A review | Lage Raho Munnabhai
Published by Mysorean on Tuesday, September 05, 2006 at 11:15:00 pm.
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)
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)
