Lage Raho Munna Bhai

An Indian comedy and a sequel. Munna is doing the same work in Mumbai: a small gang, protection money, neighbourhood business. He falls in love with a radio programme. To meet its presenter Jhanvi he enters a competition; the question is about Gandhi and Munna knows nothing. He shuts himself in a library and reads for days. Then something happens: he begins seeing Gandhi. The man walks beside him, talks, gives advice; nobody else can see him. From there the film is about a method. Munna starts giving people advice on the radio and it always arrives at the same place: do not use force, send the person flowers, be honest, wait your turn. The approach gets a name inside the film, and the term passed into everyday speech in India; for a time protests were held by that method in real life as well. The second line is a property swindler. He has his eye on a house where old people live and stands against Munna. What the narrative is interested in is not history but the present: it uses Gandhi not as a monument but as a proposal for daily conduct. Sanjay Dutt plays Munna, Arshad Warsi plays Circuit and Vidya Balan plays Jhanvi. Dilip Prabhavalkar plays Gandhi. Rajkumar Hirani directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes popular Indian cinema and comedy with a social message. Who it is not for: anyone looking for restraint; the film is long, sentimental, and the songs stop the narrative often.