Raju Hirani’s directorial debut, a bit of a landmark in Hindi cinema , was very clearly inspired by the 1998 Robin Williams rom-com Patch Adams. Both producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra and director Raju Hirani, who celebrates his birthday on the same day as the film’s release, denied it. But if we see the two films back-to-back, the sameness is unquestionable. Like Robin Williams in Patch Adams, Sanjay Dutt in Munnabhai MBBS plays a good-hearted tapori, a local goon, who cures ailments he also makes you laugh, even cry. Munna takes up the challenge to become a real doctor. The fun begins when Munna is let loose upon unsuspecting medical students and doctors.
Hirani doesn’t deny Munnabhai was a comedy. “It depends on what you mean by comedy. It had a lot of humour in it. The title does suggest a lot of fun. But I chose it above any dil pyar sanam title. If you know what I mean (laughs). It’s a feel-good film. Munnabhai actually makes you cry with a smile on your lips. When audiences leave Munnabhai, they should leave as better human beings. But yes, the theme has been treated in a lighter vein. But Munnabhai… isn’t a comedy in the way comedies are perceived in our cinema.”
About the similarities with Tom Shadyac’s Patch Adams Hirani says, “Not at all! Not a single scene is similar. The only similarity is an over-the-age hero going to medical school. Our hero Sanjay Dutt is very different from Robin Williams in Patch Adams, though I did see it as part of my research.”
About choosing Sanjay Dutt for Munnabhai MBBS, Hirani explains. “He plays a small-time gangster posing as a doctor. No one looks more ‘bhai’(gangster) than Sanjay Dutt. The comedy emerges from the right man being in the wrong place. As soon as he enters medical school, all the students get up and say ‘Good Morning.’ Sanjay plays a 40-year-old man mingling with 17-year-olds. I just let Sanju do it his way. He plays the role very realistically.”
Hirani admits the original choice for Munnabhai was Shah Rukh Khan . “There was Vivek Oberoi who was supposed to play Circuit, and there was Shah Rukh Khan. Vivek had a date problem, and Shah Rukh had a back problem. Shah Rukh had even given dates in 2002. But I think Sanju has brought in his own sensibilities, and I’m happy he did it.”
About Sunil Dutt playing his own son’s father, Hirani credits the producer. “I think that had more to do with my producer Vinod Chopra’s powers of persuasion. Earlier, we had thought of more conventional casting, such as Alok Nath or Anupam Kher. But Mr Sunil Dutt’s face kept coming back to us. It was my producer who called him up. And I think Mr Sunil Dutt agreed because of Vinod.”
