Mayasabha

लोककथा पर आधारित ‘तुम्‍बाड’ जैसी शानदार पीरियड हॉरर फिल्म के निर्देशक अनिल राही बर्वे करीब 8 साल के लंबे इंतजार बाद लौटे हैं। उनकी इस दूसरी फिल्‍म का नाम ‘मयसभा: द हॉल ऑफ इल्यूजन’ है। शुक्रवार, 30 जनवरी 2026 को सिनेमाघरों में रिलीज हुई यह फिल्‍म कुछ मायनों में ‘तुम्बाड’ की यादें भी ताजा करती है, क्योंकि इसकी दुनिया भी सोना और इंसानी लालच के इर्द-गिर्द ही बुनी गई है। हालांकि, बावजूद इसके यह तुम्‍बाड वाला असर नहीं छोड़ पाती।

In Tumbbad director Rahi Anil Barve’s second film, stories are told in a cinema hall. Quite literally. A few characters reminisce, rage, narrate, perform and lie in a decrepit Mumbai movie theater named Mayasabha; they may be projecting, but the blank screen is witness to the telling and untelling of their stories. The place looks halfway abandoned between suffocating reality and misty mythology: like a penniless single-screen auditorium that gave up on its own allegorical significance (as Mahabharata’s Hall of Illusions). It is also “home” to a once-famous and now-unhinged film producer, Parmeshwar Kumar (Jaaved Jaaferi). He lives in the past but scoffs at history.

Nearly eight years after Tumbbad, Rahi Anil Barve is back with a film that may not be as outstanding as his first film, but it is no less original. Top-lined by Jaaved Jaffery, Mayasabha possesses tremendous visual vigour and a distinctive narrative pace and rhythm. It draws much its power from its uncompromising spirit and crackling energy, enhanced significantly by the actors and the unpredictability of the flow of the tale. It is campy. It is artful. It is pure cinematic insouciance.