[[ 3 Idiots ]] Language: Hindi Genre: Social Awareness

3 Idiots is a 2009 film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan,Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani. This film has become the highest-grossing Bollywood movie of all time in India. The film set a box office record for the Indian film industry, grossing Rs 400 crore (US$ 87 million) worldwide. It is expected to be the first Indian film to be officially released on YouTube, within 12 weeks of releasing in theaters on March 25, 2010. The film also went on to win many awards, winning sixFilmfare Awards including best film and best director, and ten Star Screen Awards.

Plot

Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi), and Rancchoddas "Rancho" Shyamaldas Chanchad (Aamir Khan) are three engineering students who share a room in a hostelat the Imperial College of Engineering, one of the best colleges in India. While Farhan and Raju are average students from modest backgrounds, Rancho is from a rich family. Farhan wants to become a wildlife photographer, but has joined engineering college to fulfil his father's wish. Raju on the other hand wants to uplift his family fortunes. Rancho is a wealthy genius who studies for the sheer joy of it. However, Rancho's passion is for knowledge and taking apart and building machines rather than the conventional obsession of the other students with exam ranks. With his different approach Rancho incurs the wrath of dean of college, Professor Viru Sahastrabudhhe (ViruS) (Boman Irani). Rancho irritates his lecturers by giving creative and unorthodox answers, and confronts ViruS after fellow student Joy Lobo hangs himself in his dormitory room. Joy had requested an extension on his major project on compassionate grounds—his father had suffered a stroke—but ViruS refused, saying that he himself was completely unmoved by his own son's accidental death after being hit by a train. Rancho denounces the rat race, dog-eat-dog, mindless rote learning mentality of the institution, blaming it for Lobo's death.

Critical reception

• It is a vital, inspiring and life-revising work of contemporary art with some heart imbued into every part. In a country where students are driven to suicide by their impossible curriculum, 3 Idiots provides hope.
• The film is a laugh riot, despite being high on fundas.
• It's a lovely story, of a man from nowhere who wanted to learn, told like a fairy tale, with the secret heart carrying its coded message of setting all of us free.
• Rajkumar Hirani's one of the directors of the decade, a man with immense talent and a knack for storytelling.

[[ Lage Raho Munna Bhai ]] Language: Hindi Genre: Comedy Drama

Lage Raho Munna Bhai is a 2006 film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It is the second film in the popular Munna Bhai series of Bollywood. Sanjay Dutt stars in this film as Munna Bhai, a Mumbai (Bombay)underworld don. The film was generally well-received by both critics and the mass audience. It was a box office success and was elevated to a "blockbuster" rating on Box Office India after grossing over Rs.720 million. It is the recipient of a number of awards, including four National Film Awards. Lage Raho Munna Bhai is the first Hindi film to be shown at the United Nations, and also played to a packed house of mostly French students who "clapped till the credits were finished" during the Tous Les Cinema du Monde section of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, praised the film, stating that it "captures Bapu's message about the power of truth and humanism.

Plot

The central premise of the film rests upon the relationship between Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt) and the image of Mahatma Gandhi (portrayed by Dilip Prabhavalkar) who teaches him the principles of Gandhian philosophy. Munna is helped by his sidekick, Circuit (Arshad Warsi) who speaks with him in Bambaiya Hindi, a dialect specific to the Indian city of Mumbai.At the beginning of the story, Munna is in love with the voice of Janhavi (Vidya Balan), a radio jockey. He devises a plan to meet her when she announces a contest featuring the life and beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi set for 2 October—Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday celebrating the birth of Gandhi. Circuit helps Munna win the contest by kidnapping and then bribing a group of professors. As the winner, Munna is granted an interview with Janhavi wherein he presents himself as a professor of history and a Gandhi specialist. Janhavi subsequently asks Munna to present a lecture on Gandhi to a community of senior citizens who live in her home, called the "Second Innings House". In order to prepare for this event, Munna engages in a period of intense study at a Gandhi institute. For three days and nights (and without food or sleep), Munna reads about the life and ideologies of Gandhi.

Social Impact

Lage Raho Munna Bhai has had a strong cultural impact in India, popularising Gandhism under Munna Bhai's notion of Gandhigiri. As noted by critics, the film has "stirred the popular imagination," leading to a number of Gandhigiri protests in India and in the United States: "For generations born after Gandhi's assassination, Munnabhai, the eponymous hero of the film, has rendered 'Gandhism' passé and 'Gandhian' arcane. The new buzzword is 'Gandhigiri,' a value, and valuable, addition to the lexicon of a culture suffused with every abominable kind of 'Dadagiri' and 'Goondagiri.'

[[ Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. ]] Language Hindi Genre: Comedy Drama

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. is a 2003 Indian comedy directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced byVidhu Vinod Chopra. The story involves protagonist, Munna Bhai, (Sanjay Dutt), a goon, going to medical school. He is helped by his sidekick, Circuit (Arshad Warsi). It is the first film in the popular Munna Bhai series It stars Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Jimmy Shergill, Sunil Dutt, Gracy Singh and Boman Irani.It went on to win not only the 2004 National Film Award for Best Popular Film, several Filmfare awards, including the Critics Award for Best Movie, Best Screenplay, but also became the fifth highest grossing Hindi film of the year.

Plot

Murli Prasad Sharma, nicknamed "Munna Bhai" (literally "Brother Munna") is a bhai or Gunda; a crime don in the Mumbai underworld. Given that his father had wished him to be a medical doctor, he creates the faux Sri Hari Prasad Sharma Charitable Hospital (named after his father) and pretends to live in accordance with this wish whenever his father (Sunil Dutt) and mother (Rohini Hattangadi) visit him in Mumbai. Munna, in grief and despair, decides that the only way to redeem himself and to gain revenge for the humiliation suffered by his father at the hands of the spiteful Dr. Ashthana is to become a doctor in fact. He therefore decides to go to a Medical College in order to obtain an M.B.B.S.degree. Eventually, Munna is shamed into leaving the College, his guilt for not being able to help a dying friend getting the better of him. In the moments immediately following Munna's departure, Anand miraculously awakens from his vegetative state; at this point Dr. Suman gives a heartfelt speech wherein she criticizes her father for having banished Munna, saying that to do so is to banish hope, compassion, love, and happiness etc. from the College.

[[Traffic Signal]] Language: Hindi Genre: Social Awareness

Traffic Signal (2007) is an Indian film directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. It stars Kunal Khemu, Konkona Sen Sharma and Neetu Chandra. Bhandarkar won National Film Awards in 2007 as Best Director for this film, and Anil Moti Ram Palande, the first National Film Award for Best Make-up Artist.

Plot

This film is about the lives and travails of people living around a fictitious traffic signal in Mumbai. Anybody who drives in Mumbai has experienced the 2-odd minute wait at a traffic signal. But do you know that you contribute to the economy at that signal? The traffic signal includes a microcosm of people who derive their daily livelihoods from it. There are beggars (kids and adults), prostitutes, tricksters, eunuchs and others who sell clothes, flowers and trinkets. They speak quickly, act fast and operate somewhat honorably (with each other) to eke a meager living out of the harsh Mumbai street life. They owe allegiance and hafta (weekly "protection" fee) to the Signal Manager, Silsila (Kunal Khemu).

[[ Page 3 ]] Language: Hindi Genre: Realistic Drama

Page 3 (2005), directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. It stars Konkona Sen Sharma, and Atul Kulkarni. The film won three National Film Awards in 2005, including the Golden Lotus Award for Best Film.

Plot

Madhavi Sharma (Konkona Sen Sharma) arrives in Mumbai and soon lands a journalist job. Her boss Deepak Suri (Boman Irani) gives her the task of reporting celebrity news. She begins her journey in the glitzy and glamorous world of celebrity lifestyle.Her roommate Pearl Sequiera (Sandhya Mridul) is an air hostess and wants to marry for money. Gayatri Sachdeva (Tara Sharma) later joins them. She is an aspiring actress and gets involved with a leading actor Rohit Kumar (Bikram Saluja). When she tells him she is pregnant he suggests she have an abortion; depressed and shattered, she unsuccessfully tries to kill herself and in the process loses her unborn child. Meanwhile, Pearl marries a wealthy old man and moves to the United States. Madhavi plans to expose Rohit Kumar (by writing an article on his relationship with Gayatri), but her editor kills the article and she is forced to apologise to Rohit Kumar.Madhavi finds out that her boyfriend is gay when she surprises him in bed with her best friend Abhijeet (Rehaan Engineer).As soon as Madhavi begins to get disillusioned with her job of covering lives of these celebs she declares that “the party is over” for her. She soon realises that the glamorous world of celebrity life is not as glamorous as it seems. As well her roommate Gayatri who supposedly returned to Delhi sleeps with a director and gets put in a movie.

[[ Swades ]] Language: Hindi Genre: Social Awareness

Swades is a 2004 Indian film written, produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. The film stars Shahrukh Khan and debutant Gayatri Joshi. Music is by A. R. Rahman, lyrics by Javed Akhtar. The tagline of the film is: "We, the people."

Plot

Mohan Bhargava (Shahrukh Khan) is an NRI working at NASA in a lucrative and prestigious position. He had been a student at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school with a large Asian population. After twelve years in the US, he decides to return to India to find hisnanny, Kaveri Amma, with whom he has completely lost touch. Along the way, he meets a number of interesting people from the village called Charanpur where Kaveri Amma now lives; there's the village postmaster, eager to know more about e-mails and the internet, while also having a keen hobby of wrestling; the ex-freedom fighter who teaches history at the local school and is a lone voice of reason amongst the village elders; there's also a cook who harbours ambitions of opening a dhaba on a US freeway, and sees in Mohan an opportunity to get himself avisa.While Mohan soon adapts himself to life in the village and endears himself to its people, he also encounters some of its harsher aspects. Among them are poverty, caste discrimination, child marriage, illiteracy, a general disregard for education and an apathy to change. He tries in his own way to bring about some change, even succeeding to the point of dissuading the village elders from moving the local school to smaller and far-away premises. In doing this, he earns the respect of Gita (Gayatri Joshi), a childhood acquaintance who lives with Kaveri Amma and runs the local school.One day, Kaveri Amma sends him away to another village called Kodi to collect dues from a farmer named Haridas who has rented their land. Along the journey, Mohan realizes that the problems he had seen in the village mirror those faced by almost all other villages in the country. Haridas, the farmer who owes rent has no money to feed his own family, mainly because the villagers wouldn't support his attempts at a change of occupation from weaving to farming. Mohan returns empty-handed but resolves to take more interest in improving the quality of life of the villagers.He enlists the support of a few hundred men and guides them through the building of a reservoir beneath a perennial spring on a nearby hill. Buying turbines and other equipment with his own money, he sets up a small hydro-electric power plant that would solve the problem of irregular electricity and make the village self-sufficient.By then, it's time for him to leave as his project at NASA is near its final stage. Kaveri Amma, whom he had intended to take along with him, refuses to come citing the difficulty of adapting to a new culture at such a late stage in her life. Gita, whom he had fallen in love with, also refuses to come with him, wanting to remain in the country and continue running the school that her parents had founded. He returns alone but feels a growing sense of responsibility towards his country and guilt for not being able to do much for the welfare of its people. He, nevertheless, stays to finish his project at NASA before resigning and returning to India.

[[ Bheja Fry ]] Language: Hindi Genre: Comedy

Bheja Fry is a (2007) film directed by Sagar Ballary & produced by Sunil Doshi. it's actually a pure mind blowing but different comedy.

Plot

Ranjeet Thadani (Rajat Kapoor) is a music producer married to Sheetal (Sarika) a singer. Ranjeet and his friends get together every Friday for a party. This is a different kind of party where they invite a talent who is not so talented and ridicule them behind the scenes. They enjoy doing it so much that they don't even mind missing out on family appointments.One of Ranjeet's friends meets Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak) on a trip to Pune and decides that he could probably be a source of entertainment for Ranjeet. Ranjeet promptly calls Bharat and invites him for dinner.Bharat is a talkative self promoting singer who carries with him a scrap book showcasing his musical life. He is excited at the prospect of meeting a music producer which might help advance his career as a singer. Bharat is kind hearted and wants to help everyone but he also has the ability to mess things up for people around him. He can be annoying to the person who is sitting next to him but he makes it a funny experience for everyone else watching him.Friday arrives but Ranjeet's back is sprained badly and is restricted from moving around. Ranjeet knows that he will not be able to make it to the party but still decides to meet with Bharat to see how good or rather bad he is. Before Bharat arrives at Ranjeet's residence, Sheetal leaves after an altercation with Ranjeet. After Ranjeet asks Bharat to call his family doctor, he acccidentally calls Ranjeet's girlfriend. Ranjeet asks Bharat to leave his home for all the mess he has created. Ranjeet tries to get information regarding Sheetal's whereabout. Bharat offers to help and calls Sheetal's previous boyfriend (Milind Soman) under a false identity. Instead, he ends up giving Ranjeet's Landline number that makes obvious to Milind that Ranjeet is trying to get all details. Milind tells Ranjeet that Sheetal might have gone to Keval Arora, a sex-freak.It turns out that a collegue of Bharat, Asif Merchant (Ranbeer Shourie) knows, whereabouts of Keval. Asif is a snobby character who loves to watch cricket and an ardent fan of Pakistan. Later, it turns out in a series of funny events that it was Asif's wife who is with Keval Arora. While trying to mend relationship between Ranjeet and Sheetal, Sheetal tells Bharat that he was called by Husband to make fool of him and have fun. This hurts Bharat. But good-heared Bharat still wants to help Ranjeet by making Sheetal feel how ashamed Ranjeet is because of his acts and how much he loves her. But he again messes up and the film ends on a funny note.