Lage Raho Rajkumar Hirani

You dont need maple leaves rustling in New York . Dhobi Talao and Marine drive are perfectly fine.

You dont have to make Amitabh Bachchan do the buffoonery in fur coats and crazy spectacles. There are character actors like Boman Irani.

Everyone need not be dresses in designer suits even while bathing. Heros can look cool in plain shirts and jeans throughout the movie.

You need not assemble the costliest star cost. You just need a great script and screenplay that is thoroughly engaging with a cast of actors who play their parts to the hilt.

Munnabhai MBBS was Rajkumar Hiranis fine tale of a ganster with a heart of gold who uses the power of love and affection(jaadu ki jhappi) to cure various ailments and his lady love. That created a role for which Sanju Baba would be remembered for a lifetime. Only last week I saw the Tamil remake of Munnabhai wherein one of the finest actors of our lifetime Kamal Haasan struggled desperately to create an air of likeability but failed. Its as if Sanju Baba plays himself when he plays Munnabhai or vice versa.

And he is in great form right from his opening entry scene ( I wish I was in Gaiety Galaxy to listen to the whistles for that) to the last scene. Rajkumar Hirani keeps the sequel format in the opening sequence where Arshad Warsi kidnaps a guy from the shopping mall. Its amazing how the director brings us back to relive the old Munnabhai in a matter of 10 minutes. This time the gangsters for a venal builder Lucky Singh to evict tenants and 'hadap' properties.

Boman Irani is back with Lucky Singh and he manages to give the character a mix of malice, caring father and vain humour. Boman Irani was increasingly getting wasted by the candy floss champions(Remember him as Preity's father in Veer Zaara) , it is good to see him back in an author backed role. He is funny when he keeps posing for pictures and morphing them with world celebrities and manages a great Punjabi accent for a Parsi.

Back to the story. Sanjay Dutt is in love with a RJ played with charming wallop by Vidya Balan. He cons a Gandhi contest(more hilarious than the staged hospital scene in part 1) and gets to meet her on the radio show where he has to become a history professor to a bunch of oldies who are playing their second innings at her place after being rejected by their highly aspiring kids. So now he goes to the library to learn about the Mahatma and begins to start seeing Bapu(Dilip Prabhavalkar in an endearing mix of Godbole and Gandhi). After that Munnabhai begins his Gandhigiri or spreading the Gandhian way of non-violence to common day problems.

What follows after that is a peach of screenplay writing which keeps you so thoroughly entertained where scenes, emotion, humour and characters are so finely knit like the sweaters that aunties knit for babies or like your mom serving you a plate of ghar ka khana. Munnabhai wins over the heart of the oldies, makes them play their second innings ( the Parsi gentleman getting married to his childhood sweetheart is extremely cute) . But Lucky Singh cons them out of that house that they stay in as a dowry gift for his daughter. Munna becomes a RJ on Vidyas radio and starts a show that acts as a Gandhigiri helpline for aam aadmis problems and uses that to pressurize citizens to send flowers to Lucky Singh and irritate him. Lucky outwits him initially forcing Munna to confess that he is not a true professor to Vidya. But then how he wins her house and her love back is the climax of the story.

The film has a lot of wonderful sequences like Munna and Circuits discussion on who was Bapu on the motorbike, their jail interactions, Circuits acting as if he also sees Bapu, an old man recovering his pension, and many more.

Arshad Warsi as Circuit is the livewire of the movie, delivering dialogues with such comic timing and elan that you wonder how could Bollywood reject him initially. If Munnabhai 1 saved this actors career, Lage Raho shows his undisputed control on tapori humour. I just wish more directors think of good roles for him although I am not sure if he can deliver one-hero comedies like Govinda in the past.

If Vidya Balan continues eating 4 biscuits with tea for lunch (Source:Rediff) would be the new age girl next door or in MCP terms marriage material. Her sparkling teeth should make her do a toothpaste commercial soon and her dialogue delivery is far better than any actress in the industry. Just compare her RJ Jhanvi to Preity Zinta as RJ Ambar in Salaam Namaste, then you will know who was screeching. Need more of you babe.

Lage Raho Munnabhai deserves a grand applause for its ability to create a movie that is contemporary, rapchik, warm, emotionally rich and fun. Hats off Hirani and lets have more guys like you to take on the candy floss champions.