Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006)

The Movie starts off with that (in)famous song - "Subah ho gayi Mamu!" and a gag that will leave you laughing your arses off. As usual, Arshad Warsi as Circuit steals the show with his wisecracks that range from the silly to the absurd, but never fails to tickle the funny bone. It then proceeds to slowly unravel both the characters and the plot and switches from one gag to another, from one subplot to another with great ease.The casting is just spot-on. Boman Irani as the evil-Builder/doting father delivers another great performance. Dia Mirza and Jimmy Shergill have their bits and essay it with conviction. The oldies group also does its bit with some fine ensemble acting. Sanjay Dutt as Munnabhai is just sublime - his interactions with "Gandhi" are very nicely done. The actor who essays the role of "Gandhi" has delivered a rock-solid performance. But, the one man who steals the show completely is Warsi as Circuit. I hope Mr. Hirani writes many more scripts centering around this great caricature of a gangster's goofy chamcha!Vidya Balan is of course just a whiff of fresh air, amidst the tanned/exposed and hyped up set of actresses - she blends perfectly into the role and besides, its a great visual treat to see her on screen. However, the one thing that she does wrong is the "Good Mooooorrrrrning Mumbai!" - The phrase is repeated so often and with such an annoying intonation, that you wish to personally quieten her down!While the 1st half delivers most of the rib-ticklers, the 2nd half has its share of funny moments, although they are far and few. There are many high-points in the movie, so many so that its difficult to pin-point any one. The 2nd half of the movie admittedly becomes too saccharine and sentimental - at times, the situation is dramatized to such an extent, that it becomes a superficial and forced attempt to elicit teary responses from the audience. In that sense, the movie could have done away with less melodrama and a more mature view of the situation.Another small point that must be made with regards to the melodrama is the annoying practice of showing flashes of either smiling/weeping faces, which accompanies each of Munna's accomplishments. In the 1st movie, they had wide-eyed, smiling nurses and weeping sweepers/ward-boys in the background - thats okay (by okay I mean tolerable). But here, Mr. Hirani employs the services of Barbers and customers at the Barber's, Police Inspectors and regular people - and strangely all the faces were masculine. Mr. Hirani, a feminine face is far more astute at portraying emotions - its not Rocket Science to get that. At least the nurses were decent and visually pleasing. Whats with the Masculine attraction, Mr. Hirani?Where the movie delivers, however, is the perfect blend of Gandhian values, Patriotism and a modern-day India which thrives on individualism. It doesn't overload viewers with a barrage of statistical information or documentary style detached narration or "preachy" dialogues. What it uses is : kick-ass street-smartness + wisecracks by Circuit and Munna + Gandhi's Teachings + PatriotismAnd this results in both 'paisa-vasool' entertainment and also ensures that you leave the theatre with a renewed sense of hope and vigour to your bit for your country. True, that this brand of pop-partiotism and wisecracking-Gandhism is hardly a concrete solution to India's problems, but what the heck! You certainly wanna believe badly that the solution could be a gun-toting Munnabhai and his knife-toting sidekick Circuit.Bottom-Line: This is NOT as humorous as the 1st movie - it doesn't pretend to be either. What it is though is pure family entertainment at its best. After a long long long time, Bollywood has produced a movie without Raakhi Saawant and item numbers, without crunching explosions and 3rd rate special effects, without borrowed Hollywood/Japanese/Korean scripts. This movie is sweet, innocent and pure, yet street-smart and total dhamaal. Go and watch it with your friends and/or family - this is one movie that everyone can enjoy! Kudos to Mr. Hirani and his team! They have stopped making movies like these!

I thought that now that Sanju Baba has been convicted I need to prod myself to write a comment on this film. I hated Munna Bhai MBBS so I was resisting this one for the longest time. But the actual viewing turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I actually liked the film. It was repetitive and not very funny but it had its moments and it did achieve some of what it set out to do - bring front and center the fact that we live by completely different rules these days and wouldn't it be nice to change that. Sanju Baba was quite good as Munna Bhai, Boman Irani was awesome as his boss, Vidya Balan was adequate as the DJ, the entire assemblage at second innings house was great, but the show-stopper no doubt was Arshad Warsi as Circuit. The man is awesomely talented and made Munna Bhai a decent and watchable film.If you believe in Gandhian philosophy you might get upset at this new version called Gandhigiri. If the message is to twist Gandhian ideals into a new more menacing avatar then that is a scary thought. But if the film is really just poking fun and not trying to be very serious then you can chill and watch it without too much trouble. The thing is, I am not sure what the film is trying to do. However, it does bring back into notice the Mahatma and his life - so it does achieve some useful purpose. Afterall - Bande me thaa Dumm, Bande Mataram.

Lage raho munnabhai.....what to say about this movie.I think this is the most positive & optimistic movie ever made in Indian cinema.Its not a movie showing life of Gandhi and his principles but tells you how these principles can be practically implemented to solve some very common problems like corruption.......using gandhigiri.This movie is a good blend of comedy,emotions and of course gandhigiri.Everybody has done good acting especially Arshad Warsi.I am sure after watching you will never forget this movie.If faced by situations shown in the movie,in real life, you will always be guided by their solutions as shown.So do not just watch this movie for entertainment but also try to take the message it gives.............

The most awesome film i have seen for a long long time.the way raju hirani has carried his story is unbelievable.if you thought m.b.b.s was awesome,wait till you see this film.the trailers didn't do justice to the film's content.i would have never believed it could be this good,until i saw it.its hard to imagine what the film holds in the second half,but i bet it is better than most of us could imagine.the way this film has inspired us Indians has to be seen to be believed.its impact can be seen in our politics as well.sanjay dutt has got what he needed to be remembered as one of the all time greats. all hail Munnabhai.