Thank You Munna Bhai!

SO MUNNA BHAI was behind bars for real. His recent bail has come in the wake of a nation wide sympathy wave for the besieged actor. Here’s another look at Munna Bhai:

‘India Today’ says he is Mother India’s that son who never learnt to grow up. But this Munna bhai grew up right here and gave us back that which we had lost.

Well, in the starting I had abused Sanjay for being an embarrassment for his reputed and noble father. It was about 14 years ago that he was arrested and sent to jail. As the case dragged on I gradually turned soft on Sanjay but I knew he had broken the law and therefore, he will be and must be punished. I felt happy when the Judge said that he was not a terrorist. Even then, I knew that he would get punished for his crime. It’s hard to see such a versatile entertainer behind bars but I don’t think it is unfair or any type of injustice.

I want to discuss what this guy, whom ‘India Today’ says "Mother India ka kabhi bada na hone wala bachcha", gave us. Few days back my little niece was talking to me and she told me that she likes Gandhiji. I asked her what she liked about Gandhiji. She told me that he was a nice man. Then I asked her what she knew about him. She told me about slaps on face and so on. I told her that he had said this because he was not strong enough to retaliate in kind. She replied that he was not weak and it was his just way to make the other guy learn by his example.

knew all this, I knew the name Gandhi was not a name of majboori but majbooti, which we can’t understand because we are too weak to do so. I knew all this because I had read a lot of books, but my niece knew it because she saw the movie Munna bhai. She is not yet eight and she knows this philosophy of making people into better human beings. I don’t know whether all those who learnt about Gandhiji in Munna Bhai classes, will remember his lessons or not but at least they now know a bit of it. I remember a few years back many college-going youth were not clear about Gandhiji and his ideology.

I smiled a little when I came to know that Sanjay has been kept at Yarwada jail where the Mahatma himself spent much of his time. For a long time I had been thinking about positive punishments and these days just because of Sanjay’s public appeal I feel the need of such punishments more. But now that he has got bail and a nation’s prayers for his wellbeing have been answered, I feel we can use his appeal for some purpose of our society.