The first installment of the Munna Bhai film series, the film follows Munna Bhai, a don in the Mumbaiunderworld, trying to please his father by pretending to be a doctor, but when a doctor, Asthana (Irani), exposes his lies and tarnishes his father's honor, Munna enrolls in a medical college. Chaos ensues when Munna, upon finding that Asthana is the dean of the college, vows revenge, while also sparking a romance with a house doctor, Suman (Singh), unaware that she is his childhood friend and Asthana's daughter. The film was followed by its sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006).[3]
Released on 19 December 2003,[4] the film was a major critical and commercial success, and went on to win the 2004 National Film Award for Best Popular Film, and several Filmfare Awards, including the Best Film (Critics) and Best Screenplay. At the box office, it achieved a silver jubilee status (25-week run) being one of only eight Hindi films to have achieved this status since the year 2000.[5] In its 26th week of release, the film could still be found playing on 300 screens throughout India.[6] The film's release was also accompanied by a mobile video game based on the film by Indiagames.[7]
Plot
Murliprasad Sharma is a gangster in Mumbai, known by the title 'Munna Bhai' ("bhai" means brother or don in the local dialect), who runs an extortion racket. Every year, with the help of his aide Sarkeshwar "Circuit" Sharma and his gang, he converts his hide-out into a fully-functioning hospital to fool Munna's visiting parents Hariprasad "Hari" Sharma and Parvati Sharma, who believe Munna is a real doctor.
Meanwhile, one of Hari's annual visits with Parvati culminates in Hari bumping into childhood acquaintance Dr. Jagdish Asthana, who is the dean of a local medical college and had founded their village's first medical centre. Hari proposes to Asthana that they get his daughter and Munna's childhood friend "Chinki" married to him. Asthana agrees, even though Munna asks her to reject him, lest his parents discover the truth. However, when his maid reacts shockingly to Munna's photo, Asthana realizes the truth and exposes Munna to Hari and Parvati. Humiliated at their son's lack of a real vocation, they leave the city and return home. Munna vows to become a doctor to get back at Asthana but unknowingly ends up enrolling into his college with the help of home surgeon Dr. Rustom Pavri. Certain that Munna has cheated his way through the entrance exam, but lacking real evidence, he is forced to allow Munna to study there.
Upon becoming a student, Munna falls back into his ways by enforcing his regime of "common-sense treatment", directly challenging Asthana's conventional opinions to get under his skin. Despite the school's emphasis on mechanical, cartesian, impersonal, and often bureaucratic relationships between doctors and patients, Munna, who constantly seeks to impose a more empathetic and almost holistic regimen around himself, clashes with professors over their lack of empathy towards patients, especially those who are deemed incurable by conventional medicine. His behavior is well-received by the hospital staff and patients, who are able to see the good-natured intent behind his anti-establishment actions. Asthana, perceiving this as chaos, is unable to stop it and resorts to laughter therapy to deal with his stress.
Munna simultaneously develops a friendly relationship with Dr. Suman, who works at the hospital, unaware that she is "Chinki", an ignorance she hilariously exploits to a point where he gives up on marriage plans with "Chinki" to exact revenge on Asthana after Suman sends her doctor friend to masquerade, and uses old-fashioned kindness and love to 'cure' many patients at the hospital, including Karan, a suicidal youngster he met on his first day of college, and Dr. Pavri's father, who at one point fell ill and short of a desire to live. He even thanks an underappreciated janitor and arranges to bring a stripper inside the patient ward to cheer up Zaheer, a man dying from stomach cancer who he befriends in the process.
When Asthana learns about the stripper episode, he sees this as a potential reason to expel Munna on disciplinary grounds but fails to do so after Munna injures himself to stay back. However, after he recovers, the hospital staff, patients and students stand in Asthana's way and refuse to let Munna leave. Munna is then made to take a test before the entire college the next day to keep his enrolment. Later that night, Zaheer dies; still in shock, Munna gives up at a point during the test and leaves; in the process, Anand Banerjee, a paraplegic patient who has been brain-dead for the last 12 years, comes back to life. Suman realizes Munna as the miracle behind Anand's recovery and gives a heartfelt speech, defending his actions. Asthana, finally moved, is forced to change his opinion of Munna.
Munna does not become a doctor, but news of his 'miraculous' treatments reaches his parents. They return to the city and forgive him. Munna ends up marrying Suman after learning of her true identity as "Chinki", and together, they open a real hospital in Munna's family village. Circuit also gets married a year later and has a son nicknamed "Short Circuit". Asthana resigns as the dean and becomes the head doctor, employing Munna's methods, while Rustom succeeds him. As the film concludes, Anand, restored to normal mental health, narrates the story to a few children at the hospital as he is about to leave for Kolkata.
Cast
Sunil Dutt as Shri Hari Prasad Sharma, Munna's father
In an interview, Hirani discussed how the idea for the film emerged from his interaction with some friends who were medical students.[8] Later, he also had the opportunity to interact with a lot of medical professionals when some members of his family became sick. These experiences gave birth to the idea for the film.
Hirani initially conceptualised the tale of Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. as a series, and approached R. Madhavan to play the lead role. The actor turned down the offer citing that he was busy with other commitments.[9] After Hirani chose to make into a film, during the scripting stage, he wanted Anil Kapoor to play the lead role.[8] However, Shah Rukh Khan was later cast as Munna along with Sanjay Dutt as Zaheer but due to his back problems Khan was forced to turn down the film.[10][11][12][13][14][15] Nevertheless, the end credits of the film thank Khan for his inputs into the script.[8] Hirani also narrated the script to Aishwarya Rai during the time he was in talks with Shahrukh Khan.[8] Khan and Rai were working together on Devdas at the time. Vivek Oberoi was considered for the role, but in the end Sanjay Dutt took the role as Munna, which ultimately gave him an image make over and helped change the public perception of the controversial superstar;[16] his real-life father Sunil Dutt returned to the silver screen after 10 years to play Munna's father. This is the first and only film in which real-life father and son Sunil and Sanjay appear together, although they both appeared in Reshma Aur Shera (1971), Rocky (1981) and Kshatriya (1993) but not in any scenes together.[17][18]
The film has a similar premise to the 1998 American film Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams. The producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, however, denies there being a resemblance, and says that he had not watched the film before the release of Munna Bhai.[21] Years later, accusations of plagiarism resurfaced on social media when some netizens highlighted scene-to-scene copies.[22]
Lack of budget
Hirani did not have a big budget to shoot the film. As a result, he had to change the way certain scenes were shot. For example, the film ends with stills of Munna Bhai's wedding. Hirani was told that setting up a wedding stage and making a wedding outfit for Gracie Singh would cost him several thousand rupees. To save on some of that money, Hirani arranged to have the stills shot on an actual wedding stage set up for a real wedding near the sets. The production team reached an agreement with the wedding hall management and used their stage after a wedding ended.[8]
According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 1,000,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's one of the highest-selling.[23]
In February 2004, after the success of Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., Rajkumar Hirani decided to work on his next project. He, along with his co-writer Abhijat Joshi, started to write the script of their new film. They didn't want the script to include Munna Bhai, but after they wrote it, the script eventually turned out to be of Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani were to reprise their roles but after the death of Sunil in May 2005, Hirani decided that the film will only have Sanjay & Warsi to reprise their characters from Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. and other actors like Boman Irani and Jimmy Shergill were cast in new roles. Lage Raho Munna Bhai was released on 1 September 2006 and turned out to be a huge success.
Sunil Dutt was an Indian actor, film producer, director and politician. Dutt was honoured with Padma Shri, in 1968, by the Government of India, for his contribution to Indian cinema.
Sanjay Balraj Dutt is an Indian actor, playback singer and film producer who works in Hindi cinema in addition to a few Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Punjabi films. One of the most popular and recognised actors of Hindi cinema, in a career spanning over four decades, Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 135 films.
The Filmfare Best Comedian Award was given by Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise an actor who had delivered an outstanding performance in a comic role.
Arshad Hussain Warsi is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several awards including a Filmfare Award from five nominations and is noted for acting in varied film genres.
The IIFA Award for Best Actor recognizes leading male actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role. The recipient is chosen by viewers and the winner is announced at the ceremony.
The IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor recognizes a male actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role. The award is chosen by the viewers and the winner is announced at the ceremony. Anil Kapoor is leading with 3 wins.
The Filmfare Best Screenplay Award is given by the Filmfare magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films.
Boman Irani is an Indian actor, producer, filmmaker, photographer and voice artist who works in Hindi-language films in addition to Telugu, Tamil and Marathi films. One of the most popular character actors in Hindi cinema, he has featured in over 100 films. Irani is the recipient of a Filmfare Award and two IIFA Awards. Boman Irani has recently ventured into film production and advertising under his home banner, Irani Movietone.
Lage Raho Munna Bhai is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the banner Vinod Chopra Films. A sequel to Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003), the film is the second installment of the Munna Bhai series. Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi reprised their roles as the titular Munna Bhai and Circuit, respectively. New additions to the cast include Vidya Balan, Dilip Prabhavalkar and Dia Mirza, while several actors from the original, notably Jimmy Sheirgill and Boman Irani, appear in new roles.
Gandhigiri is a neologism in India which is used to express the tenets of Gandhism in contemporary terms. The term became popular due to its usage in the 2006 Hindi film, Lage Raho Munna Bhai.
Murliprasad Sharma, better known as Munna Bhai, is an Indian fictional character who appears in the Munna Bhai film series. The character is created by Rajkumar Hirani and portrayed by Sanjay Dutt. The Character is based on a Mumbai Local Goon who is recognised as Fake MBBS Doctor
Rajkumar "Raju" Hirani is an Indian filmmaker known for his works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several accolades, including four National Film Awards and 11 Filmfare Awards. Hirani is referred as one of the most successful filmmakers of Indian cinema. His movies are often lighthearted but revolve around significant societal issues with humour and emotional intelligence.
3 Idiots is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, co-written by Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The film stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the titular roles, marking their reunion three years after Rang De Basanti (2006), while Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani and Omi Vaidya appear in pivotal roles. Narrated through two parallel dramas, one in the present and the other set ten years in the past, the story follows the friendship of three students at an Indian engineering college and is a satire about the social pressures under the Indian education system.
Zila Ghaziabad is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language political action thriller film directed by Anand Kumar. It was produced by Vinod Bachan, and presented by Mohammed Fasih and Bharat Shah. The film features Sanjay Dutt, Vivek Oberoi, Arshad Warsi, Charmy Kaur, Minissha Lamba, Ravi Kishan, Paresh Rawal and Sunil Grover in lead roles amongst others. The film also featured Shriya Saran and Geeta Basra for a special appearance. It was based on the true story of the gang wars of Ghaziabad. It was released on 22 February 2013. Upon release, the film received mixed reviews.
Sanjay Dutt is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi films as well as a few Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Punjabi films. He made his acting debut in 1981, opposite Tina Ambani, in his father Sunil Dutt's romantic action film Rocky (1981). Rocky was ranked at tenth highest-grossing Bollywood films of 1981. After appearing in a series of box office flops, he starred in Mahesh Bhatt's crime thriller film Naam (1986). Dutt received critical acclaim for his performance, and it became a turning point in his career.
Munna Bhai is an Indian Hindi-language film series created, written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the Vinod Chopra Productions banner. It consists of Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., released in 2003, and its 2006 sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai. The films share the same characters of Sanjay Dutt as Munna Bhai and Arshad Warsi as Circuit, with different plot elements and settings. Boman Irani features in each film as different characters. Both of the films received widespread critical acclaim and became huge commercial successes.
Yaaron Ki Baraat is an Indian Hindi talk television series which premiered on 8 October 2016 on Zee TV. The last episode was telecast on 11 December 2016.
Sanju is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language biographical film directed and edited by Rajkumar Hirani, written by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi and produced by Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the banners Rajkumar Hirani Films and Vinod Chopra Films. The film chronicles the life of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, notably focusing his drug addiction, arrest for his suspected association with the 1993 Bombay bombings, relationship with his father, and acting career. Ranbir Kapoor stars as the title character with an ensemble supporting cast including Paresh Rawal, Vicky Kaushal, Manisha Koirala, Anushka Sharma, Dia Mirza and Jim Sarbh.
Munna Bhai, is a fictional character in Indian films, created by Rajkumar Hirani and portrayed by Sanjay Dutt.
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