#365DaysOfWriting – Day Seventy-Eight
“Carrom rambaanu. Juice piwanu. Majja ni life.”
So I was watching Munnabhai MBBS yesterday after a very long time. It just struck me that of all Rajkumar Hirani films, I’ve watched this one the most.
In hindsight, while I have enjoyed Lage Raho Munnabhai and 3 Idiots (PK not so much), Munnabhai MBBS is, as a friend told me, the least preachy of his work. It just felt natural and more relatable.
Every other film tried to sell an idea.
Lage Raho had ‘Gandhigiri’. 3 Idiots had ‘AAL IZZ WELL’. PK had ‘wrong number’. Munnabhai MBBS was simply the story of a भाई (bhai) with a heart of gold. The ‘bhaigiri’ was innate and subtle. And the humour was so well written.
The dialogue I quoted at the beginning comes from a very emotional part of the film.
An old Parsi grandfather who’d given up hope on life is brought back to life with a simple game of carrom. Out of context this sounds utterly unbelievable, I know, but you have to see the film to believe it. I always shed happy tears at this scene, even today. This is my favourite scene of any Hirani film. That was the true power of Munnabhai MBBS back then – it wasn’t selling anything, just telling a great story.
