Maan Gaye Mughal-E-Azam (2008) - Movie Review


Movie Name : Maan Gaye Mughal-E-Azam

Movie Cast : Rahul Bose, Mallika Sherawat, Paresh Rawal and Kay Kay Menon

Movie Director : Sanjay Chhel

Music Director : Anu Malik

Rating : 1.5 / 5


It's time now. Stand up. Stay silent for few moments. Why! It's time to tribute to Kundan Shah's ironic tour de force 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron', although quite ironically. That's how Sanjay Chhel's 'Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam' can be described in a nutshell.

Sanjay Chhel, the writer, has proved his prowess well with films like 'Yes Boss' and 'Rangeela' but his directorial ability went under qualm after his disaster 'Maan Gaye…'. It's somewhat like the case of Ashwani Dhir who was nonpareil with his SAB TV show 'Office Office'; both as a writer and as a director. He survived well as a writer, too. But as soon as he stepped into the film zone as director with 'One Two Three', his name waned well.

The film shows the St. Louise, Goa in the set of 1993. The whole area is under high alert due to illegal activities in the way of arm and RDX deals. As the Kalakar Theater Company, a leading yet dwindling theater group of the area, comes to know about one underworld don planning about some bomb blast in the city, decides about saving their place. The entire film revolves around that particular bomb issue.

Though subject-wise the film looks absolutely okay, the film fails to sustain with the story flow and the way it's narrated to the audience. Chhel has proved himself well with the witty dialogue and in the way of creating few humorous situations but that's all. There is nothing more to talk about the treatment.

Being one of the two writers engaged to this project, Chhel fails even packing his points to the core. Dealing with various aspects like patriotism, terrorism, love, irony to human society, theater group's despair and last but not the least, the individual approach life, the film looks like a complete chaos with everything scattered irrespectively. The worst part of the film is there is no graph to be followed in the film. The pace of the story goes up only to come down and again gets paced up in a jiffy.

The laughter roller coaster comes to standstill only giving people an idea about how good actors Paresh, Mallika and Rahul are. Yeah, of course there are moments where people laugh their hearts out but that cannot be enough for a full fledged film. Talking about acting again, Kay Kay looks not in the mood to act while Paresh is the giant of comedy. Mallika is the next rising star in the comic genre and Rahul is simply memorable for his comic timing, although he is knows best for his serious roles.

Songs have nothing to do in this film except adding on to Mallika's naval touch. Thanks to Anu Malik. The title track is a bit memorable though. Cinematography has little scope to do in such a subject and Madhu Ambat has justified it well.

Though it's not worth watching if you are serious about time, the film should be a gift to people interested in just passing time. Not to forget experiencing Paresh Rawal in one of his best comic character ever.