'Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam' isn't all that its title indicates and neither is it the copy of Asif's Dilip Kumar- Madhubala starrer mega 'Mughal-E-Azam'. Yet it moves around the Mughal-E-Azam story. Even when the movie was almost ready its writer-director Sanjay Chhel of the 'Khoobsoorat' and 'Kyaa Dil Ne Kahaa' fame asked producer Ganesh Jain to give it a title! Since the story moved around Mughal-E-Azam, the producer agreed to name it as such. But the movie is full of wit, humor and also bravura performances by its lead actors. However, Chhel admits that his film is on the lines of 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron'.
This is 1993 and St. Louise, near Goa, is on a high alert following illegal activities like RDX and arms landing at the coastal area. Incidentally, there is a theater group of dreamers named Kalakar Theatre Company. The group performs the same age-old period play 'Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam' every time. One fine day, they get to know that an underworld don is planning a bomb blast in the country. The drama company gets into action to save the entire city from this blast. 'Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam' takes time to come into form, but when it does, the humor never stops.
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The theatre group's drama "Akbar, Salim, Anarkali" though amateurish works as it evokes wild laughter at several places. Alas, it lacks meat. Paresh Rawal plays Uday Shankar Mazumdar, who's nuts about his actress wife Shabnam (Mallika Sherawat) and suspicious of her being eyed by other men. Young and pretty Shabnam wants to become a heroine and then find new romance. But, the play comes under fire from the local Goa police. So, the group stages their old Salim-Anarkali drama.
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Now, Uday Shankar has to face a new admirer in Rahul Bose, who is an agent of RAW. He is here to prevent a don (Dawood caricature) from masterminding the serial Bombay blasts that happened in Mumbai in 1993. At this stage, extraneous characters like a local bhai and a ghazal singer who's supporting the "jihad"-all get mixed up. The dialogues at this juncture are interesting though.
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While critically analyzing it, we may infer that its strength lies in humor and director Chhel has hit a boundary in this respect. Dialogues are well written too. However, Anu Malik's music isn't up to the expectation though he provides it an excellent title track. Madhu Ambat's cinematography is good, too. The movie belongs to the trio of Paresh, Rahul and Mallika. Paresh shows his potential, especially in his take on Akbar or step in as Kay Kay's double.
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Mallika Sherawat is fantastic , both as Anarkali and as an aspiring actress. Since she was also shooting for 'Ugly Aur Pagli' at that time, she does that blowing-hair-off-her-forehead routine. Rahul Bose proves his mettle in this genre of comedy with his comic scene though known more as a serious actor. Kay Kay isn't in his usual form yet good . Pawan Malhotra does very well. Zakir Hussain and Manoj Joshi don't have much to do.
On the whole, the movie is interesting due to plenty of wit and humor.
