You'd think that with hits like Raja Hindustani and Lootere in his bag, Dharmesh Dharshan would have a good entertainer in Mela. Not! Mela is really Sholay revisited. Sad to say, it doesn't even come close to Sholay.
So we have Twinkle Khanna, the village belle. Her brother (Ayub Khan) and best friend (Omkar Kapoor) are killed by the evil Gujjar (Tinnu Verma). She swears revenge against the latter. A series of events land her together with Kishen (Aamir Khan) and Shankar (Faisal Khan), whose help she enlists in her fight against Gujjar.
Twinkle truly brings to life the phrase damsel in distress to life! If she's not getting raped, she's plunging down waterfalls and being chased around by Gujjar's men. How she manages to find time to sing God-awful songs is beyond me. She's a truly drastic change from Darshan's usual heroines of substance. And having someone dub over her lines is the worst idea ever. Instead od sounding authentic, it sounds TERRIBLE, like she's overacting! Faisal Khan is a good looker, but it's hard to tell if he can act well. His role is pretty much like his previous one in Madhosh - the silent, stoic type. Aamir, as usual, is in his element as the playful Kishen. If not for him, this film would be lousier than it already is.
None of the songs are worth mentioning. The only one's that pseudo-decent is Dhadkan Mein Tum and that too, is a rip-off the background music of Ramesh Sippy's Andaz. Is Anu Malik THAT desperate?? Twinkle's outfits are awful, by the way! I may be a diehard fan of Aamir Khan, but there's no denying that Mela isn't worth celebrating.
