Mela

<p>Roopa Singh is the only sister of her soldier brother named Ram Singh who returns to her village in to arrange her marriage in the form of a carnival. However, Roopa’s happiness is short-lived as the village is raided by a group of terrorists led by Gujjar Singh, who murders a visiting politician and is attracted to Roopa. As Gujjar attempts to escape with the terrified Roopa, Ram and Roopa’s young friend Gopal come to her rescue only to be killed by Gujjar who threatens Roopa that she will only be his mistress without the love of a brother or lover. Enraged and heartbroken, Roopa attempts to commit suicide by jumping into a waterfall, but she survives and upon vowing to confront and destroy Gujjar, steals the clothes of a theatre actor named Kishan, who works with his best friend Shankar. While finding his clothes and later stopping at a restaurant, Kishan meets Roopa and is angry for what she did. He also takes up a brawl with some goons who try to harass Roopa while demanding his clothes to be returned by her, while Shankar rescues Kishan after he was about to be killed by them, resulting in the restaurant being ruined, only to be paid by Shankar from Kishan’s wallet. Discovering that the duo are going to Khanpur, Roopa gets behind their truck. At a police checking, they meet Insp. Pakkad Singh, who also takes a look at Roopa because of which he suspects the duo but later he finds nothing. Eventually he leaves them, they later find that she’s really hiding in the truck. Kishan, initially angry, falls in love with her and decides to make Roopa the heroine of their dance show. With no option, Roopa travels with them and tries to escape, but returns when chased by the gang and a drunken cop named Surendra Pratap Singh, who was her rejected fiancée. Roopa is saved by Shankar and Kishan, where she feigns love for Kishan and the two men agree to help her return to Chandanpur, while Shankar despises her. Learning that Kishan is going to marry her, Roopa feels guilty over her betrayal and reveals her past. Shankar, initially enraged for what she did, becomes her brother while Kishan is heartbroken and leaves in disgust. Roopa and Shankar return to Chandanpur, where Shankar mobilizes the village and attempts to set a trap for Gujjar, who has learnt of Roopa’s survival and terrorizes the village to find out her whereabouts. The trap backfires horribly until Kishan returns with Pakkad Singh, who is suspended for some reasons. The trap is re-set with another carnival and the terrorists attack as planned. Kishan and Shankar chase Gujjar and after a long chase, Kishan shoots at him but the duo finds another dacoit who impersonates him, revealing that Gujjar has already kidnapped Roopa. Roopa and the duo are taken to Gujjar’s hideout, where they are forced to fight him and his men. Gujjar beats both Kishan and Shankar up but Roopa intercepts him. Gujjar retaliates by slapping her, he again taunts Roopa that she will be his mistress. As Kishan and Shankar run towards Gujjar, he shoots Shankar unconscious. Kishan proceeds to attack Gujjar but Gujjar’s men intercept Kishan. As Gujjar was about to gun Kishan down, Roopa again intercepts him. Afterwards, Kishan was tied up and hung onto the cliffs. Gujjar taunts Roopa about love for Kishan and her honour, he ferociously orders Gujjar to leave her alone. Gujjar’s men laugh at Kishan screaming. Gujjar molests her only for Roopa shout for Shankar. Shankar gains consciousness and saves Roopa by flinging Gujjar leftwards and also saves Kishan. Kishan fights Gujjar. As Gujjar was about to kill Kishan by the knife with which he killed Ram Singh, he counter-attacked Gujjar. With the arrival of Chandanpur’s villagers, Gujjar’s men are finished while Kishan kills Gujjar with Shankar and Roopa’s help. While driving along with Kishan and Roopa one day, Shankar meets Champakali where Kishan and Roopa watch them. was initially offered the female lead in the film. However, she refused, as she was concerned about Aamir Khan’s habit of doing multiple takes. The role ultimately went to Twinkle Khanna. Darshan told in an interview that the 1971 film was an inspiration for . was signed for villain’s role but opted out as he did not want to be bare chested throughout the film. Aamir Khan, approached and persuaded to do compose music for the film, but due to time constraints, Rahman declined the offer. The music was then composed by 4 composers, with , , and composing the songs and composing the . The song placements in this movie were heavily criticised, particularly the excessive usage of the title track ‘Mela Dilon Ka’. The lyrics were also perceived to be inappropriate as they were paradoxical and contradictory in nature. All lyrics are written by Dev Kohli, , . gave the album a 3/5 rating. Sharmila Taliculam of called Aamir Khan as the “saving grace” of the film and the “only one who does complete justice to his role”. She found the film a mix of , and and also praised Tinu Verma’s performance labeling his portrayal of the antagonist as “convincingly menancing”. She noted that dubbing Khanna’s voice was a “gamble that … misfired” and “[added] unnecessary drama and aggression to her role”. gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote ” is not the best film to start the millennium with, but if you are an Aamir Khan fan you can tolerate it, but for his sakealone.”</p>