Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language comedy drama film written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani in his directorial debut and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the banner Vinod Chopra Films. It features Sunil Dutt in his final film appearance as the father to his real-life son, Sanjay Dutt, who stars as the titular character. Gracy Singh, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Jimmy Sheirgill and Rohini Hattangadi play other roles.
The first installment of the Munna Bhai film series, the film follows Munna Bhai, a don in the Mumbai underworld, trying to please his father by pretending to be a doctor, but when a doctor, Asthana, exposes his lies and tarnishes his father's honor, Munna enrolls in a medical college. Chaos ensues when Munna, upon finding that Asthana is the dean of the college, vows revenge, while also sparking a romance with a house doctor, Suman, unaware that she is his childhood friend and Asthana's daughter.
Released on 19 December 2003, the film was a major critical and commercial success, and went on to win the 2004 National Film Award for Best Popular Film, and several Filmfare Awards, including the Best Film (Critics) and Best Screenplay Award|Best Screenplay]. At the box office, it achieved a silver jubilee status being one of only eight Hindi films to have achieved this status since the year 2000. In its 26th week of release, the film could still be found playing on 300 screens throughout India. The film's release was also accompanied by a mobile video game based on the film by Indiagames. It was later followed with a sequel in 2006, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, with a third film currently in development as of 2025.
Plot
Murli Prasad Sharma, known by the title 'Munna Bhai', is a gangster in Mumbai who runs an extortion racket. Every year, with the help of his aide, Sarkeshwar "Circuit" Sharma, and his gang, Munna converts his hide-out into a fully-functioning hospital to fool his visiting parents Hariprasad "Hari" Sharma and Parvati Devi Sharma, who believe Munna is a real doctor.Meanwhile, one of Hari's annual visits with Parvati culminates in Hari bumping into childhood acquaintance Dr. Jagdish Chandra Asthana, who is the dean of a local medical college and had founded their village's first medical centre. Hari proposes to Asthana that they get his daughter and Munna's childhood friend "Chinki" married to him. Asthana agrees, even though Munna asks her to reject him, lest his parents discover the truth. However, when his maid reacts shockingly to Munna's photo, Asthana realizes the truth and exposes Munna to Hari and Parvati. Humiliated at their son's lack of a real vocation, they leave the city and return home. Munna vows to become a doctor to get back at Asthana but unknowingly ends up enrolling into his college with the help of home surgeon Dr. Rustom Pavri. Certain that Munna has cheated his way through the entrance exam, but lacking real evidence, he is forced to allow Munna to study there.
Upon becoming a student, Munna falls back into his ways by enforcing his regime of "common-sense treatment", directly challenging Asthana's conventional opinions to get under his skin. Despite the school's emphasis on mechanical, cartesian, impersonal, and often bureaucratic relationships between doctors and patients, Munna, who constantly seeks to impose a more empathetic and almost holistic regimen around himself, clashes with professors over their lack of empathy towards patients, especially those who are deemed incurable by conventional medicine. His behavior is well-received by the hospital staff and patients, who are able to see the good-natured intent behind his anti-establishment actions. Asthana, perceiving this as chaos, is unable to stop it and resorts to laughter therapy to deal with his stress.
Munna simultaneously develops a friendly relationship with Dr. Suman, who works at the hospital, unaware that she is "Chinki", an ignorance she hilariously exploits to a point where he gives up on marriage plans with "Chinki" to exact revenge on Asthana after Suman sends her doctor friend to masquerade, and uses old-fashioned kindness and love to 'cure' many patients at the hospital, including Karan, a suicidal youngster he met on his first day of college, and Dr. Pavri's father, who at one point fell ill and short of a desire to live. He even thanks an underappreciated janitor and arranges to bring a stripper inside the patient ward to cheer up Zaheer, a man dying from stomach cancer who he befriends in the process.
When Asthana learns about the stripper episode, he sees this as a potential reason to expel Munna on disciplinary grounds but fails to do so after Munna injures himself to stay back. However, after he recovers, the hospital staff, patients and students stand in Asthana's way and refuse to let Munna leave. Munna is then made to take a test before the entire college the next day to keep his enrollment. Later that night, Zaheer dies. Still in shock, Munna gives up at a point during the test and leaves saying he is not a doctor, but a street thug. Just as he leaves, Anand Banerjee, a paraplegic patient who has been brain-dead for the last 12 years, comes back to life. Suman realizes Munna as the miracle behind Anand's recovery and gives a heartfelt speech, defending his actions. Asthana, finally moved, is forced to change his opinion of Munna.
Munna does not become a doctor, but news of his 'miraculous' treatments reaches his parents. They return to the city and forgive him. Munna marries Suman after learning of her true identity as "Chinki", and together, they open a real hospital in Munna's family village. Circuit also gets married a year later and has a son nicknamed "Short Circuit". Asthana resigns as the dean and becomes the head doctor, employing Munna's methods, while Rustom succeeds him. As the film concludes, Anand, restored to normal mental health, narrates the story to a few children at the hospital as he is about to leave for Kolkata.
Cast
- Sanjay Dutt as Murli Prasad Sharma, a gangster and medical student
- Arshad Warsi as Sarkeshwar, Munna's sidekick Best friend
- Sunil Dutt as Shri Hari Prasad Sharma, Munna's father
- Jimmy Sheirgill as Zaheer Ali Khan, a terminally ill patient and Munna's friend
- Gracy Singh as Dr. Suman Asthana, Asthana's daughter and a faculty member of the medical institute
- Boman Irani as Dr. Jagdish Chandra "JC" Asthana, Suman's father and the medical institute dean
- Rohini Hattangadi as Parvati Sharma, Munna's mother
- Neha Dubey as Shalini, Suman's friend who pretends to be Chinki
- Kurush Deboo as Dr. Rustom Pavri, a faculty member of the medical institute
- Yatin Karyekar as Anand Banerjee, a brain-dead patient and Munna's friend
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a pickpocket who tried to steal Hari's wallet at the railway station
- Rohitash Gaud as the coconut seller in the park
- Mumaith Khan as Nandini, the cabaret dancer in the song "Dekh Le"
- Priya Bapat as Meenal, first year medical student
- Pushkar Shrotri as a professor in the medical institute
- Vishal Thakkar as Karan, a suicidal patient
- Anuradha Chandan as Karan's mother
- Khurshed Lawyer as Nagrajan Swami, first year medical student and Munna's roommate
- Bomi Dotiwala as Rustom's carrom-obsessed father
- Kenneth Desai as Ghanshyam Seth, a man who is kidnapped by Munna in the beginning of the movie
Production
Early developments
In an interview, Hirani discussed how the idea for the film emerged from his interaction with some friends who were medical students. Later, he also had the opportunity to interact with a lot of medical professionals when some members of his family became sick. These experiences gave birth to the idea for the film.Hirani initially conceptualised the tale of Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. as a series, and approached R. Madhavan to play the lead role. The actor turned down the offer citing that he was busy with other commitments. After Hirani chose to make into a film, during the scripting stage, he wanted Anil Kapoor to play the lead role. However, Shah Rukh Khan was later cast as Munna along with Sanjay Dutt as Zaheer but due to his back problems Khan was forced to turn down the film. Nevertheless, the end credits of the film thank Khan for his inputs into the script. Hirani also narrated the script to Aishwarya Rai during the time he was in talks with Shahrukh Khan. Khan and Rai were working together on Devdas at the time. Vivek Oberoi was considered for the role, but in the end Sanjay Dutt took the role as Munna, which ultimately gave him an image make over and helped change the public perception of the controversial superstar; his real-life father Sunil Dutt returned to the silver screen after 10 years to play Munna's father. This is the first and only film in which real-life father and son Sunil and Sanjay appear together, although they both appeared in Reshma Aur Shera, Rocky and Kshatriya but not in any scenes together. The father–son chemistry received widespread appreciation from critics and has been described as one of the most genuine and unforgettable on-screen portrayals in Bollywood.
The original choice for Circuit's role was Makarand Deshpande. Arshad Warsi took over the role which proved to be a turning point for his career. The scenes of the Medical College were shot at the Agriculture College of Pune and Grant Medical College Mumbai.
Accusations of plagiarism
The film has a similar premise to the 1998 American film Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams. Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra denies there being a resemblance, and says that he had not watched the film before the release of Munna Bhai. Years later, accusations of plagiarism resurfaced on social media when some netizens highlighted scene-to-scene copies.Lack of budget
Hirani did not have a big budget to shoot the film. As a result, he had to change the way certain scenes were shot. For example, the film ends with stills of Munna Bhai's wedding. Hirani was told that setting up a wedding stage and making a wedding outfit for Gracie Singh would cost him several thousand rupees. To save on some of that money, Hirani arranged to have the stills shot on an actual wedding stage set up for a real wedding near the sets. The production team reached an agreement with the wedding hall management and used their stage after a wedding ended.Music
The music is composed by Anu Malik. Lyrics for the songs are penned by Abbas Tyrewala and Rahat Indori. Vocals for Dutt were supplied by Vinod Rathod.According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's one of the highest-selling.
Accolades
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. was the recipient of a number of awards. At the 50th Filmfare Awards, it received the Best Film (Critics), Best Screenplay, the Best Dialogue, and Best Comedian in addition to four other nominations. It won a number of awards at the 2004 Zee Cine Awards including Best Debuting Director, Zee Cine [Award for Best Actor in a Comic Role|Best Actor in a Comic Role], Best Cinematography, and Best Dialogue.Other ceremonies include the 2004 National Film Awards where it won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film and the 2004 International [Indian Film Academy Awards] where it won the Best Comedian Award">Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role">Best Comedian Award.
Sequel
In February 2004, after the success of Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., Rajkumar Hirani decided to work on his next project. He, along with his co-writer Abhijat Joshi, started to write the script of their new film. They didn't want the script to include Munna Bhai, but after they wrote it, the script eventually turned out to be of Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani were to reprise their roles but after the death of Sunil in May 2005, Hirani decided that the film will only have Sanjay & Warsi to reprise their characters from Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. and other actors like Boman Irani and Jimmy Shergill were cast in new roles. Lage Raho Munna Bhai was released on 1 September 2006 and turned out to be a huge success.