Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

Murli Prasad Sharma, known by the title 'Munna Bhai' ("bhai" means brother or don in the local dialect), 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, Asthana 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 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 as "Chinki". He also 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.k.a. Munna Bhai, a gangster and medical student • Arshad Warsi as Sarkeshwar a.k.a. Circuit, Munna's sidekick • 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 (a.k.a. Chinki), 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 (dubbed by Rajkumar Hirani) • Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a pickpocket who tried to steal Hari's wallet at the railway station (uncredited) • Rohitash Gaud as the coconut seller in the park • Mumaith Khan as Nandini (a.k.a. Reena), the cabaret dancer in the song "Dekh Le" (cameo appearance) • 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, a 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 film (uncredited) == Production ==

Development 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. Casting Hirani had initially conceptualised the film as a television series, and had approached R. Madhavan for the titular role. The actor turned down the role citing that he was busy with other commitments. Later, when Hirani decided to make the series into a feature film, he considered Anil Kapoor for the lead role during scripting stage. However, Shah Rukh Khan was later cast as Munna, but due to his spinal problems, Khan opted out of the film. Nonetheless, the end credits thanked Khan for his inputs into the script. Sanjay Dutt, who at the time was cast as Zaheer, was given the role of Munna, which ultimately helped change his controversial image at the time. Hirani had narrated the script to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, when Khan was part of the film, during the making of Devdas. The film marked the on-screen return of Sanjay's father Sunil Dutt after 10 years to play Munna's father. This marked the first only time in which Sunil and Sanjay appeared together, though they both starred in Reshma Aur Shera (1971), Rocky (1981), and Kshatriya (1993), they did not share any scenes together. Boman Irani was cast as Dr. Jagdish Asthana, a role which was initially offered to Amrish Puri and Paresh Rawal. Makarand Deshpande was the first choice for the role of Circuit, which eventually went to Arshad Warsi. The role proved to be a turning point for Warsi's career, who had several flops at the time. Filming The scenes of the Medial College were shot at the Agriculture College of Pune and Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals in Mumbai. Due to budget constraints, Hirani had to change the way certain scenes were filmed. The film ends with stills of Munna's wedding. Hirani was informed that setting up a wedding stage and making a wedding outfit for Gracy Singh would cost him several thousand rupees. Instead, Hirani arranged to have the stills on an actual wedding stage set up for a real wedding near the sets. The production crew reached an agreement with the wedding hall management and used their stage after a wedding had ended. == Music ==

The music of the film is composed by Anu Malik, with lyrics written by Abbas Tyrewala and Rahat Indori. Dutt's vocals were provided 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 (for Warsi) in addition to four other nominations. It won a number of awards at the 2004 Zee Cine Awards including Best Debuting Director, Best Actor in a Comic Role (for Warsi), 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 IIFA 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. == Remakes ==

The film was remade in Telugu as Shankar Dada M.B.B.S. (2004), in Tamil as Vasool Raja M.B.B.S. (2004), in Kannada as Uppi Dada M.B.B.S. (2007) and in Sinhala as Dr. Nawariyan (2017). == 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. == References ==