DARR SE YA PYAAR SE LOG HERO KO MUNNA KEHTE HAI .. ( THE MANY MUNNAS IN HINDI FILMS) By Ali Peter John

Every parent loves to call their boy child a Munna when he is hardly able to talk or walk, and every little boy loves to be called Munna - Ali Peter John

It is difficult to trace the origin of this word, but if their is one medium which has made the name Munna very popular, it is the world of Hindi films.

In general, every male child has been called Munna in many of our films, but if there is one man who was always known as Munna by his parents, it was Amitabh Bachchan.

I have been a witness to several instances when Harivanshrai Bachchan has called him Munna and sometimes both Harivanshrai and his wife Teji Bachchan calling him Munna from the time he was a little boy in Allahabad till the time they died.

Amitabh had grown into the superstar of the millennium, but his parents always called him and referred to him as Munna.

It was an early morning and Amitabh who was doing two shifts in a day was rushing from "Prateeksha" to reach the shooting of one of his films in time. Mr. and Mrs. Bachchan were having their morning tea in the compound of "Prateeksha".

It was a regular practice in the Bachchan family to seek the blessings of God in the temple built inside "Prateeksha" and the practice applied to every member of the family.

That morning, Amitabh was in such a tearing hurry that he forgot the practice and both the father and the mother called out in one voice ," Munna, mandir nahi gaya?" And Amitabh the very big star came rushing back like a little boy and went into the mandir and then touched the feet of his parents and got into his car and went away.

There were times when Amitbah was so busy that producers lined up outside "Prateeksha" and Harivanshrai Bachchan who was one of the greatest poets of India played the role of Amitabh's manager or secretary and looked after the producers and kept assuring them with the words, " Munna abhi ayega" and "Munna" aata hi hoga, tayyer ho raha hai, Munna"

Amitabh was invited to be the chief guest at a festival of the films of K. A Abbas when he had just made it as a star and for reasons best known to him, he couldn't make it to the then Akaashwani Auditorium and sent his father instead.

Abbas was very upset when he was told by Bachchan who was his very close friend that "Munna bahot vyast hai, Munna ne maafi mangi hai aapse".

And Abbas said, "Yeh kya Munna Munna lagaya hai, tumhaara Munna abh bahot bada hogaya hai aur mujh jaise chhote se producer ko kyun poochega?"

Amitabh kept growing bigger and greater, but for the Bachchans, he was always their Munna, even when he was a grandfather.

I am sure Amitabh must be missing his parents and especially the way they called him Munna, which no one has called him before and no one can dare call him now...

There are many stories about films and heroes whose main characters have been called Munna.

In the early sixties, Abbas himself made a film called "Munna" which was based on his own story which was about the experiences and adventures of an orphan boy played by Master Romi.

It was a down to earth realistic film as all the films made by Abbas were. It was so real that Abbas resisted all temptations to have songs in the film which will always be remembered as India's first songless film, even though Abbas had another good friend, Anil Biswas to score the background music.

It was perhaps the only film whose premiere the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru attended and applauded the courage of Abbas to make such a very different film, away from the routine and the rut.

The film like all or most of the films of Abbas flopped at the box office, but had been shown in different festivals and one of the greatest admirers of Munna was the legendary Dilip Kumar.

There were many other Munnas seen through the times, but if there was one Munna who made a dramatic impact it was Anil Kapoor as Munna in N. Chandra's cult film, "Tezaab" which was inspired by the Hollywood film, "Streets of Fire".

Anil Kapoor played one of the vagabonds who lived life rough and took on tough challenges. Anil played the role of the first ever "bhai" in the film and played it so well that his character as Munna not only made "Tezaab" run for fifty weeks, but also made Anil a superstar.

The film also gave a new life to Madhuri Dixit who did that popular song, "Ek, do teen", but if"Tezaab" will be remembered, it will be for Anil Kapoor as Munna and he is still called Munna in many places, besides for his favourite on word dialogue, "Jhakaas".

The most recent story about a hero being called Munna was a film called, "Munna Michael".

Tiger Shroff played Munna in this film in which he is shown as a die-hard fan of Michael Jackson who can dance and who can also use dancing as a weapon to fight all the odds in his life.

Incidentally, Tiger's father, Jackie Shroff called him Munna as a little boy who could drive a Mercedes when he was six years old.

However, the most popular Munna has been Sanjay Dutt as Munna Bhai in the "Munna Bhai" sequel, Munna Bhai MBBS and Munna Bhai Lage Raho.

Munna is one name that can be found and heard in every street corner and in every house.

The name has grown so popular that now even people who don't speak Hindi or have not seen any of the films in which Munna is the central character, also call their kids Munna.