Lage Raho ... Mohandas

You can kill someone but it's impossible to kill his thoughts.

How true this is in the case of a particular Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. First they killed the man and then over the years tried their best to kill his thoughts. The school curriculum does try to do an especially good job in making sure the kids grow up having all the wrong notions about the so called father of the nation.

But still the his thoughts linger. Sometime after college I was introduced to Gandhi the Philosopher and suddenly realized what a great person he was :) Of course I do not agree to all of his ideas, but you do have to stop and think over them.

The reason to recollect these thoughts are "Lage raho MubbaBhai". What a way to re-introduce a great man ! As a movie it's really good and very entertaining. But what takes it to an higher level is the ideas it presents.

The thoughts of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, trapped in tons of books, under layers of dust, neglected for years, materialize as the man himself when our protoganist, MunnaBhai, spends a few days and nights without sleep going through those books in a last ditch attempt to impress the love of his life. 'Bapu' himself then starts advising MunnaBhai on how to solve the problems he faces. MunnaBhai who resorts to "Bhaigiri" to solve problems resorts to "Gandhigiri" for the same with hilarious and thought provoking results.
The movie shows 'Bapu' as a normal human being, albeit with a lot of guts and belief that truth is THE way of life. Bapu is brought down from the pedestals and photos, to mix with normal people with everyday problems. His thoughts are made accessible by applying them to situations different types of people can identify with. And herein lies the success of the movie. Well done Rajkumar Hirani !

And as Bapu says at the end of the movie, His thoughts will live on ... materializing themselves time and again ...

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Some of Bapu's quotes on brainyquotes.com

Truth?

You got to be religious
Insisted my Mother
This way to keep away sorrows
is better than any other

Religion does not tell me
the Truth about Life I said
of how the world functions
and how it was made

Do you really need to know
all of these things?

Don't you think attaining peace of mind
is above all these things?

But why should I surrender to delusions
when I know that the truth is out there?

I will search for the truth
no matter the path leads where

I searched for the truth
and it lead me here

but the truth was such
that I am still not sure


There are no truths
There are no lies
You are born and therefore
will live through this life

There is no grief
there is no sorrow
All you are here to do is reproduce
and for that survive till tomorrow

For this survival
you have been given some sense
And to cover the questions raised (by this sense)
we had to invent this religion non-sense

if only we could control sense
to be doled out in exact proportions
we won't be thinking "higher" things
and be concentrating on matters on hand


We would be producing worthy offsprings
and populating the earth
without needing the briddle of religion
steering us for all its worth

You got to be religious
I said to my daughter
This way to happiness
is better than any other