In the 1990s, Bollywood had gone into the mode of producing one clichéd love triangle after another, all with more than half a dozen songs, extended families, dramatic sequences, foreign locales and extravagant sets.
If you have been missing such films today and wanting to take a nostalgic trip back to the 1990s, Afzal Khan’s Mehbooba will provide you with the perfect opportunity.
Obsolete storyline
This decade-old film has finally hit the screen, featuring a younger Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan along with a slimmer, now almost-forgotten Manisha Koirala.
Mehbooba is an amalgamation of the best blockbusters of the Nineties, presented in an extravagant manner but with a subject which has undoubtedly gone out of date.
Shravan (Dutt) is a New York-based casanova who gets engaged to Varsha (Koirala) and dumps her after a romantic night
A humiliated Varsha starts life afresh as Payal in Budapest, where, after a lot of hesitation, she falls in love with Karan (Devgan). He, however, turns out to be Shravan’s younger brother.
Just when all looks fine and Karan is set to marry Varsha aka Payal, Shravan enters their lives and surprise — it is revealed that Shravan too loves Varsha.
This leads to a finale in which one of the brothers has to sacrifice his love for the happiness of the other.
The story is as old as the hills and there’s no prize for guessing every second scene of this film. Moreover, you can’t help but recall moments from Saajan, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Hum Aapke Hai Kaun..!.
However, despite the film’s being canned for years, it has not lost its sheen, thanks to some top-notch production values.
Besides the outdated storyline, what makes the film quite a pain to watch are innumerable songs that are out of sync in today’s times and never-ending dramatic moments that don’t go far beyond being clichés.
But to give due credit to Khan, it has to be said he has shot the film with a lot of passion. It has some scenes that may appeal to that strata of society which prefer hard-core Bollywood masala.
Dutt is the film’s best part but has not been able to maintain a consistent look throughout the film — for which he can hardly be blamed, as the film has been shot over years.
Devgan is flat in the romantic scenes but does a decent job in sensitive, emotional moments — something we have seen him do before.
Koirala, who seems to have all but disappeared from the Bollywood scene today, looks pretty and slim.
An unsupporting cast
The supporting cast is another of the film’s drawbacks, though Kader Khan, to a certain extent, does justice to his role.
Ismail Darbar’s music may have been good for the Nineties but fails to work magic now. Only a couple of songs stand out, with Kuch Karlo being the best of the lot.
Nitin Desai’s sets are opulent and Ashok Mehta’s cinematography deserves kudos for the way Budapest and Rajasthan have been filmed.
Mehbooba is a film that should have been released in the 1990s, but to watch such a film today is like getting stuck in a time warp.
— Abdulla Mahmood is a UAE-based freelance writer
