Munna Bhai and Gandhigiri...

Finally, I managed to pull some time off my whooping sleepless schedule, to watch the movie 'Lage raho munna bhai' - Munnabhai meets Mahatma Gandhi. After watching the movie, I felt as though I never could have found a better way to know Mahatma and his philosophies. Lage raho... illustrates it in such a lucid and a rolling-in-the-aisle humorous manner.

Murli Prasad Sharma alias Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt) this time around plays the role of a history professor, pretending to know everything about Mahatma Gandhi. He happens to meet Jhanvi (Vidya Balan) by winning a quiz contest on radio. He gets trapped when Jhanvi asks him to come over to her place, to deliver a lecture on mahatma and his ideologies. Now he gets compelled to read all about Mahatma. He spends days together literally in the library, to learn every bit about mahatma. That’s when he has his first tryst with the man himself, Mahatma. Only munna manages to see Mahatma (must say, a very novel concept in itself), while he is invisible to the rest of the world. Mahatma promises munna to take him on a road, which is difficult to travel but success @ the end of the journey is assured.

The rest of the movie demonstrates the concepts and ideologies of truth and nonviolence in the simplest possible terms (no hi-fi jargons) or to say, "In the akkha mumbai istyle". The movie literally proves the relevance of Gandhiism in today's world. We might boast of being in the 21st century, and might have framed out new ideologies for tackling problems. We may ridicule and talk cynically of the outdated ideology of gandhigiri. But folks, watching 'Lage raho....’ made me feel that, we probably need to re-work our philosophies. The movie has so many scenes where Gandhigiri clealry wins over so called Gundagiri. For e.g.:

• Mahatma speaks via munna, to show how the world has failed pathetically to imbibe any of his principles. We might boast outrageously of having named our roads, built statues and even printed Mahatma’s photos on our currency, but have we ever tried to implement any of his ideologies? Our methodology, of trying to keep 'Mahatma alive' materialistically, has been nothing more than a mere folly.

• Munna asks Circuit, (Arshad warsi) to pardon him for having him slapped. A message, asking sorry for a mistake committed by us is not a shame, but it requires some real guts. I mean how many of us dare to do it. For many it’s a question that hurts their ego, even if they are @ fault.
  

• A protest by munna, Jhanvi and others to get back their 'II innings home" from Lucky Singh (Boman Irani). The scenes are so fabulously picturised in illustration of how the so called age old concept of 'satyagrahas' can really pay off (No, not the ones you often get to see these days, where violence rules over real objectivity of the protest).
  

• Munna confesses in front of jhanvi, that he is not a history professor. A very simple message to prove that any relation built on the foundations of falsity is sure to die premature.
  

• Finally, the ultimate victory of truth is spectacularly shown where munna convinces the groom (Abhishek Bachan makes a guest appearance as the groom) and his family that the bride Simran (Diya Mirza) is the ideal choice. She dares to come up with the truth in public. A re-emphasis on the importance of the underlying concept of essence of truth and trust in any relationship.
  

These were just a few scenes I have quoted above, but when the movie is looked @ in entirety, is a perfect blend of entertainment and a social message to enlighten the masses of India (& abroad) about the real ideologies of mahatma, in a simple, easy to comprehend manner. One just wonders and looks @ the whole movie in awe, "Were mahatma's ideologies all this simple? ", "Is Gandhigiri the ultimate solution for all the niggling problems that one faces in day today life?”. Hats off to it's director Rajkumar Hirani and the entire team of Lage raho munna bhai for coming up with such a wonderful movie.

I am sure that this movie for sure has awakened the youth, as more and more people from India and abroad are really loving this whole concept. Now the youth community seems to chant this new mantra, "Say no to Dadagiri, embrace Gandhigiri!".

PS: I happened to visit this website, where one could stage his/her views on Gandhigiri. What do you wait for? Just go out there and stage your opinions. Try Gandhigiri, may be it might help!