Lage Raho Munnabhai - Yes please Lage Raho

I luuuurv Munnabhai. Naa not only because he´s closely related to my FPMEMA. Because you just have to. Bas.
Right after arriving home from Salzburg on Sunday I went to watch the Lage Raho Munnabhai screening. And I´m very grateful to my sister that she timed the birth of my nephew so I was able to get back on time. Btw. I´ll keep this post free of spoilers apart from the general storyline.

Munnabhai and his second in command work the serious business. Kidnapping, extortion, evicting houses (without the owners consent). Well, you get the idea. Its just that Munna seems to have shifted his priorities for the moment. He is in love. With Jhanvi the host of a local radio morning show. One day lady luck seems to shine on Munna´s so far fairly onesided love affair. Gandhijis birthsday is coming up and Jahnvi is having a quiz about him on her show with the first prize being a face to face meeting on her show.













So Munna calls in his gang to "help" him winning it. Leading to one of the funniest scenes in the movie. I wont tell how he manages to win. But winning he does. Not that there would be any question about it, if you have an ally like Circuit.
Problems arise when Munna almost screws the whole story by pretending to be history professor. Because now he has to stock up on Gandhi knowledge fast to get through a Gandhi speech in Jhanvis house he got himself invited to hold.
With no other options left, Munna heads to the library and starts to cram. 3 (?) days and nights without a break.













And then the most wonderful thing happens. The ghost of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi shows up and promises to help Munna. So all´s well? Not exactly. There are not to be missed differing views on how to conduct your life between Gandhi and Munnabhai. Somehow not surprising kidnapping and bone-breaking don´t go too well with truth and non-violence.

So while we watch Munnabhai juggling his business, his love life and "Gandhigiri" and we get to enjoy the usual hilarious Munna/Circuit banter, a new villain shows up. And the going gets tough.













Lucky Singh (Boman Irani) a local builder who up to now has been a very good consumer for the munna/circuit enterprises. But in his quest to marry off his daughter he needs the second innings house, a sort of old age home that Jhanvi has a vested interest in keeping it as it is. Good for us. Because that leads to trouble in the Munna/ Jhanvi/ Circuit/ Lucky universe. And we get to see Munna and Circuit in action the non-violent way (well at least they try)













The thing that makes LRM so special is the way Rajkumar Hirani managed to write and direct a great sequel to a cult film, include an effective lecture on a modern day approach to Satyagraha and still (almost) recreates the raw feeling and emotional side that made the first Munnabhai so endearing.

Go watch it. You will love it. Kasam Se.

PS: all the pics are from the movies official website www.lagerahomunnabhai.com
PPS: even though we all were spoilered we had our screeming teenage fangirl moment when the cameo showed up close to the end of the film.