Sometimes a movie can become an instrument of social change.

Till a few days ago, all that Gandhi meant to many people like me is a reason for two days of holidays in a year- on his birth and death anniversary. I have mugged up many lessons on him in my history lectures in school and I hated him for increasing my syllabi. And I am sure all my classmates felt the same. But suddenly Gandhi is a much-loved man. Its good to see Gandhi-hating out-of-vogue for a while.

People are not just watching and forgetting Lage Raho Munnabhai after walking out of the theatres. The movie has been able to make an impact on the psyche of the viewers, at least some of them.

The refrain of ‘Bande Mein Tha Dum…Vande Mataram’ is suggestively used and portrays Gandhian thought in a pop format. And by using Munna as Gandhi’s unlikely messenger, the film gives a comical perspective of how a ‘tapori’ can make the transition from violence to non-violence. Instead of thrashing people and breaking their bones, Munna mobilizes support from ordinary citizens through his program on radio where he listens to the plight of common folk and gives them unique Gandhian solutions that actually worked for them. Quiet like the Rang De Basanti genre, Lage Raho Munnabhai tries to connect with the young audience and tells them about the virtues of freedom and independence, and what it should mean to us.

The ball is set rolling. The movie becomes a vehicle for jingoistic nationalism and the film-makers are selling Gandhian values to the country's youth.
The screenwriters found an extremely deft way of packaging Gandhi-ism to many of the current issues in a reaching-yet-not-preaching, hilarious and box office-friendly-forms. It shows quite humorously how truth and non-violence which is what Gandhi stood for are still one of the best ways to deal with day to day life situations.

After watching this movie I decided that I will also try to impliment these concepts in my life and see for myself if it really works. But fortunately or unfortunately, till now I havn’t got the opportunity to tackle such a situation.

But even now I won’t vote to become a true Gandhian. I still believe, no system is infallible and if you need a Gandhi against a Churchill, you need a Churchill against a Hitler and even Gandhi would agree to it. No one strategy works all the time, it is the situation which dictates the leadership style. Lord Krishna himself orchestrated the Mahabharat(epic war) because the situation demanded it and I still believe we got independence because of thousands of people including the revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad. No one person could bring down an empire, he just had the leadership qualities to direct the powers of those thousands of people who desperately wanted independence.

Now that I have said all this, I am still tempted to write Bande mein tha dum…Vande Mataram...

How Many Times Have You Seen Anand?

My score is 15. Or maybe twice that, who counts? And every time I am as happy to watch it. Normally on repeat viewing one picks up nuances that one missed earlier, but I am past that. I can re-iterate almost all the dialogues of that film. I don’t watch Anand for any other reason but that I love watching it. Over and over and over again. Just as I enjoy watching Bawarchi, Gol Maal, Chashme Baddoor, Chhoti Si Baat, Abhimaan, Guddi, Chitchor … you can complete the list yourself.

There is something with this genre of films that connect with us in a very unique way. These films are evenly placed and are exceedingly good-natured. They are complete even without a performance by Rakhi Sawant.
But there is a deeper reason why they appeal to us so much after such a long time. For these films are the best advertisements for what we see as our middle class values. Each of these films evokes a world that we long to be part of- a world of warm relationship troubled by an odd shortcoming that gets comfortably corrected so that all is well again.

They manage to do this in many different ways. The characters are a far cry from today’s Khans with biceps. They usually live in small towns and take bus to work. The tension usually comes from constraints imposed by different human views and beliefs. In Gol Maal we have Utpal Dutt insisting on his employees wearing moustache and in Khoobsoorat we have a matriarch who is fixed on discipline and in Guddi, a young girl on a movie star. They usually live in scarce circumstances, but still their problems rarely arise from poverty. These movies start with a good-natured order and end with a higher level of equilibrium. In doing so they re-establish the importance of family.

The big reason for the continued appeal of these films is that they tell us that happiness is independent of bank-balance.
It is interesting to look at the difference between Bawarchi and its remake Hero No 1 made more recently. In both the films the central character is the imposter servant who brings peace to a disintegrating family. However, in Bawarchi, the instruments employed are good food, classical music and an occasional treat of drink; in Hero No 1, it is the power of money and influence. Rajesh Khanna wins over people by his abilities in cooking, singing and mathematics, whereas, Govinda by his physical competence in saving the daughter of the house and his father’s money and influence.
As the world becomes more moneyed, the longing for yesterday’s simplicity is likely to grow. An Anand tells us that there are ways to be happy and that need not be those giant malls on that road.