Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
Directed by	Rajkumar Hirani
Produced by	Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Written by	Screenplay: Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra Dialogues: Abbas Tyrewala
Story by	Rajkumar Hirani
Starring	Sunil Dutt Sanjay Dutt Gracy Singh Arshad Warsi Boman Irani Rohini Hattangadi Jimmy Sheirgill
Music by	Score: Sanjay Wandrekar Songs: Anu Malik
Cinematography	Binod Pradhan
Edited by	Pradeep Sarkar Rajkumar Hirani
Production company	Vinod Chopra Films Entertainment One
Distributed by	AA Films
Release date	19 December 2003 (2003-12-19) (India)
Running time	150 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹100 million
Box office	est. ₹410 million

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (translation: Munna Bro M.B.B.S.) is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani in his directorial debut and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the production banner of Vinod Chopra Films. The film was released in India on 19 December 2003, and is the first installment of the Munna Bhai film series before its sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006). Considered to be a cult film in the Hindi cinema and loosely inspired from the 1998 American film Patch Adams, the film stars Sunil Dutt in his final film role as the father to his real-life son, Sanjay Dutt, who stars as the titular character of Munna Bhai, a gangster in the underworld. Gracy Singh portrays the female lead, being replaced by Vidya Balan in the sequel, and Arshad Warsi portrays the role of Munna's sidekick, Circuit, while Boman Irani, Rohini Hattangadi and Jimmy Sheirgill also appear in the film. Based in Mumbai, the film follows Munna trying to please his parents by pretending to be a doctor, but when a doctor, Asthana (Irani), exposes Munna's lies and tarnishes his parents' honour, Munna enrolls in an Indian medical college with the help of Circuit. Chaos ensue when Munna, on finding that Asthana is the dean of the college, vows revenge, while also sparking a romance with a house doctor, Suman (Singh), unaware that she is Asthana's daughter and his childhood friend, "Chinki".

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. was a major critical and commercial success, and Hirani revealed in an interview in September 2019 that production on the third Munna Bhai film starring Dutt in the title role will begin in towards the end of 2020. The film 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. At the box office, it achieved a silver jubilee status (25-week run) being one of only eight 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.

Plot

Murli Prasad Sharma (Sanjay Dutt), also known as Munna Bhai, is a street-wise, Mumbai Hindi-speaking underworld gangster, who runs an extortion racket on the streets of Mumbai, and is supported by his loyal sidekick, Sarkeshwar (Arshad Warsi), also known as Circuit, who does most of his work for him. Every year, Munna's parents, Shri Hari Prasad (Sunil Dutt) and Parvati (Rohini Hattangadi), leave their home village and travel to Mumbai to visit their son, whom they are extremely proud of, for having apparently fulfilled their wish and become a doctor with a medical degree of MBBS. Munna cannot bear to shatter Hari and Parvati's dreams, so whenever they come to visit him, he and Circuit set up a medical masquerade by having their building converted into a fully-functioning hospital named "Shri Hari Prasad Sharma Charitable Hospital", and all their henchmen take turns acting as doctors, patients and hospital staff. This works for many years, until one of Hari and Parvati's yearly visits unexpectedly culminates in Hari, while on a walk in a Mumbai park, bumping into an old accquaintance, Dr. J. C. Asthana (Boman Irani), who founded the first hospital in Munna's village several years ago. Hari learns that Asthana's daughter, "Chinki" (Gracy Singh), is also a doctor and proposes him to arrange her marriage with his son to which Asthana readily agrees. Munna, remembering that "Chinki" was his childhood friend, asks her to reject him on a phone call in order to prevent his parents from realising the truth. However, when his housemaid reacts shockingly to Munna's photograph, Asthana discovers the truth and exposes Munna's occupation to Hari and Parvati, insulting them and calling them "fools" for being ignorant of their son's life. Humiliated and heartbroken at their son's lack of a real vocation, Hari and Parvati cut their visit short and leave Mumbai to return home to their village.

Munna, in grief and despair, drunkenly declares to Circuit that the only way to redeem himself and seek revenge against the spiteful Asthana for insulting his parents is to obtain an MBBS degree in reality. The next day, Munna and Circuit arrive at the "Imperial Institute of Medical Studies", one of the most prestigious medical colleges in Mumbai, to make enquiries, when they learn from Dr. Rustom Pavri (Kurush Deboo), a faculty member of the institute, that Munna must write and pass a pre-medical entrance exam with a mark above 90% to gain admission. Munna and Circuit repay Rustom for this helpful advice by holding his old, carrom-obsessed father (Bomie E. Dotiwala) as their hostage, and blackmailing Rustom into assuming Munna's identity, and writing and passing the entrance exam for him. However, Munna immediately creates chaos on his very first day at the institute: he frightens a doctor into treating Karan (Vishal Thakkar), a youngster having attempted suicide, as the doctor had initially refused on grounds of Karan's mother having not filled out the necessary administrative forms; all the students in his class misunderstand him for their professor; he moves into a hostel room and arranges Circuit and their henchmen to store all their personal belongings in it; he frightens the senior students instead when they attempt to rag him; and on top of that, he discovers that the dean of the institute is none other than Asthana himself.

Later on, though, the carefree Munna also develops a friendly relationship with Dr. Suman, another faculty member of the institute, who turns out to be Asthana's daughter, "Chinki". However, Munna is unaware that Suman and his childhood friend, "Chinki", are one and the same, and Suman and Asthana hilariously exploit this ignorance. As time progresses, Munna's antics make him popular with his students: he arranges Circuit to bring an extra dead body to the institute for dissection purposes (a concept which fails as Circuit unsucessfully kidnaps a Chinese tourist and Munna himself is unable to dissect another dead body); he meets Karan, the suicidal patient he had saved earlier, and cheers him up with a song; he effusively expresses gratitude to an old, hitherto underappreciated cleaner, Maqsood Bhai (Surendra Rajan), at the institute, cheering him up significantly; and he argues with a doctor for treating Anand Banerjee (Yatin Karyekar), a patient who has been in a brain-dead state since 12 years, like a dead body, and decides to take Anand into his own personal care, attempting to treat him in his own empathetic and compassionate style. Although these antics slowly endear Suman to Munna, her father considers Munna a troublemaker and seeks to rusticate him. He sets up the most difficult exam in the history of the institute to prove Munna unqualified and get rid of him, which leads Munna to send Circuit to pay a visit to Rustom's father once again, causing Rustom to help Munna pass the exam once again on a phone call.

Although he has no medical skills, Munna transforms all those around him with his "Jadoo Ki Jhappi" ("Magical Embrace"), a method of comfort taught to Munna by his mother, and the compassion he shows towards all those in need. Despite the emphasis of the institute on mechanical, cartesian, impersonal and often bureaucratic relationships between doctors and patients, Munna constantly seeks to impose a more empathetic and nearly holistic regimen around himself. He enforces the regime of "common-sense treatment" and uses old-fashioned love and kindness to "cure" many patients at the hospital, encouraging the patients to make changes in their lives themselves, so that they need no medicines or surgery to live. Asthana, who perceives all this as symptoms of chaos, is unable to prevent it from expanding and gaining ground at his institute. He begins laughing uncontrollably in a way that implies him to have gone extremely insane in an attempt to practice "laughter therapy", which serves more to convey his anger than to diffuse it. Meanwhile, Munna decides to meet with "Chinki" at a nightclub when Suman and Asthana send Suman's close friend, Shalini (Neha Dubey), to act as an attractive, seductive but foul-mannered "Chinki" in front of Munna and Circuit. Their plan works, and Munna is bluffed into believing that "Chinki" is not his type anymore, and thus decides to abandon his personal feud against "Chinki" and Asthana, but much to Asthana's chagrin, he declares that he has fallen in love with Suman.

Later, Munna's meets one of Suman's patients, Zaheer Ali (Jimmy Sheirgill), a depressed young man who has been diagnosed with stomach cancer and does not have much time to live. Munna arranges Circuit to bring a stripper inside the patient ward in order to entertain Zaheer, cheering him up significantly, and Munna befriends Zaheer in the process. At the same time, Rustom's father suddenly loses his will to live due to old age and is also admitted to the institute's hospital, where his son is also unable to save him. However, Munna and Circuit are able to bring the will to live back into Rustom's dying father with the help of a game of carrom at the hospital, which helps Munna earn Rustom's respect and leads Zaheer to consider Munna a nearly "divine" man. Meanwhile, Asthana tries to rusticate Munna several times but is often thwarted by Munna's wit or the affection with which everyone at the institute, including, to some extent, Suman herself, regard Munna, having gained superior self-esteem by his methods. When Asthana learns about the stripper incident, he uses this as a potential reason to rusticate Munna on disciplinary grounds, but is unable to do so as Munna manages to stay on by throwing himself over a ledge and severely injuring himself, thereby confining himself to the institute's hospital. After Munna's complete recovery, Asthana tries to rusticate Munna with the help of police, but the hospital staff, patients and students stand in Asthana's way and refuse to let Munna leave. As a result, Asthana challenges Munna to give an oral exam in front of him and the entire institute the next day in order to keep his enrollment, and everyone accepts the challenge.

That night, Munna is busy practicing the answers for Asthana's questions, kindly provided by Rustom in gratitude for saving his father's life, when Suman brings the distressing news of Zaheer having collapsed to a deteriorating health and called for Munna. Zaheer pleads with Munna to save his life, but unfortunately, he dies in Munna's arms. The next morning, Munna initially begins answering all the questions well, but for being shaken by Zaheer's death, is ultimately unable to answer all the forthcoming questions. He confesses the truth about his past to everyone and breaks down about his guilt to Zaheer, his parents, and everyone he cared for. Everyone except Asthana is moved to tears by the speech of Munna, who is shamed into leaving the institute himself. In the moments immediately after Munna's departure, Anand miraculously awakens from his vegetative state. Suman, at this point, realising Munna as the miracle behind Anand's recovery, gives a heartfelt speech wherein she criticises her father for banishing Munna, pointing out that doing so is as good as banishing love, hope, compassion, and happiness from the institute. Asthana eventually realises his folly.

That night, Munna and Circuit drown their sorrows in alcohol, but when they reach home, they are surprised to find Hari and Parvati waiting for them with open arms. Although Munna did not become a doctor, the news of his "miraculous" treatments reached his parents through "Chinki" and they returned from their home village. When Munna apologises to Hari for being unable to become a doctor, Hari states that doctors only save lives, but he is the one who "taught people to live". Hari and Parvati then instruct Munna to meet "Chinki". When he goes to meet "Chinki" atop the terrace, Munna is surprised on seeing Suman, who reveals to him that she is in fact "Chinki" herself, and falls into Munna's arms. In the end, Anand, restored to normal mental health and about to leave for Kolkata, narrates what happened to all the characters to a few children at the hospital through a series of photographs. Munna and Suman get married and open a hospital together in Munna's home village, where they implement Munna's radical methods of treatment daily. Asthana retires as the dean of the institute and at Munna and Suman's hospital, implements the fun-oriented methods used by Munna earlier as the head doctor. Circuit also gets married after a year and is blessed with a son, who is nicknamed "Short Circuit". Rustom gets promoted as the new dean of the institute, while his father continues to play carrom enthusiastically. Thus, in addition to the birth of Munna and Suman's children, Munna earns the title of "MBBS" ("Married with Bouncing Babies and Smiles"), even though he was unsuccessful to become a doctor.

Cast

• Sunil Dutt as Shri Hari Prasad Sharma; Munna's father
• Sanjay Dutt as Murli Prasad Sharma (a.k.a. Munna Bhai); a gangster and medical student in Mumbai
• Gracy Singh as Dr. Suman Asthana (a.k.a. Chinki); Asthana's daughter and a doctor
• Arshad Warsi as Sarkeshwar (a.k.a. Circuit); Munna's sidekick
• Boman Irani as Dr. J. C. Asthana; Suman's father and the medical institute dean
• Rohini Hattangadi as Parvati Sharma; Munna's mother
• Jimmy Sheirgill as Zaheer Ali; Suman's terminally ill patient and Munna's friend
• Neha Dubey as Shalini; Suman's friend and fake Chinki
• Kurush Deboo as Dr. Rustom Pavri; a faculty member of the medical college
• 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 (cameo appearance)
• 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; the suicidal patient at the institute
• 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

Production

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.

During the scripting stage, Hirani 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 (1971), Rocky (1981) and Kshatriya (1993) but not in any scenes together.

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.

The film has a similar premise to the 1998 American film Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams. The producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, however, denies there being a resemblance, and says that he had not watched the film before the release of Munna Bhai.

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

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
Soundtrack album by Anu Malik
Released	2003
Recorded	2003
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	33:39
Label	T-Series
Producer	Anu Malik
Anu Malik chronology
LOC: Kargil (2003) Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003) Murder (2004)

The music is composed by Anu Malik. Lyrics for the songs are penned by Abbas Tyrewala and Rahat Indori. According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 1,000,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's one of the highest-selling.

Track list
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Chan Chan"	Vinod Rathod, Shreya Ghoshal	7:00
2.	"Dekhle Aankhon Mein Aankhien Daal"	Sunidhi Chauhan, Anu Malik	3:24
3.	"M Bole To"	Sanjay Dutt, Vinod Rathod, Prachi, Priya Mayekar	8:20
4.	"Subha Ho Gayee Mamu"	Shaan	4:01
5.	"Apun Jaise Tapori"	Vinod Rathod, Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi	5:32
6.	"Dekhle Aankhon Mein Aankhien Daal (Remix)"	Sunidhi Chauhan, Joi Barua	5:22
Total length:			33:39

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.

Date of Ceremony	Awards	Category	Recipient(s) and nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
3 February 2005	51st National Film Awards	Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment	Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.	Won
20 February 2004	49th Filmfare Awards	Best Film (Critics)		Won
		Best Film		Nominated
		Best Screenplay	Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, Lajan Joseph	Won
		Best Director	Rajkumar Hirani	Nominated
		Best Comedian	Sanjay Dutt	Won
			Boman Irani	Nominated
		Best Dialogues	Abbas Tyrewala	Won
		Best Supporting Actor	Arshad Warsi	Nominated
22 May 2004	International Indian Film Academy Awards	Best Screenplay	Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, Lajan Joseph	Won
		Best Actor in a Comic Role	Boman Irani	Won
		Best Dialogues	Abbas Tyrewala	Won
		Best Film	Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.	Nominated
		Best Editing	Rajkumar Hirani	Won
		Best Director		Nominated
		Best Story		Nominated
		Best Actor	Sanjay Dutt	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actor	Arshad Warsi	Nominated
		Best Music Director	Anu Malik	Nominated
		Best Lyrics	Rahat Indori (for the song "Dekhle Aankhon Mein Aankhen Daal")	Nominated
		Best Female Playback Singer	Sunidhi Chauhan (for the song "Dekhle Aankhon Mein Aankhen Daal")	Nominated
28 May 2004	Producers Guild Film Awards	Best Debut Director	Rajkumar Hirani	Won
		Best Editing		Won
		Best Director		Nominated
		Best Film	Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.	Nominated
		Best Actor	Sanjay Dutt	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actor	Arshad Warsi	Nominated
		Best Screenplay	Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, Lajan Joseph	Nominated
		Best Cinematography	Binod Pradhan	Nominated
26 February 2004	Zee Cine Awards	Best Actor in a Comic Role	Arshad Warsi	Won
			Boman Irani	Nominated
		Best Debut Director	Rajkumar Hirani	Won
		Best Cinematography	Binod Pradhan	Won
		Best Film	Vidhu Vinod Chopra	Nominated
2004	Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards	Best Film (Hindi)		Won
		Best Actor (Hindi)	Sanjay Dutt	Won
		Best Supporting Actor (Hindi)	Arshad Warsi	Won
	Bollywood Movie Awards	Best Director	Rajkumar Hirani	Won
		Most Sensational Actor	Sanjay Dutt	Won
		Best Supporting Actor	Arshad Warsi	Won
21 December 2010	BIG Entertainment Awards	Best Film of the Decade	Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.	Nominated

Sequel

Main article: Lage Raho Munna Bhai

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 wanted that script to include Munnabhai 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. Munna Bhai part 3 is still in making.

Remakes

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

External links

• Official Website
• Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. on IMDb
• Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. at Box Office Mojo
• Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. at Rotten Tomatoes
• Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. at Rediff.com