Lage Raho Munnabhai - continuation of the Munnabhai series

With the success of Munnabhai MBBS, it was clear that there would be a sequel, it was just waiting for the sequel to come. And so came the sequel in 2006, called Lage Raho Munnabhai (carry on Munnabhai). The movie starred the main set of 2 characters, Munnabhai (Sanjay Dutt) and his sidekick Circuit (Arshad Warsi). The movie showcases the story of a ruffian who becomes infused with Gandhian ideals (under the influence of the spirit of Gandhi), and tries to share the same with others around him, mixed with a Mumbai type way of speaking.
Sanjay Dutt is Munnabhai, a Mumbai don who indulges in the familiar show of force, and employs muscles to get his work done. He is also infatuated with a local radio jockey Janhavi (Vidya Balan) and wants to get to meet her. However, how to get a ruffian to meet a beautiful radio jockey is not easy to visualize, and then he hears of a contest where the first person to answer multiple questions asked by her gets to meet her. The contest is about answering questions on Mahatma Gandhi (Bapu), and this is where the mix with Gandhian ideology starts to happen.



How does a local hood answer questions about Mahatma Gandhi ? Well, he does this by kidnapping a group of professors by force, and then asking them to answer the questions (and of course, if a professor answers the question correctly, he would get a prize). So, Munnabhai gets the answers correctly, and being highly nervous, manages to make it to the radio station to meet his lady love. He presents himself as an expert in Gandhian ideology, and impresses her to the extent that she takes him with her to present a lecture on Gandhian philosophy to a community of senior citizens (after taking a massive crash course in Gandhian ideology). In this time period, Gandhi appears to him and offers to help him, as long as Munnabhai does everything that Gandhi asks him to do.
And so starts the experiment of a underworld don with Gandhi's spirits, in which he comes much closer to Janhavi and even hosts a radio problem along with her where he expounds the logic of Gandhian ideals and offers to solve the problems of people. And it is here that the movie is mesmerizing, bringing forth the ideals of Gandhi's truths in various stories; the story about the guy who loses his father's money in the stock market and is contemplating suicide, and who calls Munnabhai as a lost soul is incredible, heart moving. The solution is typically Gandhian.
The twist in the main plot is of course the builder Lucky Singh (Boman Irani) who wants to get the old people evicted from the house so that he can gift the house to his daughter's future father-in-law Kulbhushan Kharbanda. He employs Munnabhai and Circuit to get this done, and uses a time when Munnabhai has gone with Janhavi and the old folks to Goa, with circuit emptying the house (not knowing that this was something that Munnabhai would not have wanted). When Munnabhai gets back, he is shocked, but Lucky Singh is unwilling to give the house back. And so starts the attempt by Munnabhai to use Gandhian philosophy to force Lucky Singh to give the house back - in the midst of this, Munnabhai is forced to confront the truth and tell Janhavi all about himself and the truth (and of course she leaves him).
However, it is this Gandhigiri that allows Munnabhai to eventually win out and use the power of truth to solve his problems. The movie inspired a large number of people to adopt Gandhian practices to try to solve their problems.

Videos of songs from the movie:

Pal Pal Har Pal (a very beautiful song)



Samjho Ho hi Gaya



Corruption scene mixed with Gandhism (great scene)



Atmaram Birthday Comedy



Bande Mein Tha Dum