Saying It With Love

From Mumbai to Lucknow, anyone who has a problem is resorting to Gandhigiri

PICTURE SPEAK

FLOWER POWER: The Gandhigiri Club garlanding traffic offenders in Pune

What innumerable lectures on Gandhian principles in schools and colleges couldn't do, a three-hour Bollywood masala dipped in urban street slang has done. It has rekindled the latent Gandhi in several like Joshi. From the Ulhasnagar policemen in Mumbai who are now trying to counsel a thief before registering a case to the residents of Hazratganj in Lucknow who handed out bouquets to passers-by and officials of the Excise Department recently demanding removal of a liquor shop from their area, everyone who has a problem is resorting to Gandhigiri.

In Pune, Shantilal Suratwala, former mayor of the city, was so deeply inspired by the film that he started a Gandhigiri Club which now has over 300 members. On October 2, in true Munnabhai style, the club garlanded nearly 1,000 motorists who broke traffic rules. "I feel great passion for Gandhian ideology. The film inspired me to take my passion to streets," he says.

PICTURE SPEAK

What innumerable college lectures on Gandhi couldn't do, a three-hour-long Bollywood masala has done.

Lage Raho Munnabhai's co-writer Abhijat Joshi attributes the film's growing influence to its simplicity of approach. "We did not concentrate on Gandhi's rituals like spinning and fasting. Our attempt was to exhibit his spirit and passion to create solutions for problems," says Joshi. Sociologist Lata Narayan, however, feels it's a passing fad. "While some have been inspired enough to take up something concrete, others haven't bothered. The collective memory of the film will be shortlived," she says. It remains to be seen whether Gandhigiri will endure but for the time being it has resurrected the peaceful optimist in many of us.

-By Prerana Thakurdesai with Nirmala Ravindran and Subhash Mishra

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