Gandhi back in style thanks to Bollywood blockbuster Munnabhai

One hundred years after Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi launched his non-violence movement, a new runaway hit comedy film is helping to bring his teachings to a whole new audience. “Lage Raho Munnabhai” (Carry on Munnabhai)” has played to packed houses since it opened two weeks ago and is on its way to becoming one of Bollywood’s biggest moneymakers of the year, according to industry watchers. The film, which has earned rave reviews, features Bollywood superstar Sanjay Dutt as a gangster named Munnabhai with a heart of gold. But Gandhi, portrayed by veteran stage actor Dilip Prabhavalkar, steals the show as he steers the gangster onto the path of honesty while dispensing old-fashioned lessons about truth and honesty. “If Bapu (Gandhi) were to see the film today, he would have applauded the role,” said Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar. “Already, I hear people are buying more books on Gandhi after watching the film.” In the film — currently number one at the box office according to Bollywood website indiafm.com — Munnabhai falls in love with a female radio host who has no clue about his wicked past. Bapu, or father — as Gandhi is known in India — appears to Munnabhai as a ghost when the gangster starts researching the life of the loincloth-clad Indian leader in a bid to impress the radio presenter with his knowledge. Gandhi, famed as the torchbearer of India’s fight against British rule, urges the gangster to give up his life of crime to woo the woman. The gangster ends up co-hosting the advice chat show, and he ends up winning over both the woman and listeners with the folksy advice relayed to him in the studio by Gandhi himself — who is invisible to everyone else. Gandhi’s principles of austere living and passive resistance, which he followed in his everyday life and with which he fought British colonial rule, are a running theme in the comedy. An elderly man tired of paying bribes is told to shame the offender by offering all he has — his clothes, hearing aid and glasses — until the government official finally does what he asks without payment. “Gandhi is the real hero of the film. The film is really funny, and sends a message without being too heavy,” said student Aastha Singh. Gandhi’s portrayal has found favour in unusual quarters. The Delhi state government approved so much of the Hindi-language film’s message that it made the movie tickets tax-free so more people might see it. “The storytelling is swift, saucy and knife-sharp in critiquing the loss of Gandhian ideals” in everyday Indian life, wrote film critic Khalid Mohamed in Mumbai’s Daily News and Analysis newspaper. The release of the film coincided with centenary celebrations on September 11 to mark the start of Gandhi’s resistance movement against racial discrimination in British-ruled South Africa, where he practised as a lawyer. Ten years later in 1916, Gandhi came back to India and started leading India’s fight against British rule. Movie critics said young people could relate to Prabhavalkar’s portrayal of Gandhi, thanks to his use of slang spoken in Mumbai — where the film is set — and his friendly interaction with the underworld. “Hardcore moral preaching doesn’t sell, but if you package it with entertainment, it works,” said indiafm.com editor Taran Adarsh. “Bapu himself considered humour to be essential. He wasn’t a dour man at all. He used to say “If it wasn’t for my sense of humour, I would have committed suicide long ago’,” said his great-grandson Tushar.

Courtesy Khaleej Times, Sept 14, 2006, New Delhi