Decoding The Raju Hirani Template
Rajkumar Hirani is one of the most talented and successful directors in the country, of all time. While Dunki might not be his best work (or his biggest hit), there’s no denying the fact that Hirani KNOWS how to entertain. Even the biggest critics of Dunki will admit that the movie, for all its faults, is NOT boring.
But Hirani also has a template, which he follows in almost all of his movies. And unfortunately, it is getting dated now. There’s no denying that the same template has worked wonders for him in the past, but it’s clear that Hirani needs to break away from it now and do something different. A director of his caliber surely knows that. I am pretty sure Hirani will come back stronger, but for now, let’s take a look at the Hirani formula and the tropes that are invariably present in (almost) all of his movies.
Please note that there will be spoilers for Dunki in this blog.
1. An outsider enters an alien world – Munna Bhai in Munna Bhai MBBS takes admission into a medical college, Munna Bhai in Lage Raho Munna Bhai enters the world of Gandhian scholars, Rancho in 3 Idiots is an outlier in an engineering college, Hardy in Dunki comes to a small village to meet an old friend, and PK in PK LITERALLY comes to an alien planet. See a common thread here?
Hirani’s protagonists almost always bring a fresh perspective to a conventional world. They change the thinking of those who are conditioned to follow the ways of the world they inhabit, in the process also changing the perspective of the audience.
While most of us agreed with the philosophies in Hirani’s previous works, in Dunki, the logic appears flawed. And that could be a major reason why the film didn’t resonate with some people.
2. One moment funny, one moment emotional – Hirani had said in an old interview, that a thumb rule of his is to make audience feel an emotion, in every scene. Whether it’s to make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel love, Hirani’s scenes aren’t just ‘scenes’. They are constructed as mini movies of their own. They almost have a three three act narrative!
Remember 3 Idiots, where Chatur’s famous ‘paad’ monologue (and the infamous ‘balatkaar’ monologue) is quickly followed by a drunk, emotional Chatur challenging the ‘idiots’ of who will be more successful in life? It worked there, but not so much in Dunki.
But again, this is now becoming a hindrance for him. He is almost obsessed with making every scene epic, every moment memorable – at the expense of narrative subtlety. Sometimes, we need certain scenes just to set up later events in the script. But if such setup scenes are only so loud and over the top, the impact of the final punchline gets muted.
3. The usage of elderly characters – Be it Maqsood bhai and the carrom obsessed ‘pappa’ from Munnabhai MBBS, the inhabitants of the ‘Second Innings House’ in Lage Raho Munnabhai, or Raju’s father in 3 Idiots, Hirani has mastered the art of using elderly characters as a narrative device to generate empathy in the audience. It’s a powerful tool, in that it also gives us some memorable scenes and moments.
No complaints here – Hirani portrays them quite well.
4. A death that changes it all – Now on to another powerful narrative device – death. Zaheer from Munnabhai MBBS, Joy from 3 Idiots, or Sukhi in Dunki, Hirani bumps off a character to change the mood of the environment (at least for a few scenes). It also changes the protagonist’s motivations, and adds another layer to their character.
But these characters solely exist, well, to die. Otherwise, these are not important characters in the story. As a result, their characters aren’t well fleshed out. In certain cases, we don’t even get enough time with these characters to care enough about them.
Frankly, it’s a lazy trope, and Hirani would do well to avoid it
So, there we have it. You must have noticed that I didn’t reference Sanju in this blog. That’s because Sanju is an exception in Hirani’s filmography – which also proves that Hirani can create something different from the template he follows almost obstinately.
The movie lover in me would love to see Rajkumar Hirani make a grand comeback, hopefully with a fresh formula this time.