Scripted! Munna bhai on bookshelves

Soon the screenplay version of Lage Raho Munna bhai will be out, three years after the movie released

IT took three years coming, but Munna bhai is at it again, mamu. This time, readers all over the world can read about Munna bhai and Circuit's exploits and their tryst with Gandhigiri destiny, as Lage Raho Munna Bhai's screenplay gets published for the first time.u00a0u00a0u00a0

Om Books International is releasing the 350-page screenplay (priced at Rs 395) on December 7, at a function that is expected to have Lage Raho Munna Bhai's producer-writer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, director Rajkumar Hirani, actor Sanjay Dutt and 3 Idiots star Aamir Khan in attendance.

The book will be in Roman script, with the Hindi dialogues as they appeared in the film. Says Om Books International head, Ajay Mago, "When I met Vinod (Chopra), we thought it would be a great idea to publish all his films in screenplay form, starting with Lage Raho Munna Bhai. In August 2009, we began it all."

Starting with Anand

Director Rajkumar Hirani, who also co-wrote Lage Rahou2026, is thrilled at the idea of its screenplay in published form. Smack in the middle of editing 3 Idiots, Raju confesses he's done little work on this effort, yet he's looking forward to his copy. He picks the scene when Munna bhai goes on radio with his Gandhigiri, telling the man how to tackle the person who spits on the walls, as his favourite one. "We don't catalogue anything in India. I enjoy books on the thought process behind a film, or like the (Francois) Truffaut book of interviews with (Alfred) Hitchcock."

Hirani owns more biographies (Chaplin and Guru Dutt ones are his big picks) than screenplays, but he remembers picking up Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand. "It was during my college days and had just come in the market. It was a little pocket book of dialogues in Hindi with very little description.

I still have that copy somewhere."
There haven't been many screenplays published of Hindi films, other than perhaps one of Sholay and Nasreen Munni Kabir's The Immortal Dialogues of K Asif's Mughal-e-Azam. It's the compelling reason why Chopra has decided to have his films in screenplay book form.

Says Mago, "It's a book for students and collectors. We're releasing it worldwide; there's a huge demand outside India. It's one of the films that has recall value. We've printed the screenplay exactly how Lage Rahou2026 the movie is, how it's been shot."

How the writer saw it

Yet this is precisely what professional screenwriter Anjum Rajabali (The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, Ghulam) wishes that screenplay books weren't. "Don't get me wrong; a film's screenplay is very useful," he points out, "But the draft by the original author is equally valid, especially to see how the screenplay has been reinterpreted. It's great for aspiring writers to see how a film was conceived.

"A director often goes beyond a script and enhances it, but you need to see the structure. Sometimes, a bad film has the writer complaining how his work was misinterpreted. So this is not a true example of learning a narrative. It's the difference between looking at a blueprint and looking at a finished building."u00a0u00a0u00a0
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Anjum is the head of department of screenwriting at both the Whistling Woods film school and Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). He reveals that his students presently watch Hindi films and transcribe the screenplays.

"We don't have a tradition of writing screenplays, much less publishing them. It's in the last decade or so that we've had screenplays written on more than just scraps of paper," says Anjum.

He lists works by Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal and Vijay Tendulkar as some alternative cinema works available, on their "literary merit", so he welcomes the move to release screenplays. "Of popular Hindi cinema, there are less than five published screenplays. I'd love to own Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Deewar, Ganga Jamuna, Mughal-e-Azam, Satya and Lagaan's screenplays."

Gandhigiri and gangstergiri

Anjum feels that Lage Raho Munna Bhai's simplicity sets it apart. "If someone told you the bare premise of a gangster attempting Gandhigiri, you would think it a corny idea. And yet, they made it accessible."
While he sees no perfect screenplay, Anjum says it all depends on the collaboration between the writer and director and that they are always open for reinterpretation.

Are there any of his works published? Anjum laughs, "I don't think I'd push for a single work of mine; it's not good enough. Jokes apart, I have been asked about The Legend of Bhagat Singh, yet even that I felt was competent only in parts!" With Lage Rahou2026 kicking it off though, we could see a screenplay publishing revolution.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0