Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003)
February 18, 2019 3:55 PM - Subscribe
Munna is a criminal who sets out to fulfill his father's dream of becoming a doctor. With help from his sidekick Circuit, he enrolls himself in medical college and drives Dr. Asthana up the wall. From writer/director Rajkumar Hirani (3 Idiots, PK).
This is the kind of "high concept" comedy that Hollywood use to make fairly frequently. It's pretty easy, for example, to imagine this as say, a Michael Keaton comedy from 1987. The trick to making it work is having the lead play straight man to the lunatic proceedings around him and to give it a little ballast with some warm (if corny) sentimentality. Dutt is pretty terrific at both sides of this equation.
You'd almost expect to see this remade for US audiences by now. But in 2019, the only US star I can think of who does this kind of silly high concept comedy is Adam Sandler. And his smug mugging makes him so awful at it that he's largely killing off the whole trope.
Funny to see Boman Irani playing a remarkably similar fun-killing dean whose daughter is also the love interest, just as was the case in 3 Idiots.
This is piffle, but it's pretty fun piffle. Hollywood has gotten so bad at making mass market comedies that it's a little jarring to see one done reasonably well. Not an ambitious or deep or earth shattering film, but fun in its shaggy dog way.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:42 AM on February 19, 2019
You'd almost expect to see this remade for US audiences by now. But in 2019, the only US star I can think of who does this kind of silly high concept comedy is Adam Sandler. And his smug mugging makes him so awful at it that he's largely killing off the whole trope.
Funny to see Boman Irani playing a remarkably similar fun-killing dean whose daughter is also the love interest, just as was the case in 3 Idiots.
This is piffle, but it's pretty fun piffle. Hollywood has gotten so bad at making mass market comedies that it's a little jarring to see one done reasonably well. Not an ambitious or deep or earth shattering film, but fun in its shaggy dog way.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:42 AM on February 19, 2019
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posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:58 PM on February 18, 2019 [2 favorites]