Lage Raho Munnabhai………..a piece of art

It’s 11:00 pm and I’ve just returned back after seeing Lage Raho Munnabhai and couldn’t help but quickly get on to write my take on the movie. The movie released very recently but I could see the excitement it was creating as early as couple of months before its release. After its release in India it became a rage. I couldn’t believe that people were calling me up and telling me to go watch it. I got lucky and the movie was screening in a theatre nearby so I did go and watch it.

My take on the movie….well…..how can so many people be wrong. I loved the movie. Mr. Hirani, why did you make such a short movie? I would have happily sat in the theatre and watched such a movie easily for 8-10 hours. I still remember watching Krrish for 3 hours in the theatre and my bum all numb after it. But Munnabhai was like a breeze.

I think the highlight for me in the movie was that it was very simple. No complicated dialogues, plots, locations, scenes, everything was just simple and beautifully executed. I’ve always liked Sanjay Dutt’s acting and screen presence and I think he’s raised the bar really high this time around. Arshad Warsi, well he has been fantastic from his very first film, “Tere Mere Sapne”. He is a brilliant actor, dancer and now a class apart comedian. The female lead in the movie, Vidya Balan, has displayed her acting talent and beauty to the maximum.

The central characters of the movie, Munna (Sanjay Dutt) and Circuit (Arshad Warsi), two lovable goons take you on a laugh riot in this movie. Munna who’s in love with Jhanvi’s (Vidya Balan, who by the way looks stunning in the movie) voice over the radio finally ends up meeting her pretending to be an expert on Mahatma Gandhi’s historical background. He is just drawn slowly towards the Mahatma’s way of dealing with things in life and starts practicing “Gandhigiri” as opposed to “Bhaigiri” practiced by him previously. The theme of the movie that of invoking Gandhian values in today’s world is a very unique concept and does provide every viewer some food for thought.

We all live in a difficult world nowadays and it is so easy to get away by portraying a false image of things. I think meaningful cinema like this raises the question that, is all what we do in our daily life right and true? Can’t help but think myself, how many times I have lied to get out of difficult situations. Have I felt good after all that??….I am not sure but certainly not too happy.

Truth and Tolerance were few of Mahatma’s teachings and the movie shows us how well we can use these two powerful virtues in our daily lives. So, it won’t be a bad idea to try out these and many other Gandhian teachings in our lives. I’m game for it and thanks to meaningful Indian cinema like this for provoking a thought like this in me.

Some quick reference to the Gandhian values from the movie:

• The path of truth though always difficult assures guaranteed success and respect.

• To err is human but to apologize is divine. It takes great courage to make an apology and no person becomes small by doing it.

• A person’s worth is measured by how he treats people poorer in resources than him.

• Restraint is always better than retaliation. Practice loving even your enemies and win their hearts rather than fighting them.

• Hatred and Untruthfulness are diseases and one needs to cure himself if affected by it.