Masand's Verdict: Maan Gaye Mughall-e-Azam, mess of a movie

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? 'Maan Gaye...' is a jumble of footage in search of a plot.

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Cast: Mallika Sherawat, Kay Kay Menon, Rahul Bose

Director: Sanjay Chhel

Writer-director Sanjay Chhel is no Stanley Kubrick, and yet I suspect he was somehow able to strike the same deal with his producers, as Kubrick did with the studio that financed his last film. It's popularly believed that Kubrick didn't allow Warner Brothers to see any rushes, any scenes of Eyes Wide Shut before he delivered his final cut, even though the studio had poured millions of dollars into the film.

Watching this week's new comedy written and directed by Chhel, I think I can safely say nobody but the film's creator could have had any clue what they were going to see. Of course, in the case of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick delivered a haunting portrait of marital loneliness. With Maan Gaye Mughall-e-Azam, on the other hand, Chhel has created a wretched mess of a movie -- a jumble of footage in search of a plot.

Paresh Rawal and Mallika Sherawat star as a married couple who're part of a theatre troupe in a small town in Goa who must yet again stage their version of the classic period romance Mughal-e-Azam, because the police fears their political satire might be a little too sensitive in such difficult times. The film after all is set in 1993, shortly after the communal riots that rocked the country. Rahul Bose plays what appears to be a seemingly jobless RAW officer who falls for Sherawat when he sees her on stage, and subsequently conducts an affair with her behind her husband's back.

Kay Kay Menon stars as a ghazal singer with underworld connections who disguises himself as an undercover cop. When Bose learns that Kay Kay is working closely with a Dubai Don on a plan to blow up the country, he gets this theatre troupe involved in a mission to foil the Don's sinister operation.

Liberally borrowing the premise of the Mel Brooks starrer To Be Or Not To Be, writer-director Sanjay Chhel turns in an asinine farce that one can't expect anyone with even the slightest intelligence to actually find funny.