Date:02/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/02/stories/2006090204380200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Bole to... bindaas!

Lage raho Munnabhai (Hindi)

Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Divya Balan

Director: Raj Kumar Hirani

Wow! Bring out your whistles. Put your hands together. As the lights fade away in the cinema hall, prepare to welcome the new dawn in Hindi cinema. A cinema that is initially enthusing, then exhilarating, before leaving us all enthralled. So delightfully irreverent, yet so profound, so meaningful. "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" is that rare, rare genre: a patriotic comedy film.

No longer will we have to sit through jingoism in the name of patriotic cinema, no longer will we have to endure documentary-style narration in the name of tributes to the freedom fighters.

Cheers to director

Three full-throated cheers to Raj Kumar Hirani, who proves that the much hailed "Munna Bhai" was no fluke. The man is here to stay. Hopefully, the kind of cinema he parades stays around too. Bollywood needs it.

Here Hirani does the blasphemous. He brings Mahatma Gandhi down from his lofty pedestal and into our lives. And for the first time ever, we learn to smile with Gandhi, laugh with him. And lo! we have the first film of our times which we can quote to our grandfather today, and our grandchildren many summers down the line.

Munna as Mahatma

The story is actually quite simple: We have Sanjay Dutt as Munna Bhai or Murli Prasad. A tramp of sorts, he loves listening to radio jockey Jhanvi.

Winning a radio contest on Gandhiji on October 2 in his gangster fashion - he kidnaps a couple of academics to prompt the answers for him - he slips into the role of a professor himself. One farce leads to another, and the viewers have a blast as the gangster quotes Gandhi, hallucinates about Gandhi, and finally acts like Gandhi!

Hot Circuit

Meanwhile, Arshad Warsi reproduces his witty Circuit once more. All the subtleties of expression are intact as he plays an ideal foil to Dutt, who manages to evoke Gandhi without ever compromising on his urchin ways. The Mahatma's dignity is not diluted one bit, no potshots for cheap laughs. Spare a thought too for the unsung Dilip Prabhavalkar who plays Gandhi with a splendid mixture of wit and wisdom.

That is fine, but what about Vidya Balan? Well, after "Parineeta", it is not her film. But as a radio jockey she is with us all through. Time to play "Raghupati Raghav Rajaram... ". Time to practice `Gandhigiri'. Time to watch "Lage Raho Munna Bhai".

<167,5p>Ziya Us Salam