Vasool Raja MBBS

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. It was released on 15 August 2004.

Plot
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.

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 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 and filming
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. 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 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. 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.

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. The film's producers after watching the copy of the film were dissatisfied with the film as they felt 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. All songs were penned by Vairamuthu. Two songs were shot in Switzerland.

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". The audio launch was held in July 2004.

Reception
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".

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.