Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

An Indian comedy. Munna runs a small gang in Mumbai. He collects protection money, gets into fights and carries weight in the neighbourhood. His family does not know. His parents believe their son is a doctor; Munna has kept the lie up for years and stages a whole hospital scene when they come to the city. The lie comes out. To make up for it Munna enters medical school. He gets through the exam by cheating, moves onto the campus with his men and starts studying. From there the film is about a conflict: the rigid order of the school against the direct way Munna deals with people. The dean is bound to the rules; he finds it unnecessary for students to touch a patient or ask their name. Munna's method is simple and gets a name inside the film: the hug. After the film that idea passed into everyday speech in India. What the narrative is interested in is not medicine but how a person is met in illness, and it builds that inside a comedy, with open sentiment. Sanjay Dutt plays Munna, Arshad Warsi plays his second Circuit, and Boman Irani plays the dean. Rajkumar Hirani directed; it is his first feature. The film was a large success, a sequel followed and it was remade in other languages. Who it is for: anyone who likes the emotional comedies of Indian cinema. Who it is not for: anyone looking for restraint; the film moves between laughter and tears often and abruptly.