Lage Raho Munna Bhai Review

Bande Mein Tha Dum.Vande Matram. It is that time of the year when students are killing their teachers (in Ujjain), political parties are fighting over the singing of `Vande Matram', floods have trampled the length and breadth of this country and no one is bothered about the relief work. And Members of Parliament are hurling fist cuffs at each other in the Parliament (Considered to be the Temple of Democracy). That's when we need the messages of Gandhiji the most. And Bapu has found an unusual messenger.Apna Munnabhai, with Circuit in tow. Together they are making an effort to do the most difficult thing.Speak the Truth and admit their sins without bothering about the consequences. And the whole world is echoing in unison: `Lage Raho Munnabhai'.

Raj Kumar Hirani, the director of trendsetting `Munnabhai MBBS' is back with a remarkable new film, supported-to-the-hilt by a courageous producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra with their latest offering `Lage Raho Munnabhai' where the immaculately chiseled chemistry of Murli Prasad Sharma aka Munnabhai (Sanjay Dutt) and Circuit (Arshad Warsi) Sizzles the screen. Like `Phir Hera Pheri' and `Krrish', `LRMB' isn't a sequel that starts off from where `Munnabhai MBBS' had ended. Instead, the legend of Munnabhai continues to indulge in toporigiri with his trusted aide Circuit. Rest of the setting is jhakaas-n-new. Builder Sardar Lucky Singh (Boman Irani) wants to get possession of a sea view bungalow for his daughter Simran's (Dia Mirza) wedding gift. The bungalow is leased to Jahnvi's grandfather who calls it `Second Innings House' for that's where all his senior citizen friends (Who've been thrown out by their children) stay enjoying the second innings of their life.

But who's this Jahnvi? Well..Munnabhai had to fall in love with her voice for when she said Goodmorning Mumbai! on Worldspace Radio (Surrogate advertising at its best)..Then like an uninhibited wave, lovely emotions completely shored Munnabhai. Each morning. Jahnvi (Vidya Balan) is a full-of-life Radio Jockey something on the lines of Preity Zinta in `Salaam Namaste' (I would say she makes a much better RJ than Preity). She asks ten questions on Mahatma Gandhi that Professor Murli Prasad Sharma manages to blurt out correctly (With the aid of genuine professors.If you remember Dr Rustam.Then you'd know what I'm talkin about). Love prospers on first sight. And Jahnvi invites Munna to her Second Innings Home to give a lecture to the Senior Citizens on the morals of Gandhi Ji. A love struck Munnabhai parks himself in a library on Bapu (Deserted.No one comes there..As no one considers Gandhi relevant in a cut-throat world).  

Munnabhai Meets Mahatma (Dilip Prabhawalkar) in the library. The world calls him a lunatic, but Munna is awestruck by the magical appeal of The Father Of The Nation. No one sees Gandhi except him (Not even Circuit). There's a gradual change in the total outlook of a duffer tapori. He organizes a peaceful satyagrah to protest against Lucky Singh after the Second Innings Home is forcibly taken over. Instead of breaking bones, he mobilizes support from the ordinary citizens through his programme on Radio where he listens to plight of common folk who till then wasted no opportunity to resort to violence in day to day life.

All this bhashan baazi has its many entertaining moments, especially when Bapu speaks in Munnabhai lingo. Thank You Raj Kumar Hirani for reviving the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi once again. And, for coining a new term `Gandhigiri' to combat `Dadagiri'. His ideals are more relevant today than ever before. Like `Rang De Basanti', `Lage Raho Munnabhai' shall make the youth realize the importance of `Freedom' that all of us have been presented with on a silver platter. If `RDB' can have such a massive impact on the Anti-Reservation movement of the Medical Students across the country or the ca