Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (translation: Munna Bro M.B.B.S.) is a 2003IndianHindi-language satiricalcomedydrama film written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani in his directorial debut and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the production banner of Vinod Chopra Films. The film was released in India on 19 December 2003, and is the first installment of the Munna Bhai film series before its sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006). The film stars Sunil Dutt in his final film role as the father to his real-life son, Sanjay Dutt, who stars as the titular character of Munna Bhai, a gangster in the Mumbai underworld. Gracy Singh portrays the female lead, being replaced by Vidya Balan in the sequel, and Arshad Warsi portrays the role of Munna's sidekick, Circuit, while Boman Irani, Rohini Hattangadi, Jimmy Sheirgill and Neha Dubey also appear in the film. Based in Mumbai, the film follows Munna trying to please his father by pretending to be a doctor, but when a doctor, Asthana (Irani), exposes Munna's lies and tarnishes his father's honour, Munna enrolls in an Indian medical college with the help of Circuit. Chaos ensue when Munna, on 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 Asthana's daughter and his childhood friend, "Chinki".
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.[3] In its 26th week of release, the film could still be found playing on 300 screens throughout India.[4] The film's release was also accompanied by a mobile video game based on the film by Indiagames.[5]
Hirani revealed in an interview in September 2019 that production on the third Munna Bhai film starring Dutt in the title role will begin in towards the end of 2020.[6]
Plot
Murli Prasad Sharma, nicknamed "Munna Bhai", is a street-wise, Bombay Hindi-speaking gangster who runs an extortion racket on the streets of Mumbai. He is supported by his loyal henchman, Sarkeshwar "Circuit" Sharma, who does most of his work for him. Once a year, Munna's gang converts his hide-out into a fully-functioning hospital, to fool Munna's visiting parents Hariprasad and Parvati, who believe Munna has become a real doctor. Munna's goons take turns playing doctors, staff and patients, to keep up the charade.
This works for many years, until one of Hari's annual visits with Parvati culminates in Hari bumping into Dr. Jagdish Asthana, who founded the first hospital in Munna's village years ago. Hari proposes to Asthana that they get Asthana's 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, it is when his maid reacts shockingly to Munna's photo that Asthana realizes the truth, and exposes Munna to Hari and Parvati. Humiliated and embarrassed at their son's lack of a real vocation, they leave the city and return home. Munna vows to set things right and exact vengeance from Asthana by getting a medical degree, but unknowingly ends up enrolling in the same college whose dean is Asthana. Certain that Munna has cheated his way through the entrance exam, but pending real evidence, Asthana is forced to allow Munna to study there.
Upon becoming a student, Munna falls back to his ways by flouting all the rules of the hospital. He enforces 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 constantly seeks to impose a more empathetic and almost holistic regimen around himself. He also calls upon Circuit to 'tweak' the system for him when needed. His behaviour is well-received by the hospital staff and patients, who are able to see the good-natured intent behind his anti-establishment actions. Asthana, who perceives all this as symptoms of chaos, is unable to prevent it from expanding and gaining ground at his college, despite his efforts to expel Munna. He begins laughing in a way that implies that he has gone insanely mad, as an attempt to practice "laughter therapy", which serves more to convey his anger than diffuse it.
Meanwhile, Munna also develops a friendly relationship with Dr. Suman, who works at the hospital, unaware that she is "Chinki", an ignorance she hilariously exploits. Munna decides to confess his feelings for Suman and abandon his personal vendetta against "Chinki" and Asthana. Munna 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 home surgeon Dr. Rustom Pawri'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 is unable to do so after Munna injures himself in order to stay back. However, when he does recover, 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 in front of 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 end up becoming 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, and together, they open a real hospital in Munna's family village. Circuit also gets married a year later and has a son, who is nicknamed "Short Circuit". 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.[7] 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.[8] After Hirani chose to make into a film, during the scripting stage, he wanted Anil Kapoor to play the lead role.[7] 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.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Nevertheless, the end credits of the film thank Khan for his inputs into the script.[7] Hirani also narrated the script to Aishwarya Rai during the time he was in talks with Shahrukh Khan.[7] 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;[15] 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.[16][17]
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.[20]
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.[7]
The music is composed by Anu Malik. Lyrics for the songs are penned by Abbas Tyrewala and Rahat Indori. 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.[21]
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 wanted that script to include Munnabhai 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. Munna Bhai part 3 is still in making.
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 who works in Hindi cinema in addition to a few Kannada, Tamil, Punjabi and Telugu films. In a career spanning over four decades, Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 135 films, ranging from romance to comedy genres, though usually in action genres, thus proving himself one of the most popular Hindi film actors since the 1980s.
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. Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Rampal, Anil Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan are leading with 2 wins.
Boman Irani is an Indian actor, 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 has won a Filmfare Award and an IIFA Award.
Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi! is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language fantasy comedy drama film written and directed by Mahesh Manjrekar and produced by Sangeetha Ahir, starring Shahid Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Amrita Rao and Arshad Warsi. It was released on 23 December 2005.
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 production banner of Vinod Chopra Films. The film was released worldwide on 1 September 2006, and is the second installment of the Munna Bhai film series after its prequel, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003). Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi reprised their roles as Munna Bhai, a gangster in the Mumbai underworld, and his sidekick, Circuit, respectively. Vidya Balan portrays the female lead, replacing Gracy Singh from the original, while several other actors from the prequel, notably Jimmy Sheirgill and Boman Irani, appear in new roles, and Dia Mirza also appears in a small role in the film. In this film, the eponymous lead character begins to see the soul of Mahatma Gandhi, which is portrayed by Dilip Prabhavalkar. Through his interactions with Gandhi, he begins to practice what he refers to as "Gandhigiri" to help ordinary people solve their problems.
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.
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.
Hum Kisise Kum Nahin is a 2002 Indian Hindi action comedy film directed by David Dhawan and produced by Afzal Khan. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn and Aishwarya Rai.
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. Adapted loosely from Chetan Bhagat's novel Five Point Someone, 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 2013 Indian Hindi-language political action thriller film directed by Anand Kumar. It is produced by Vinod Bachan, and presented by Mohammed Fasih & 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 true story of 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 Kannada, Tamil, Telugu 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 sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, in 2006. 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 of their time.
Sanju is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language biographical comedy-drama 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 association with the 1993 Bombay bombings, relationship with his father, and acting career. Ranbir Kapoor stars as the title character, along with an ensemble supporting cast.
Munna Bhai, is a fictional character in Indian films, created by Rajkumar Hirani and portrayed by Sanjay Dutt.
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