Review: Pray to Sai Baba to save you from 'Maalik Ek'

Film:Maalik Ek (U)

Cast: Jackie Shroff, Smriti Irani, Divya Dutta, Rajeshwari Sachdeva, Govind Namdeo, Shakti Kapoor
Director: Deepak Balraaj Vij

Rating: 1/2

 

Maalik Ek is an attempt to cash in on the religious sensibilities of the Indian audiences. So director Vij does not bother about putting up a show that is even close to bearable. He seems to take it for granted that faith (or blind faith) will draw naïve audiences to pay for something this bad and embarrassing.

 

A shoddy script, bad direction, poor camerawork and a tapori Sai Baba (Shroff) welcome you to tirth sthaan Shirdi, where Dwarka Mai (Irani) and Lakshmi (Dutta) are dreamily talking about fakir Sai Baba and his spiritual powers.

 

There is no attempt to track the life and times of a young Sai Baba and how he comes to be a respected and saintly figure in his old age. Audiences with no particular faith or interest in Sai Baba’s life will be lost trying to gauge how he became what he became!

 

Dwarka Mai and Lakshmi (did I mention their gaudy make-up?) take us through the life of the saint with flashbacks from a small village Shirdi in Maharashtra, said to have been the place where people witnessed the Baba’s miraculous powers. The events unfolding on screen are random and no screenplay seems to have been in place before shooting began.

 

Shroff looks the part all right but speaks more like a roadside tapori, complete with dance sequence and language that doesn’t suit even a layman. The dubbing for the most part is off and makes one feel like one is watching a South Indian film dubbed in Hindi. Even the other actors fail to make any impact. The only character you might remember at the end is that of Saraswati (Sachdeva), a poor farmer’s daughter who commits suicide out of frustration and poverty.

 

If you do go to watch the film, you'll end up praying to Sai Baba (not Shroff, please) for an early end to Maalik Ek, the movie.