Maan Gaye Mughall_e_Azam
I am not a Mallika Sherawat fan, and I do try to steer clear of anything that has Mallika Sherawat in it. Yes, I know that Pyaar Ke Side Effects had a lot of rave reviews, but Ugly and Pagli once again brought home the point that the former could just have been a flash in the pan. Therefore, when my friend and I found ourselves at a multiplex trying to decipher between Phoonk, Maan Gaye Mughal E Azam and Mumbai Meri Jaan, I was all for Phoonk. But then I thought that Phoonk was after all a ‘scared-solved’ movie, whereas Mumbai Meri Jaan would be a different niche than what I was looking out for.
So, the only option was Maan Gaye Mughal E Azaam, and we ambled into the movie theater, waiting for another disaster to happen. Maybe we would have laughed at the movie over a few drinks after the statutory two and a half hours. And we were surprised, right from dialogue # 1. The movie has a genuine, honest to goodness and true sense of humor deeply imbibed into its script. Whether its black comedy or comedy, or sense or humor, the happenings on screen did get their fair share of guffaws from the crowd. Yes, the movie has risqué humor, yes, the movie is smattered with controversial and ‘oh, he-she didn’t say that’ moments all over. But yet, the movie is a very enjoyable fare for an evening. Of course, the movie touches on some very controversial subjects, even dangerous, to be very frank, and it’d be only wise to watch the movie before the moral police gets a sniff at what’s cooking in the movie. Mallika Sherawat does show her ability to act, while Rahul Bose is a bit underused. Paresh Rawal excels once again as an actor. As for what is the soul of the movie, it is difficult to decide between the performances given by the lead actors, be it Kay Kay as a goateed Gazal Singer looking at you via weird contact lenses, or some old-school theater actors strutting their stuff, or the dialogues by Sanjay Chhel. By the way, this is the first movie in Indian cinema which must have got away with a ‘FO’ at full blast. Movies like this run a risk of losing their soul and direction within the first few minutes, or even till the interval. Of course, there will be several who will say that this movie is akin to ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’, which people think is a sure shot recipe for success. They shouldn’t forget other movies like ‘Peecha Karon’. Enjoy the movie for godssake, it quite a different fare than the various comedies that have been thrown our way in recent times.
