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Vasool Raja MBBS

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Vasool Raja MBBS (transl. Collection King 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. It was released on 13 August 2004.

Vasool Raja MBBS
Poster
Directed bySaran
Screenplay byCrazy Mohan (dialogues)
Based onMunna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003)
by Rajkumar Hirani
StarringKamal Haasan
Prabhu
Sneha
Prakash Raj
CinematographyA. Venkatesh
Edited bySuresh Urs
Music byBharadwaj
Production
company
Distributed byRaaj Kamal Films International
Release date
  • 13 August 2004 (2004-08-13)
Running time
148 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Plot

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Rajaraman, nicknamed "Vasool Raja," is a local don in Chennai who makes a living by collecting 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. Infuriated, Vishwanathan challenges Raja to answer all questions asked by the doctors in front of the entire university, and Raja accepts. Despite preparing well, Raja 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

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Production

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Development

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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.[3] To commence the film within 15 days, Saran assigned his usual crew consisting of music composer Bharadwaj and cinematographer A. Venkatesh.[3] Suresh Urs worked as editor while Mohana Mahendra was chosen to handle art.[4]

The film was initially titled Market Raja MBBS which Saran later used as the title for his 2019 film.[5][6] It was Crazy Mohan who suggested the title Vasool Raja MBBS.[3] 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).[7]

Casting and filming

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Jyothika was initially approached to play the leading female role but her other commitments meant that the team sought and consequently signed on actress Sneha for the film.[3] Prabhu was cast in a supporting role at the insistence of Kamal Haasan, despite Saran's desire to cast Kalabhavan Mani.[8] Saran also thought of casting Karunas initially for Prabhu's character but later created a new character for him.[3]

Saran had hoped to sign on director K. Balachander to play Kamal Haasan's father in the film, 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 both K. Viswanath and Girish Karnad for the role, before signing Nagesh.[9][10] Yatin Karyekar and Rohini Hattangadi, who were part of the Hindi original, reprised their roles.[3] Dhanush initially agreed to play the cancer patient but opted out citing a busy schedule and was replaced by Jayasurya.[11]

Saran observed Prakash Raj using hand gestures a lot while emoting so in order to capitalise on that, he created a "back and forth scene" focusing on their actions and was shot using closeup lenses.[10] The film's producers, after watching the copy of the film, 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.[3] The song "Kalakkapovathu Yaaru" was shot in a set at Kushaldas Gardens.[12] Two songs were shot in Switzerland.[13]

Soundtrack

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The soundtrack was composed by Bharadwaj who collaborated with Haasan for first time.[14] All songs were penned by Vairamuthu.[15] The song "Alwarpettai Aaluda" is set in Patdeep raga, while the Item song "Siruchi Cheena Thana" became a Cult Dance number.

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".[16] The audio launch was held in July 2004.[17]

Track listing
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Kalakapovathu Yaaru"Kamal Haasan, Sathyan, VNB4:37
2."Pathukulle Number"KK, Shreya Ghoshal5:19
3."Alwarpetai Aaluda"Kamal Haasan, VNB5:13
4."Sakalakala Doctor"Bharadwaj, Arjun, Donan4:31
5."Kaddu Thirande Kidakinrathu"Hariharan, Sadhana Sargam4:14
6."Cheena Thana (Siruchi)"Grace Karunas4:38
Total length:28:62

Reception

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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?".[18] 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.[19] However Malini Mannath of Chennai Online gave a negative review, citing "Munnabhai...' was a laugh-riot, 'Vasoolraja...' hardly tickles!."[2] K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times wrote, "Vasoolraja MBBS (King of Revenue) should live up to its name".[20] 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".[21]

Box office

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Made on a budget of ₹5.5 crore, Vasool Raja MBBS was sold for ₹1 crore in Coimbatore distribution territory with 20 prints.[22] The film was shown on about 285 screens worldwide to highly positive reception and box-office success.[23] Tabloid reported 10 million tickets were sold worldwide.[24]

Controversy

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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.[25] The Madras High Court later cleared the film's release without the title changed.[26]

References

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  1. ^ a b Ramanujam, Srinivasa (10 June 2020). "Crazy Mohan could laugh, and make us laugh: Prakash Raj on the first death anniversary of the iconic comedian". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b Mannath, Malini (23 August 2004). "Vasoolraja M. B. B. S." Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 16 October 2006. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g ""அஜித் ஓகே சொல்லலைனா 'வசூல் ராஜா' படமே எடுத்திருக்க முடியாது!"- இயக்குநர் சரண் #16YearsofVasoolRaja". Ananda Vikatan (in Tamil). 18 August 2020. Archived from the original on 30 September 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  4. ^ Mannath, Malini (10 June 2004). "Vasoolraja MBBS". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 4 December 2004. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  5. ^ Suganth, M (4 January 2019). "Saran gets Arav and keeps his title 'Market Raja MBBS'". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 11 January 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  6. ^ Jha, Subhash K (27 April 2004). "Munnabhai in Tamil". Mid-Day. Archived from the original on 28 February 2005. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  7. ^ RR (29 May 2004). "Bharadwaj's first for Kamal". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 15 October 2006. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  8. ^ "Vasool Raja : Underwent many replacements". Behindwoods. Archived from the original on 27 August 2004. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  9. ^ Rasika (11 June 2004). "In search of a father". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 20 June 2004. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  10. ^ a b Rajendran, Gopinath (12 September 2018). "Vasool Raja MBBS: A fine balance". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  11. ^ "வசூல் ராஜா MBBS படத்தில் தனுஷ் இப்படி ஒரு கதாபாத்திரத்தில் நடிக்க இருந்தாரா?". Cineulagam (in Tamil). 17 October 2024. Archived from the original on 17 October 2024. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  12. ^ "Vasool Raja Shooting creates an atmosphere of fun fair". Cinesouth. 1 July 2004. Archived from the original on 7 February 2005. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  13. ^ "Kamal, Sneha in Switzerland!". Sify. 3 August 2004. Archived from the original on 15 August 2004. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  14. ^ RR (29 May 2004). "Bharadwaj's first for Kamal". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 3 June 2004. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  15. ^ "Vasool Raja Mbbs (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". Apple Music. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  16. ^ Thambirajah, Mohan (19 August 2004). "Energetic hip-hop". New Straits Times. p. 27. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2020 – via Google News Archive.
  17. ^ Ashok Kumar, S.R. (17 July 2004). "Successes in August". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 6 June 2022. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  18. ^ Warrier, Shobha (30 August 2004). "Vasool Raja is Kamal's show all the way". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 15 October 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  19. ^ தாசன், விஷுவல் (22 August 2004). "வசூல் ராஜா MBBS". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 12. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ^ Vijiyan, K.N. (23 August 2004). "Another comic turn by Kamalhaasan". New Straits Times. p. 27. Archived from the original on 20 August 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2020 – via Google News Archive.
  21. ^ "Vasoolraja MBBS". Sify. Archived from the original on 10 March 2005. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  22. ^ "'Chandramukhi' —First sale!". Sify. 20 November 2004. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  23. ^ Gopalan, Krishna (29 July 2007). "The boss, no doubt". Business Today. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  24. ^ Jeshi, K. (27 September 2004). "No stopping him". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  25. ^ "Tamil Nadu Medical Council vs The Chairman on 6 August, 2004". indiankanoon.org. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  26. ^ "'Vasoolraja' will have 'MBBS'". Nowrunning. IANS. 8 August 2004. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
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