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...