Mayasabha Review: Disappointing!

The visuals in Mayasabha are overwhelming, the treatment is heavy-handed, and the performances overdone, observes Deepa Gahlot.

Rahi Anil Barve's Mayasabha shares with the director's earlier supernatural horror Tumbadd a dark theme of greed, and has an eerie, smoky atmospheric set just made for horror.

The plot flounders, however, between humour and thrill, and that aha moment that would make it all come together satisfactorily never arrives.

The story, which is part nostalgia and part nightmare, is ripe with potential, but the director seems to be lost in the labyrinth he creates inside a decrepit movie theatre.

The work of Production Designer Preetam Rai and Cinematographer Kuldeep Mamanai is outstanding. The theatre is as full of memorabilia as it is dripping with years of uncleared grime.

What Mayasabha is about

Living in the midst of decay is theatre owner Parmeshwar (Jaaved Jaaferi), who once used to be a successful film producer. He was ruined by his actress wife who left him for her co-star, and took everything with her.

For years, Parmeshwar has wandered around 'like a ghost' constantly spraying pesticide -- the reason is explained later.

Trapped in that hell is his teenage son Vasu (Mohammad Samad), both seemingly with little or no contact with the outside world. They are fed, somehow, because Parmeshwar does not have the pasty look of a man who never steps out -- he seems rather too healthy and has perfect long hair that is stylishly tousled.

The boy must have been schooled at some point -- he performs CPR later in the film -- though he has no friends. He has made his own little cocoon inside that dungeon and seems content.

How he befriends a pair of grifters, Ravrana (Deepak Damle) and his 'sister' Zeenat (Veena Jamkar), is not clear, but he eagerly gives the man a tour -- they use flashlights though the place has electricity. Parmeshwar walks around with a floor lamp, the alternate reality of Mayasabha is to be accepted without question.

He invites Ravrana and Zeenat to dinner. Parmeshwar loans him a suit -- in that mouldy place, old clothes are intact -- and dresses up to receive the guests. Zeenat has the tabloid fodder and Internet info about him memorised as she tries to impress him.

What the two are after is the treasure of gold Parmeshwar is rumoured to have hidden in the theatre.

Vasu has hunted and failed to find it, so has promised his new 'friends' a share of it, if they are able to wrangle information about the hiding place from the old man.

Is Mayasabha worth a watch?

Mayasabha should have been fun, but even at its relatively short running time of 104 minutes, it seems like a slog.

The title alludes to the palace of illusions from the Mahabharat, but the film does not even have an illusory or allegorical element to it. The visuals are overwhelming, the treatment is heavy-handed, the performances overdone. There is ambition here, a pure cinematic quality too, but it is still a disappointing watch.