It’s no secret that the Bollywood viewing sections of the
internet and I don’t always agree about movies; I am an open, admitted,
and unironic fan of Johny Lever, after all. Mela (2000), however, may finally be proof that I am living in Bollywood Bizarro world.
Roopa Singh (Twinkle Khana) is a free-spirited young woman who is loved by all of the happy villagers of Chandanpur, but especially by her brother Ram (Ayub Khan) and Gopal (Omkar Kapoor), a young boy with a serious crush. Ram has fixed Roopa’s marriage to a colleague in a distant vilage, and while Roopa doesn’t want to leave her brother and her home, the other happy villagers convince her to cheer up and come to the village fair, because nothing bad ever happens at village fairs, right?
Something bad happens at the village fair. Bandit leader and part time terrorist Gujjar Singh (Tinnu Verma), in town to assassinate a visiting government minister (Kulbushan Kharbanda), notices Roopa dancing, and decides to abduct her. Before long the village is in chaos, Ram and Gopal are dead, and Roopa has thrown herself off a cliff in order to escape Gujjar’s lecherous clutches.
Roopa survives the fall, miraculously unscathed. She’s angry, afraid, and a little unhinged, and she fixates on the idea of finding her fiance-to-be so that he will protect her and avenge her. To this end, after the usual misunderstandings, she hitches a ride with truck driver Shankar (Faisal Khan) and his sidekick, aspiring actor Kishen (Aamir Khan), who happens to be looking for an actual woman to costar in his new production.
Roopa’s intended turns out to be a huge disappointment, almost as bad as Gujjar. While escaping from him, Roopa runs straight into a band of Gujjar’s henchmen. Fortunately, Shankar and Kishen come to her rescue, and she decides that her avengers and rescuers have been in front of her the whole time.
Roopa may have found her champions, but she still doesn’t really trust them, so rather than tell the truth and ask for their help, she decides to make the already smitten Kishen fall in love with her, thus cementing their loyalty. This . . . is not a great plan.
Mela was a box office disaster. One of the most widely criticized aspects of the film was Twinkle Khanna’s performance, but, and this is probably evidence of my being a resident of Bizarro World, I thought she was really good. Women in Bollywood movies tend to react to atrocity in one of two ways, either lapsing into stereotypical Bollywood insanity, or becoming Kali and killing absolutely everybody. Khanna’s Roopa behaves more like . . . well, like a woman who’s just been through a profound trauma. And a lot of this is conveyed through body language and facial expressions; Roopa visibly shrinks whenever anyone tries to touch her, and during Kishen’s show (which is attended by some of Gujjar’s goons) she alternates between bravado and abject terror. She’s clearly not okay, and it colors every interaction she has.
I won’t pretend Mela is a good movie; it’s a standard Sholay flavored revenge melodrama and Western homage, with broad comedy, a heroine more consistently imperiled than Pauline, a villain who looks like he should be in the Village People, and a plot that doesn’t make an awful lot of sense. On the other hand, the movie features one surprising performance, colorful dance numbers, a few literal cliffhangers, plenty of last minute rescues, and the mighty sideburns of Johny Lever. It may not be a good movie, but it’s certainly not boring.
Roopa Singh (Twinkle Khana) is a free-spirited young woman who is loved by all of the happy villagers of Chandanpur, but especially by her brother Ram (Ayub Khan) and Gopal (Omkar Kapoor), a young boy with a serious crush. Ram has fixed Roopa’s marriage to a colleague in a distant vilage, and while Roopa doesn’t want to leave her brother and her home, the other happy villagers convince her to cheer up and come to the village fair, because nothing bad ever happens at village fairs, right?
Something bad happens at the village fair. Bandit leader and part time terrorist Gujjar Singh (Tinnu Verma), in town to assassinate a visiting government minister (Kulbushan Kharbanda), notices Roopa dancing, and decides to abduct her. Before long the village is in chaos, Ram and Gopal are dead, and Roopa has thrown herself off a cliff in order to escape Gujjar’s lecherous clutches.
Roopa survives the fall, miraculously unscathed. She’s angry, afraid, and a little unhinged, and she fixates on the idea of finding her fiance-to-be so that he will protect her and avenge her. To this end, after the usual misunderstandings, she hitches a ride with truck driver Shankar (Faisal Khan) and his sidekick, aspiring actor Kishen (Aamir Khan), who happens to be looking for an actual woman to costar in his new production.
Roopa’s intended turns out to be a huge disappointment, almost as bad as Gujjar. While escaping from him, Roopa runs straight into a band of Gujjar’s henchmen. Fortunately, Shankar and Kishen come to her rescue, and she decides that her avengers and rescuers have been in front of her the whole time.
Roopa may have found her champions, but she still doesn’t really trust them, so rather than tell the truth and ask for their help, she decides to make the already smitten Kishen fall in love with her, thus cementing their loyalty. This . . . is not a great plan.
Mela was a box office disaster. One of the most widely criticized aspects of the film was Twinkle Khanna’s performance, but, and this is probably evidence of my being a resident of Bizarro World, I thought she was really good. Women in Bollywood movies tend to react to atrocity in one of two ways, either lapsing into stereotypical Bollywood insanity, or becoming Kali and killing absolutely everybody. Khanna’s Roopa behaves more like . . . well, like a woman who’s just been through a profound trauma. And a lot of this is conveyed through body language and facial expressions; Roopa visibly shrinks whenever anyone tries to touch her, and during Kishen’s show (which is attended by some of Gujjar’s goons) she alternates between bravado and abject terror. She’s clearly not okay, and it colors every interaction she has.
I won’t pretend Mela is a good movie; it’s a standard Sholay flavored revenge melodrama and Western homage, with broad comedy, a heroine more consistently imperiled than Pauline, a villain who looks like he should be in the Village People, and a plot that doesn’t make an awful lot of sense. On the other hand, the movie features one surprising performance, colorful dance numbers, a few literal cliffhangers, plenty of last minute rescues, and the mighty sideburns of Johny Lever. It may not be a good movie, but it’s certainly not boring.
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