Munnabhai Lagey Raho...........

"Munnabhai Lagey Raho" The much awaited film of the year.... But when i saw the small crowd outside Athulya today i was kinda stunned to see that there were hardly 100 people for a film that was supposed to be running full house across the nation. But then what can one expect from the kerala crowd which is traditionally more into action and adventure when it comes to NON-MALAYALAM movies. It is pathetic about the Kerala crowd that we get more people to come for crappy hollywood makeover like Krrish and get so many people and housefull show's.

We were 7 people in total, and went for th 2 pm show. I had huge expectations about the sequel to Munnabhai MBBS and i hadn't heard much about the storyline of the 2nd part, so i was expecting a continuation from where we had stopped in the 1st part. But the director seems to have a entirely new storyline and cast, but there are the usual characters associated to Munnabhai, like the right hand man-Circuit and some other petty thieves. Then ther's Boman Irani in the classical villian type role. Supporting cast includes almost all of the people from the 1st part.

Then in the form of lady interest we have Vidya Balan, doing a pretty good mimic of Robbie Williams in his unforgettable role in GOOD MORNING VIETNAM, only here it's GOOD MORNING MUMBAI...... Munna is our old self itself with his NOT so intelligent ways and talking style, akha Tapori estyle. He's also got his OWN style of getting things done by hook or crook. The film begins in the same way the 1st began, with a Kidnap. But then the drama and the humour in the 1st kidnap was not matched even closely by the opening sequence. In this part munna is more into Social activities and suddenly has a craze to read about Mahatma Gandhi. His involvement with Gandhiji begins there and then he beings to have hallucinations and see's Mahatma wherever he goes. Mahatma tries to change Munna and imbibes in him the qualities of Ahimsa and Satyagraha.

There are very nice songs in the film with picturizations in the beaches of Goa and also locations in Mumbai. The humour and the dialogs in the film are on par with the 1st part. The story moves in a very nice way and the movie never seemed to drag eventhough the second half was pretty serious and there was less scope for humour. The climax was pretty much unexpected and we had a surprise entry from Abhishek Bachchan. But it wasn't like the stupid cameo he did in Salaam Namaste.

The film is a good entertainer for any crowd and also makes one remember the values that Mahatma had given importance and how much we have forgotton them. I will say this is a MUST SEE for the Genext.