Munnabhai MBBS released with the least of hype.No one expected it to become a hit, firstly no one expected it be a good film.After all, Sanjay Dutt wasn’t the biggest star then, Arshad Warsi was making a comeback after a long time and who had even heard of Boman Irani.But, the movie came, people saw it and it conquered their hearts.Rajkumar Hirani became an overnight star director and expectations from the sequel were sky high.
They say there are few movies whose sequels are better than the prequel.Munnabhai is one of those rare movies.
Story:Munna and circuit are back this time doing work for a builder called Lucky singh who uses them to evict people from buildings or to forcefully take over their homes.Munna is in love with Jhanvi, the wonderful voice on worldspace radio.Munna gets an opportunity to meet his dream girl when he wins a quiz on Mahatma Gandhi(of course by getting the help of some history professors).Munna impersonates as a history professor to impress Jhanvi, but gets into a soup when she asks him to lecture her grandpa and his friends on Gandhism.Circuit takes Munna to a Gandhi library where Munna studies everything on Gandhi for 3 continous days.And then the fun begins when Munna suddenly starts seeing Bapu.As the story progresses, Lucky Singh usurps Jhanvi’s house and when Munna fails to get it back, he turns to Bapu to help him and thus begins Munna’s experiments with ’Gandhigiri’.
Screenplay:Making a film with a social message without boring the audience is a difficult task.The task becomes even more difficult when you have to preach Gandhism through humor.A difficult subject like this is tackled skilfully by Rajkumar Hirani.Not once would you be feeling an effect of being preached.Not once would you get bored as you absorb Bapu’s ideas.Hirani tries to convince the audience that even in today’s mean, bad world Gandhiji’s ideas have a place.The love story between Munna and Jhanvi are well done, without too many romantic songs.The comedy is first rate and till the very last minute if the movie, you will have a smile on your face, if not rolling in your seats with laughter.
Acting:Words cannot describe the wonderful cast of LRMB.Sanjay and Arshad are first rate as usual.Boman Irani as Lucky Singh stuns you with his wonderful potrayal.Though Lucky Singh has less historonics as compared to Dr.Asthana, Boman Irani simply blows you away.Vidya Balan is first rate as Jhanvi.It shows that she is definetely an actress to watch out for.All the other minor cast like Jimmy Shergill, Dia Mirza, Parikshit Sahni fit to their role to the T.
Music and cinematography:The music by Shantanu Moitra is refreshing if not awesome.A movie like LRMB doesn’t quite require foot-tapping numbers, but still Shantanu does compose some good tracks.This time around, the cinematography and the over all production value is much better, which are testimony to the fact that Vidhu Vinod Chopra has spent a good deal on his movie.
LRMB in my opinion is the best movie of the year.Unlike some movies which are blatant rip-offs(read:Zinda)or inspired by hollywood flicks(read:Krrish), LRMB is completely original, a testimony to the fact that original screenplay writers are still left in bollywood.LRMB shows that value-based movie-making hasn’t died, it simply has metamorphised into a new form.
My verdict would be 5 out of 5.