji: I wanted to remind people something about the movie. I have known people who have loved and hated the movie. But sometimes I wonder if people realize why it’s probably amongst the best few hindi movies made.
Jumboji: You think so?
Mumboji: Don’t you?
Jumboji: It doesn’t matter what I think, you tell me what you do.
Mumboji: If you don’t mind, let me just tell the plot in short.
Jumboji: Must give spoile warning then…
Mumboji: The story is about a man who falls in love.
Jumboji: So that’s why you are writing it on Valentine’s day?
Mumboji: Ehh! No. But anyways, so he falls in love with a radio jockey (with her voice i am guessing). The guy is a goon and the girl apparently is having a contest with her listeners. The contest is a quiz on Gandhi and winner gets a chance to meet her. Obviously this is the chance that Munnabhai (the goon) is waiting for. He manages to win the quiz with a little help from “friends”. Munnabhai gets to meet the love of his life and now is absolutely floored by the dazzling beauty. He has to get to know her and moreover get her to like him. The only way being - knowing everything about Gandhi, Munnabhai has no choice but to read up everything on the life and principles of the Mahatma.
Jumboji: hmm…
Mumboji: The plot thickens here, spending day and night in the museum dedicated to Gandhi, the ghost of Gandhi manifests before him. It’s this ghost that helps him throughout the movie in achieving seemingly impossible things. Things that are out of the box and extra-ordinary and extremely funny coming from a man who has been a goon all his life and can’t talk with anyone politely…
The movie is light-hearted and fun all throughout but there comes a moment that makes you respect the story. In one scene Munnabhai is questioned by a psychiatrist. The q/a session occurs in a press conference and it is systematically proved that Gandhi’s ghost doesn’t really exist. It is probably some kind of delusion. But what is remarkable is that the scene reveals much more than it actually does.
It tells that Munnabhai has actually gone the distance in understanding Gandhi and has subconsciously accepted his principles and is following them. Just that the man is still wearing a goon’s body and there is an inertia in the transformation. The only way probably is through hearing the same things the mind says through a holocaust image of the eyes. I like how the movies says this without actually saying it.
I also like how the psychiatrist is portrayed in the movie… focusing on the problem and not the individual, which also seems to be a reality in our society (i am generalizing, there could be exceptions).
After the scene, everything in the movie seems less contrived and one can’t help but feel for Munnabhai.
Jumboji: I agree.
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I liked it- saw it on the plane and went to buy it after
You keep changing your template :P. I like this one! And what happened to the latest post?
so true,it also reminds me of wot Gandhiji had said”Hate the sin and love the sinner”.Munnabhai had child-like innocensce, which is very much required to see visions. Although he was a goon he was much better than some of the other white-collared pple (remember the guy who had thrown his dad into an ashram).
Getting a good family, being blessed with the best stuff and a good Hi-Fi education opportunity does not ensure tht a person may turn into a ‘DECENT’ human being(if u feel being decent means having the understanding of good and bad for yrself and others as well and following humanity in a secular country). What u need is the will to follow what is being taught. Most of us just preach and do not practise. Teach but do not follow (ourselves).