Mayasabha: The Hall of Illusion review: Stellar performances and visuals elevate this Jaaved Jaaferi starrer that falls short of a perfect payoff

Helmed by Tumbbad fame Rahi Anil Barve, Mayasabha offers an unforgettable world of greed and paranoia held back only by a vague storyline. 

Rahi Anil Barve is a filmmaker who doesn’t just direct scenes but painstakingly births atmospheric worlds that haunt you long after the credits roll. I feel that’s the quality that makes him one of the most unique voices in modern Indian cinema. His obsession with immersive world-building, crafting morally complex characters and meticulous visual storytelling reeked through every frame of Tumbbad, turning it into a benchmark in the country's horror cinema. With a promise of recreating this near-perfect atmospheric dread in a film that is hard to box inside one genre, Barve returns this week with Mayasabha: The Hall of Illusion starring Jaaved Jaaferi and Mohammad Samad. 

Mayasabha unfolds in a crumbling Mumbai single-screen theatre, where once-powerful movie mogul Parmeshwar Khanna (Jaaved Jaaferi) now drifts like a ghost of his own ego, sharing the ruins of his empire with his teenage son Vasu (Mohammad Samad). Heartbreak and a failing memory have trapped him there-along with 40 kilograms of gold he hid somewhere in the building years ago, though the exact spot has long slipped from his mind. Things turn dark when two cunning petty thieves, Zeenat (Veena Jamkar) and Ravarana (Deepak Damle), talk their way inside, chasing rumours of the fortune. However, Khanna, upon sensing their greed, transforms the night into a cruel, riddle-filled game of wits, where he shoots clues and twists their nerves while struggling with his own sanity. 

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Barve has a knack for creating a visually immersive atmosphere that serves as a character in itself and adds a layer of intrigue in the narrative, and Mayasabha reiterates his commitment to delivering a masterclass in quality production on a modest budget. The film unfolds over a single night in the dilapidated theatre, the detailing of which breathes sadistic life into the eerie setting. Barve, along with his production team, transforms the decaying, abandoned building into the fifth character, who shows fading signs of a glorious past and mourns its miserable present. The dimly lit rooms, creaking floorboard, shadowed auditorium, worn out seats and the rusty Rolls Royce in the garage all mirror the characters’ complex psyches and amplify the suffocating tension of psychological maze they are trapped in, in the hunt for the hidden gold. Kuldeep Mamania’s cinematography is another standout point of the film, where his camera placements, rarely seen before angles, and intimate character shots elevate the claustrophobic setting and every detail of moral complexity in the demeanor of the characters into something profoundly unsettling and alive. 

Mayasabha is a character-driven film that thrives on the psychological games which the leads indulge in - we see trust, empathy, memory and greed being used as weapons, and manipulation as the deadliest tool of all. There’s Khanna - mercurial yet fairly intelligent, an ambitious teenage son, Vasu, quietly harbouring the dreams to escape their crumbling abode, and the shady sibling duo, Zeenat and Ravarana, whose smooth talk and practised sympathy are too good to be trusted. The drama intensifies as masks fall off, and we are revealed the dark secrets of the characters' pasts, which keeps you invested throughout its runtime. Having said that, the character and plot arcs remain unsatisfactory and poorly fleshed out in the climax. Certain nuances, behaviours and exchanges remain unexplained making you feel like the film pulls back just when it should push deeper, leaving lingering questions about motivations, resolutions and the full weight of those revelations that never quite land with the impact they deserve!

Performance wise, Jaaferi delivers a reminder of how underutilised he is in Indian cinema as Parmeshwar Khanna, effortlessly blending the arrogance of a fallen mogul with the vulnerability of a broken man whose memory is fading away. His voice and mannerisms have streaks of old authority one moment and vulnerability of heartbreak over the next. Samad is equally magnetic as Vasu, essaying the perfect storm of teenage innocence, greed, and deceit. Watch out particularly for his wordless reaction in the climax sequence, which brims with guilt, loss, unsettling realisations, and terror that is genuinely mind-blowing. Both performances turn flawed, fractured characters into something deeply human and unforgettable. Veena Jamkar as Zeenat and Deepak Damle as Ravarana, the charming scamsters, too lend solid support. 

Overall, Mayasabha: The Hall of illusion is a bold, atmospheric triumph that reaffirms Barve as one of Indian cinema’s most unique voices, even if its final act leaves you a bit unsatisfied. 

Mayasabha is now playing in cinema halls near you!

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