A worker puts up a poster at the makeshift multiplex at Sonaram field. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Aug. 28: Film buffs in the city who are used to watching Bollywood flicks months after having lapped up every conceivable detail from cine magazines will have the pleasure of watching Lage Raho Munnabhai on the very day it releases in the rest of the country.

The much-awaited sequel to Munnabhai MBBS is set for an all-Assam release on September 1, along with the rest of the nation.

Besides being released in nine cinema halls across the state, there will be a special screening of the film for the inmates of old age homes of the city at a makeshift “multiplex” being set up for Utsav — a pre-puja carnival starting on September 1 at the Sonaram Field.

“We hope to see the elderly inmates smile. The storyline of the movie also has to do with old age, about how life begins after 70. We are thankful to the distributors for acceding to our request,” said an organiser.

If Munna and Circuit took a dig at doctors and showed that all you need is a jadoo ki jhappi to heal patients in Munnabhai MBBS, in the sequel the gangster duo tries to champion the cause of old people who have been deserted by their children.

Lago Raho Munnabai has Sunjay Dutt in the role of a do-gooder crook. Directed by Raju Hirani, the film also features Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan, with Dutt playing a fake history professor in love with a radio jockey who lives with her grandfather.

For the distributors, however, the state-wide release of the film is a means to beat piracy.

An executive of Rajshri Pictures Private Limited described the move to release the movie in three halls in Guwahati, in Nagaon (Aditi), Dibrugarh (Arora Cinema), Tezpur (Anwar), Jorhat (Eleye), Tinsukia (Paradise), Silchar (Debdut) and Bijou (Shillong), as an “experiment”.

Samir Ghosh, resident executive of Rajshri Pictures, said, “It is an experiment on which we have very high hopes. By releasing this big-budget movie simultaneously across the state and Shillong, which is part of the Assam circuit, we are creating a buzz to attract cinelovers to the theatres. It is seen that if we delay the release, pirated CDs ruin our business. All of us — the distributors, the exhibitors — lose business. Even the public loses out, in terms of quality viewing. September 1, 2006 is going to be a historic occasion.”

Industry sources have attributed various factors to the failure of a film to attract the state’s audience. Piracy, bad theatres in this age of multiplexes, late releases and law and order problems figures prominently among them.

They feel that simultaneous release across the state could turn out to be one of the strategies to revive the fortunes of those involved in the trade.

Those in the film trade are also hoping the experiment succeeds.