Rahi Anil Barve presents a contemporary representation of the magical palace in Mahabharata to convey the spiritual meaning through material form that focuses on a cinema hall in atmospheric ruins. Delving deeper is the core characteristic of greed in humans. Mayasabha is an abstract thriller – not meant for the masses.
The hall of Illusion – Mayasabha is a single-location immersive film that explores the corrosive nature of greed. Though it carves out its own idiosyncratic, theatrical identity.
Mayasabha’s most important character is a dilapidated Mumbai cinema hall that reeks “moral rot and decay” through meticulously layered smoke, red hues, and ghostly shadows.
Readers expecting a traditional thriller would get ‘lost in the fog’
Meant for those devoted moviegoers, especially the ones who are knowledgeable about the cinema. What stands apart is it’s visual storytelling, but those seeking a traditional thriller would get ‘lost in the fog’. Sagar Desai’s haunting background music effectively anchors the film’s shift from being tense and psychological to feeling exaggerated and almost abstract.
Directed by Rahi Anil Barve, Mayasabha: The Hall of Illusion is a 104-minute psychological chamber drama that centers on a high-stakes treasure hunt within a single, decaying location.
Jaaved Jaaferi’s career best performance
Jaaved Jaaferi in his career best performance is hypnotic as Parmeshwar Khanna. Shedding his comedic image to play a broken, manic heart-broken film producer and a erractic father.
Parmeshwar Khanna (Jaaved Jaaferi) lives the life of a recluse, heart-broken and now a bankrupt film producer. His lone asset is the crumbling Mumbai theatre – Mayasabha. He has raised his gullible teenage son, Vasu (Mohammad Samad) in total isolation within the theatre’s foggy, smoke-filled walls.
Parmeshwar is haunted by his past. His actress-wife allegedly cheated on him and abandoned the family, leaving him to rot in his memories. Two things matter to him – his son Vasu and the hidden ‘pot of 40 kilos gold’
Two street-smart siblings, Zeenat (Veena Jamkar) and Ravrana (Deepak Damle), manipulate their way into the theatre after learning from Vasu that Parmeshwar has hidden 40 kilograms of gold somewhere in the vast premises. Which he too seems not to remember exactly where it is buried within the premises.
One night during a “friendly” dinner hosted by Vasu the hunt for gold begins. The intruders try to outmanoeuvre the paranoid and deeply fractured Parmeshwar.
Parmeshwar, who relentlessly sprays DDT smoke to “fumigate” the theatre, engages the intruders in a “cat-and-mouse” battle of intellects and deception.
\\
Cast of Mayasabha –
Javed Jaaferi as Parmeshwar Khanna
Veena Jamkar as Zeenat
Mohd Samad as Vasu (Parmeshwar’s son)
Deepak Damle as Ravrana
Credits of Mayasabha –
Production Company – Zirkon Films
Produced by – Girish Patel, Ankoor J Singh
Story, Screenplay & Dialogues – Rahi Anil Barve
Directed by Rahi Anil Barve
Co-Producers – Shamrao Bhagwan Yadav, Chanda Yadav, Kewal Handa, Manish Handa
Director of Photography – Kukleep Mamania
Sound Design – Sohel Sanwari
Bakground Score – Sagar Desai
Editor – Aasif Pathan
