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Vasool Raja MBBS
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Wikipedia article
'Vasool Raja MBBS' is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film directed by Saran. It is a Tamil remake of the 2003 Hindi film 'Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.', which is inspired by the 1998 American film 'Patch Adams'. 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. The film's music was composed by Bharathwaj. The film released on 12 August 2004.
Plot
Rajaraman, nicknamed "Vasool Raja", is a local don in Chennai who makes a living by collecting money from people who refuse or dilly-dally in paying their debts to others (adithadi), with the help of his right-hand man Vatti. Given that his father Sriman Venkataraman had wished him to be a doctor, he creates the faux Venkataraman Charitable Hospital, and pretends to live in accordance with this wish whenever his father and mother Kasturi visit him in Chennai.
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", who was a childhood friend of Raja under that name. 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, in grief and despair, decides that the only way to redeem himself and gain revenge for the humiliation suffered by his father at the hands of the spiteful Vishwanathan is to become a doctor. He goes to a medical college to obtain an MBBS degree, the graduate medical degree in South Asia.
With the help of Vatti and others, Raja gains admission to the SLR Institute of Medical Sciences by threatening Margabandhu, a faculty member of the college, as well as Margabandhu's father. Upon admission, he again encounters Vishwanathan, who is the college dean. His success there becomes dependent upon the coerced help of Margabandhu. Margabandhu is initially hostile to Raja but does not reveal the truth to the dean. 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, and the compassion he shows towards those in need. Despite the school's emphasis on mechanical, Cartesian, impersonal, often bureaucratic relationships between doctors and patients, Raja constantly seeks to impose a more empathetic, almost holistic, 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; intimidating Dr. Kalidas into admitting and treating a suicide patient; interacting on familiar but autocratic terms with patients; humiliating school bullies; effusively thanking a hitherto-underappreciated cleaner; helping a terminally ill cancer patient named Zakir; and encouraging the patients themselves to make changes in their lives so that they do not need pharmaceuticals or surgery.
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. Repeatedly, this near-dementia is shown when he receives unwelcome tidings and begins laughing in a way that implies that he has gone mad. This behavior is explained early on as an attempt to practice laughter therapy, an attempt that seems to have backfired. Vishwanathan's laughing serves more to convey his anger than diffuse it. Meanwhile, Janaki becomes increasingly fond of Raja, who, in his turn, becomes unreservedly infatuated with her. Some comedy appears here because Raja is unaware that Janaki and his childhood friend "Paapu" are one and the same; an ignorance that Janaki hilariously exploits. Vishwanathan tries several times to expel Raja, but is often outsmarted by Raja's wit or the affection with which the others at the college regard Raja, having gained superior self-esteem by his methods. In a final attempt, Raja is almost expelled but he injures himself and multiple bones to prevent himself from being expelled.
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 for a carrom board to come to hospital. One late night, Raja and his gang play carrom and chat and Margabandhu's father miraculously wakes up and walks to the board, to the shock of the nurses, doctors, and Margabandhu. Raja and Margabandhu's father play against each other and Margabandhu's father wins the match and celebrates. Upon witnessing this, Margabandhu is extremely touched by Raja's gesture and tearfully thanks him for saving his father, dropping his hostility towards Raja and his gang.
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 and upon questioning the staff, Margabandhu denies any of Vishwanathan's allegations and claims that Raja is innocent. Infuriated, Vishwanathan challenges Raja to answer all questions asked by the doctors in front of the entire university and Raja accepts. Despite preparing well and getting help from Margabandhu and supporting staff, Raja is unable to focus as Zakir's condition becomes worse and Zakir 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, shocking everyone. Raja is unable to answer and is shamed into leaving the college. He confesses the truth to everyone and breaks down about his guilt to Zakir, his parents, and everyone he cared for. Everyone, except Vishwanathan (who smiles maliciously throughout the speech), are moved to tears by his speech. In the moments immediately following Raja's departure, the brain-dead man miraculously awakens from his vegetative state; at this point, Janaki gives a heartfelt speech wherein she criticizes her father for having banished Raja, saying that to do so is to banish hope, compassion, love, happiness, etc. from the college. Vishwanathan eventually realizes his folly.
Raja later marries Janaki, learning for the first time that she is "Paapu", while also reconciling with his parents, who appreciate him for the first time in many years.
Cast
*Kamal Haasan as Rajaraman Venkatraman (alias '"Vasool Raja"')
*Prabhu as Vatti
*Sneha as Janaki Vishwanathan (alias '"Paapu"')
*Prakash Raj as Dr. Vishwanathan
*Nagesh as Venkatraman
* Lakshmi as Janaki's mother
*Rohini Hattangadi as Kasturi Venkatraman
*Crazy Mohan as Professor Margabandhu
*Jayasurya as Zakir
*Malavika as Priya
*Karunas as Kalaialangaram
*Arun as the dejected lover
*Ajay Rathnam as Medicine Professor
*Kavithalaya Krishnan as Surgery Professor
*Nithin Sathya as Neelakandan
*Chithra Lakshmanan as Dr. Kalidas
*Thalaivasal Vijay as Doctor
*Santhana Bharathi as Gangadharan
*Kaka Radhakrishnan as Margabandhu's father
*Madhan Bob as Mani Raja, Raja's client
*Vaiyapuri as Piles Patient
*E. Ramdoss as Ward Boy
*Karate Raja as Raja's sidekick
*Sukumar as Raja's sidekick
*Sampath Ram as Raja's sidekick
*Meera Krishnan as Mani Raja's wife
*A. K. Veerasami as Hospital Cleaner
*Kaajal Pasupathi as Nurse
*Boys Rajan as Professor
* Mythili as Nurse
*Yatin Karyekar as Anand, the Coma Patient
*Benjamin as Pickpocket
*Scissor Manohar as Coconut water seller
*Ragasya as dancer in song "Cheena Thaana"
Production
The film was initially titled 'Market 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 MBBS' (2004).
Jyothika was initially approached to play the leading female role but her busy in another film meant that the team sought and consequently signed on actress Sneha for the film. Prabhu was cast in a supporting role at the insistence of Kamal Haasan, despite Saran's desire to cast Kalabhavan Mani.
Saran had hoped to sign on director K. Balachandar to play Kamal Haasan's father in the film, with the veteran director being both Kamal 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 veteran actor Nagesh.[https://web.archive.org/web/20040620175106/http://chennaionline.com/reeltalk/06reeltalk11th.asp Reel Talk Khushboo signs up Arjun]. Web.archive.org. Retrieved on 12 March 2016.
Actor Dhanush initially agreed to play a cameo role in the film but opted out citing a busy schedule and was replaced by Malayalam actor Jayasurya.
Production on the film cost a total of 5.5 crore rupees.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by Bharathwaj, repeating his successful collaboration with director Saran. All songs were penned by Vairamuthu. The New Straits Times rated it 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, "Bharathwaj comes up with great compositions in this outing. He introduces new singers Sathyan, Arjun, Donnan and Grace. The audio launch was held in July 2004.
Box office
Made on a budget of 5.5 crore, 'Vasoolraja 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.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120220002728/http://www.thehindujobs.com/thehindu/mp/2004/09/27/stories/2004092703100301.htm No stopping him]. 'The Hindu' (27 September 2004)
Controversy
The film faced controversy as the petition filed by 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. Moreover, the film title is considered to be a mockery on the medical profession which would lower dignity of the medical fraternity in eyes of public.
References
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