Lage Raho Mamu

The 1st chapter trailed a blaze in beginning 2004. I missed most of the blaze because I was not around in good old mumbai, when the movie started making its presence felt. I think I ended up watching the movie on my laptop, courtesy a rented DVD borrowed from a Pakistani store on a very gloomy Saturday afternoon in a very lazy city called Duesseldorf in Germany. The movie did well to lift my gloomy spirits, and I found it genuinely funny in patches thanks to Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani combo. But, overall the movie by itself, didnt appeal to me and it was still a 1 time watch for me.
This time around I am lucky enough to be around when the movie released...and I got to watch the movie in a theatre on the 2nd day 1st show. And this time around... i liked the package better, apart from the superb comic timings displayed by Warsi primarily and Sanjay Dutt. The movie simply rocks .. this is no sequel to Munnabhai MBBS. Only the characters of Murali Prasad Sharma (Munnabhai) and Sarkeshwar(aka circuit) are carried over, rest of the
characters are all new entities. Dr. Asthana is replaced by Lucky Singh, a sardar builder...thats Boman Irani for you. Also, the laughter therapy is gone out of the window....and he does not share that much screen footage as he did in the MBBS story. Vidya Balan plays the role of a RJ (radio jockeyfor those who share an intelligence level on par with me) and is pretty
comptetent in handling herself. Munnaabhai is the good hearted bhai who wants
to win over the lovely RJ , and the movie is all about his efforts to win her over with .. surprise, surprise.. Gandhiji's help. The gandhi idea is blended well into the movie, and at very little stages does it sound overly didactic or preachy. If the movie can make u pull ur stomach muscles while laughing, maybe it can also have an effect of touching an emotional chord here and there. Most of the stomach muscle pulling related injuries can be attributed to Warsi, and his excellent sense of timing in the comic department. And Sanjay dutt does well in both the comic and emotional content department.
Wouldnt really comment on the music since its hardly the focus of the movie.
Overall, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra have yet another winner that they have served out to the public.All I can say is.. lage raho Hirani and Chopra.
Watch it and chances are really good that u will like "Gandhigiri" served out to you.....