Vasool Raja M.B.B.S.

''Vasool Raja MBBS'' () is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film directed by Saran. It is a remake of the 2003 Hindi film '' Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.''. The film stars Kamal Haasan in the title role, while Prabhu, Sneha, Prakash Raj, Nagesh, Rohini Hattangadi, Jayasurya, Malavika, Crazy Mohan, Lakshmi Bhaskaran and Karunas play supporting roles. Hattangadi reprises her role from the original. It was released on 14 August 2004.

Plot

Rajaraman, nicknamed "Vasool Raja," is a local don in Chennai who makes a living by extorting money from people with the help of his right-hand man, Vatti. Given that his father, Sriman Venkataraman, had wished for him to be a doctor, he creates the faux Venkataraman Charitable Hospital, and pretends to live in accordance with this wish.

One year later, Raja's plan goes awry when Venkataraman meets an old acquaintance, Dr. Vishwanathan. The two men decide to get Raja married to Vishwanathan's daughter, Dr. Janaki, aka "Paapu." At this point, the truth about Raja is revealed. Vishwanathan insults Raja's parents and ridicules them for being ignorant of Raja's real life. Venkataraman and Kasturi, who are both aghast and heartbroken, disown Raja and leave for their village.

Raja decides that the only way to redeem himself and gain revenge for the humiliation suffered by his father is to become a doctor. He goes to a medical college to obtain an MBBS degree.

With the help of Vatti and others, Raja gains admission to the SLR Institute of Medical Sciences. Upon admission, he again encounters Vishwanathan, who is the college dean. His success there becomes dependent upon the coerced help of Margabandhu, a faculty member of the college. While Raja's skills as a medical doctor are minimal, he transforms those around him with the "Kattipudi Vaithiyam" ("hugging therapy"), a method of comfort taught to Raja by his mother. Despite the school's emphasis on mechanical, impersonal, and often bureaucratic relationships between doctors and patients, Raja constantly seeks to impose a more empathetic regimen. To this end, he defies all convention by treating a brain-dead man as if the man were able to perceive and understand normally.

Vishwanathan, who perceives all this as symptoms of chaos, is unable to prevent it from expanding and gaining ground at his college. He becomes increasingly irritable, almost to the point of insanity. Meanwhile, Janaki becomes increasingly fond of Raja, who, in his turn, becomes unreservedly infatuated with her. Vishwanathan tries several times to expel Raja, but is often outsmarted by him.

Margabandhu's senile father is admitted to the hospital, and all hope seems lost for him. Having threatened Margabandhu before, Raja's gang knows that he is a passionate board game player, and Raja orders a carrom board to come to the hospital. Raja and his gang play carrom, and Margabandhu's father miraculously wakes up and walks to the board. Raja and Margabandhu's father play against each other, and Margabandhu's father wins the match and celebrates.

Upon recovery, Vishwanathan orders Raja to leave and brings police to throw him out, but everyone in the college protests and blocks the way. Vishwanathan tells the students the truth about Raja, but no one believes him. Vishwanathan promises to retain Raja if he answers all questions asked by the doctors in front of the entire university, a challenge Raja accepts. Despite preparing well, he is unable to focus as Zakir's condition becomes worse and he dies in Raja's hands.

The next morning, Raja starts answering the questions well, but Vishwanathan stops the staff and says he will ask all the forthcoming questions. Raja is unable to answer and is shamed into leaving the college. He confesses the truth to everyone. Everyone except Vishwanathan is moved to tears by his speech. Immediately following Raja's departure, the brain-dead man miraculously awakens from his vegetative state; Janaki criticises her father for having banished Raja. Vishwanathan eventually realises his folly.

Raja later marries Janaki while also reconciling with his parents.

Cast

Production

Development

Manohar Prasad of Gemini Film Circuit bought the remake rights of ''Munna Bhai MBBS'' to make it in Tamil and assigned Saran as director with Kamal Haasan in lead. Saran who was making ''Attahasam'' at that time was assigned to commence the film within 15 days and to complete and release the film within three months after consulting Ajith Kumar who gave permission to do this film. To commence the film within 15 days, Saran assigned his usual crew consisting of music composer Bharadwaj and cinematographer A. Venkatesh. Suresh Urs worked as editor while Mohana Mahendra was chosen to handle art. The film was initially titled ''Market Raja MBBS'' which Saran later used as the title for his 2019 film. It was dialogue writer Crazy Mohan who suggested the title ''Vasool Raja MBBS''. The project began as a bilingual venture in Tamil and Telugu, though later the Telugu version was made separately with a different cast as ''Shankar Dada M.B.B.S.'' (2004).

Casting

Jyothika was initially approached to be the lead actress but her other commitments meant that the team sought and consequently signed on Sneha. Prakash Raj asked Saran if he could play the college dean, and was immediately cast. Prabhu was cast in a supporting role at the insistence of Kamal Haasan, despite Saran's desire to cast Kalabhavan Mani. Saran also thought of casting Karunas initially for Prabhu's character but later created a new character for him. Saran had hoped to sign on director K. Balachander to play Haasan's father, with the veteran director being both Haasan's and Saran's film industry mentor. However Balachandar was reluctant to act, and the team then considered K. Viswanath and Girish Karnad for the role, before signing Nagesh. Yatin Karyekar and Rohini Hattangadi, who were part of the Hindi original, reprised their roles. Dhanush initially agreed to play the cancer patient but opted out citing a busy schedule, and was replaced by Jayasurya. Crazy Mohan, besides writing the dialogues, also played a college professor.

Filming

Filming began in mid-may 2004. Saran observed Prakash Raj using hand gestures a lot while emoting so to capitalise on that, he created a "back and forth scene" focusing on his and Haasan's actions and was shot using close-up lenses. The song "Kalakkapovathu Yaaru" was shot on a set at Kushaldas Gardens. Two songs were shot in Switzerland. The film's producers, after watching the film's final cut, were dissatisfied as they felt the director did not remain faithful to the original material but Saran convinced them this version will be responded well by audiences.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Bharadwaj who collaborated with Haasan for first time. All songs were penned by Vairamuthu. The song "Alwarpettai Aandava" is set in Kapi raga. The audio launch was held in July 2004. Mohan Thambirajah of ''New Straits Times'' rated the album 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, "Bharadwaj comes up with great compositions in this outing".

Reception

Critical response

Shobha Warrier of ''Rediff.com'' wrote, "''Vasool Raja'' is Kamal's show all the way. He does comedy, dances wonderfully, sings, and also does some great stunts. What more can people ask for by way of entertainment?". Visual Dasan of ''Kalki'' wrote that the Kamal Haasan-Charan combo got a doctorate in laughing medicine for Tamil fans who were left irritated with masala films. However Malini Mannath of ''Chennai Online'' gave a negative review, citing "Munnabhai...' was a laugh-riot, 'Vasoolraja...' hardly tickles!." K. N. Vijiyan of ''New Straits Times'' wrote, "''Vasoolraja MBBS'' (King of Revenue) should live up to its name". ''Sify'' wrote, "Munnabhai MBBS's strongest assets were its screenplay and dialogues but here Crazy Mohan’s dialogues are not so funny. The script of Vasoolraja goes awry post interval as a layer of emotional corniness begins to set in and the two songs shot in Switzerland could have easily been done away with in this otherwise smoothly paced fun flick. The songs tuned by Bharadwaj are a major let down". G. Ulaganathan of ''Deccan Herald'' wrote "While the first half is a racy entertainer, the second half drags. Songs are quite boring and music is nothing to write about".

Box office

Made on a budget of 5.5 crore, ''Vasool Raja MBBS'' was sold for 1 crore in Coimbatore distribution territory with 20 prints. The film was shown on about 285 screens worldwide to highly positive reception and box-office success. Tabloid reported 10 million tickets were sold worldwide.

Controversy

The film's release faced a roadblock as a petition filed by the then Tamil Nadu Medical Council president K. R. Balasubramanian stated that the film's title ridiculed the medical profession and tarnished the image of the medical fraternity. The Madras High Court later cleared the film's release without the title changed.

References

External links

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{{Saran (director)

2000s gangster films
2000s Indian films
2000s Tamil-language films
2004 comedy-drama films
2004 films
Films about medical students
Films directed by Saran (director)
Films scored by Bharadwaj (composer)
Films set in Chennai
Films set in universities and colleges
Films shot in Chennai
Films with screenplays by Crazy Mohan
Indian comedy-drama films
Indian gangster films
Medical-themed films
Tamil remakes of Hindi films
Tamil-language comedy-drama films
Tamil-language Indian films