Mela (2000 film)

Mela
Directed by	Dharmesh Darshan
Produced by	Ashok Kadam Umed Jain
Screenplay by	Neeraj Vora Sanjeev Duggal Robin Bhatt
Story by	Dharmesh Dharshan
Starring	Aamir Khan Faisal Khan Twinkle Khanna Johnny Lever
Music by	Anu Malik Rajesh Roshan Leslie Lewis
Cinematography	Rajan Kinagi Harish Joshi
Editing by	Shakeel Khan Sandeep Patel Bharat
Release date(s)	January 7, 2000
Language	Hindi

Mela (English: Fair) is a 2000 Bollywood film directed by Dharmesh Darshan. It starrs Aamir Khan, his real-life brother Faisal Khan, Twinkle Khanna. It was one of the biggest box office failures of the year 2000.^[1]

Plot

The only brother (Ayub Khan) of a young woman, Roopa (Twinkle Khanna), returns to Chandanpur to arrange her marriage. A festival is arranged in the happiness of Roopa's marriage, however Chandanpur's happiness is short-lived, as the village is raided by a group of terrorists. The leader of the terrorists, Gujjar, (Tinu Verma), murders the politician, and to make matters worse,Roopa's beauty catches the eye of Gujjar. However, as Gujjar attempts to escape with the terrified Roopa, her brother comes to her rescue, only to be slain, much to the horror of the village, especially Roopa. Also, her best friend, Gopal (Master Om Kapoor), is killed too, much to the dismay of Gopal's mother (Tanvi Azmi). Roopa, enraged by the fact that her brother and Gopal are no more, vows avenge. Gujjar threatens Roopa that she will only be his mistress and will never be able to have a brother nor lover. Enraged, Roopa attempts to commit suicide by jumping into a waterfall as she finds it better to kill herself rather than be a mistress. Destiny has other plans as Roopa survives and she steals the clothes of Kishan (Aamir Khan), a theatre actor. Kishan works with his best friend, truck driver, Shankar (Faisal Khan). When Kishan meets Roopa for the first time, he is smitten by her beauty and falls in love with her. Kishan decides to make Roopa the heroine of their dance show, however, Shankar warns him that Roopa will bring them in trouble. With no option, Roopa travels with them, and she tries to escape, but returns when chased by the gang and a drunk who tries to rape her. However, Roopa is saved by Shankar and Kishan. Roopa feigns love for Kishan, who wants to marry her, and the two men agree to help her return to Chandanpur. When Kishan is going to marry Roopa, who feels guilty over her betrayal, led, she tells them her story. Shankar becomes her brother, while Kishan, heartbroken, leaves in disgust. Roopa and Shankar return to Chandanpur, where Shankar mobilises the village. Another carnival is arranged. The villains' attack as planned. Kishan returns but Roopa is kidnapped. The friends give chase and are captured. Eventually good prevails and the outlaws meet a glory end. Roopa is united with her brother Shankar and her lover Kishan. At the end Kishan and Roopa get married and while driving the truck Shankar happens to meet Champakali (Aishwarya Rai) and Kishan and Roopa watch them.

Casting

Actress Karishma Kapoor was first offered the female lead in Mela but due to date issues she declined the offer. Director Dharmesh Darshan was left disheartened that his first and favourite choice Karishma Kapoor was no longer part of his project considering the fact that Kapoor and Darshans first collaboration was a huge success back in 96 with Raja Hindustani. Darshan was always besotted by Karishma Kapoors looks and charms back from his and Kapoors Raja Hindustani days and as a result eagerly wanted to cast her in his next venture plus it would have been an instant attraction bringing back the hit jodi of Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor post Raja Hindustani. Now that Karishma Kapoor was no longer part of the project the Director Dharmesh Darshan had to go out of his way to look for a replacement to his first choice Karishma Kapoor so he roped in three actresses that resembled Kapoor the three Actresses in the short-list consisted of Raveena Tandon,Sonali Bendre and Twinkle Khanna. At the end of this Rollercoaster casting ride the role landed on Twinkle Khanna's lap. In order of displaying strong resemblance between Kapoor and Khanna the director had the same dresses formatted for Twinkle as Karishma did in Raja Hindutani the same Salwaar Kameez and Kurtaaz plus the same wig Karishma had worn was provided to Twinkle.

• Aamir Khan as Kishan Pyare
• Faisal Khan as Shankar Shane
• Twinkle Khanna as Roopa Singh
• Johny Lever as Inspector Pakkad Singh
• Navneet Nishan as Bulbul, the Post Woman
• Asrani as Banwari Baniya
• Tiku Talsania as Murari, Sarpanch
• Archana Puran Singh Vidyavati, the Village Flirt
• Tanvi Azmi as Gopal's mom
• Ayub Khan as Ram Singh, Roopa's brother (Apecial Appearance)
• Parmeet Sethi in a Special Appearance
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Mantri (Minister) (Special Appearance)
• Aishwarya Rai as Champakali (Special Appearance)
• Viju Khote as Patil Rao Singh
• Harish Patel as Seth Chandulal Popadlal
• Tinu Verma as Gujjar Singh
• Veeru K as Ghungroo, the Dance Master
• Master Omkar as Gopal
• Gurbachan as Gurubachan Singh
• Rajeev Varma as Rajiv Verma
• Chandu asas Chandu-Nandu)
• Nandu as Chandu-Nandu
• Razzak Khan
• Anil Upadhyay
• Indira Chowdhary
• Sanjay Batra
• Sanjeev Siddharth
• Chitresh Ranjan

Soundtrack

Track listing

The music of the film is composed by Anu Malik, Rajesh Roshan, and Leslie Lewis. The lyrics are penned by Dev Kohli, Dharmesh Darshan, Sameer.

No.	Title	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Mela Dilon Ka"	Anu Malik	Alka Yagnik	03:36
2.	"Dekho 2000 Zamana Aa Gaya"	Anu Malik, Leslie Lewis	Leslie Lewis, Hariharan, Aamir Khan	04:54
3.	"Dhadkan Mein Tum"	Rajesh Roshan, Anu Malik	Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu	06:23
4.	"Durga Hai Meri Maa"	Anu Malik	Kavita Krishnamurthy	05:03
5.	"Kamariya Lachke Re"	Rajesh Roshan	Anuradha Paudwal, Udit Narayan	06:02
6.	"Chori Chori Gori Se"	Rajesh Roshan	Udit Narayan, Abhijeet Bhattacharya	06:26
7.	"Mela Dilon Ka (Celebration)"	Leslie Lewis, Anu Malik	Alka Yagnik, Sonu Nigam, Roop Kumar Rathod, Shankar Mahadevan, Jaspinder Narula	07:28
8.	"Mela Dilon Ka (Theme)"	Rajesh Roshan	Alka Yagnik, Abhijeet, Sadhana Sargam, Udit Narayan, Hema Sardesai, Mansoor	10:37
9.	"Tujhe Rab Ne Banaya"	Anu Malik	Udit Narayan, Anuradha Paudwal	04:47

• This is the third film to feature real-life brothers Aamir Khan and Faisal Khan. Previously Faisal did cameo roles in Aamir's films Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992).
• Aishwarya Rai makes a guest appearance in the climax of the film.

References

1. ^ http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=206&catName=MjAwMA==

External links

• Mela at the Internet Movie Database