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Writer-director Sanjay Chhel made an impressive debut with the light-hearted entertainer Khoobsurat and followed it up with a dud, Kya Dil Ne Kahaa.
With Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam, a spoof inspired by the Hollywood classic To Be Or Not To Be and the Bollywood classic Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Chhel regains his sense of humour but loses it again in a mishmash of subplots.
Even a team of talented comic actors can’t really save this erratic comedy.
Where’s the story?
Uday Shankar Mazumdar (Paresh Rawal) and his bewitching wife Shabnam (Mallika Sherawat) play the characters of Akbar and Anarkali in a play called Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam.
Arjun (Rahul Bose), an undercover RAW officer flips for Shabnam while watching this play.
At the same time, he also has the job of saving the city from blasts planned by the villains.
Haldi Hassan (Kay Kay Menon), a ghazal singer and a double agent, has his own plans.
Arjun gets Shabnam, Mazumdar and the whole set of actors in the play to throw a spanner in the works of the underworld — all in the name of patriotism.
The film is set in 1993, around the time of the Mumbai blasts. But this angle of terrorism doesn’t work.
In fact, it spoils the occasional mirth created in the film, thanks to some very good one-liners by Chhel.
Nerve-wracking
The film’s initial reels tend to get on to your nerves as you won’t be sure what is happening.
Bose is out of sync and a total miscast. In fact, he shouldn’t be doing such roles as it demeans his stature of an actor of substance.
Sherawat had to flaunt her anatomy generously in the film and she seems to have obliged graciously.
Her costumes and dance movements in one of the forgettable songs in the film look straight out of Ugly Aur Pagli.
Rawal takes the cake
Rawal is the star of the show. He can make even a stupid scene seem hilarious with his amazing sense of comic timing.
Menon is good in patches, especially when he is trying to translate the meaning of sophisticated Urdu words.
Pawan Malhotra is hilarious but Zakir Hussain is wasted in an insignificant role.
This comedy about a tragic play meshed with terrorism might have ended into a complete tragedy if it weren’t for some side-splitting moments.
— Abdulla Mahmood is a UAE-based freelance writer
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