Munnabhai LLB to campaign against chronic ‘file-pushers’

A person who wanted to commit suicide but failed, is wheeled into a hospital. As he lies dying, hospital staff get busy filling up various forms. Fortunately for the man who wanted to die, Munnabhai MBBS walks in. Admonishing his colleagues for placing more importance on paper work than saving a life, he gets down to the task of getting the patient back on his feet.

Such happy endings generally come only in reel life. But Consumer Unity & Trust Society is placing utmost importance on making real life follow reel. This city-based consumers’ group has written to Rajkumar Hirani (the director of Munnabhai MBBS) to add a similar scene to the sequel that he has planned, even though the new film would be dealing with the legal profession.

“Hospitals just cannot get over the form filling habit,” CUTS spokesperson Soumi Home Roy said, explaining their unusual request to Hirani. And, apparently, Hirani has agreed to put in a scene where Munnabhai LLB will be seen admonishing someone who is more interested in pushing files than helping a victim of a mishap.

But Home Roy, for all her interest in getting Bollywood spread the word, is rooted firmly in real-life Kolkata. The next issue of the journal brought out by the group will have case-studies of victims who dies because of “File-pushing mentality.”

“There have been cases of even hospitals refusing to treat a mishap-victim before the copy of a general diary was produced,” Home Roy said. “And some of the big private-run hospitals in Salt Lake and along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass have also turned out to be the culprits,” she added.

CUTS is now planning to run a nation wide campaign on the “Social malaise”. “We want to make people a little more sensitive about the issue,” Home Roy said.