Maya (1993)

A frustrated housewife whose marriage to an average man does not meet her expectations enters into an affair with a younger man. Of course, there are no easy escapes from reality.

Director:

Ketan Mehta

Writers:

Gustave Flaubert (based on "Madame Bovary"), Sitanshu Yashaschandra (screenplay)

Stars:

Deepa Sahi, Farooq Shaikh, Raj Babbar

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Deepa Sahi	...	Maya
Farooq Shaikh	...	Dr. Charu Das (as Farooque Shaikh)
Raj Babbar	...	Rudra
Shah Rukh Khan	...	Lalit
Shreeram Lagoo	...	(as Dr. Shree Ram Lagoo)
Sudha Shivpuri
Paresh Rawal	...	Lalaji (as Paresh Raval)
Raghuvir Yadav
Satyadev Dubey
Shri Vallabh Vyas	...	(as Shrivallabh Vyas)
Arvind Vaidya
Manish Nagpal
Rajesh Vivek
Idries Malik	...	(as Idris Malik)
Alpana Upadhyay

Storyline

Young, beautiful, and intelligent Maya lives with her father in a palatial mansion in rural India. When her father suffers a stroke, she calls for the local Dr. Charu Das, who arrives on his bicycle and prescribes treatment for her dad. He comes often, more on the pretext of seeing her, than her dad, and eventually both get married. Years pass by, and Charu is busy engrossed in treating patients, leaving Maya alone to ponder her own fate and life. And it is not long before a young man named Rudra enters her life, and an affair follows. This affair does not last long, as a much younger man, Lalit, now enters Maya's life, and thence begins another passionate affair. But again, Maya is not satisfied. She longs for more than bodily needs, and it is perhaps this that leads to her sudden death, leaving two investigators to probe who or what really killed Maya.

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Plot Keywords:

marriage | unfaithfulness | materialism | infidelity | husband wife relationship | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Romance

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Details

Country:

France UK India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

2 July 1993 (India)

Also Known As:

Maya: The Enchanting Illusion

Company Credits

Production Co:

Forum Films, Ketan Mehta Films, National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The year was 1992 and Shah Rukh Khan had shot for a highly explicit scene with Deepa Sahi in Maya Memsaab, directed by the latter's husband Ketan Mehta. The popular magazine Cine Blitz published a story that alleged Ketan Mehta had asked Deepa to spend a night with Shah Rukh in a suburban hotel to get comfortable with each other, before shooting for the scene. The story further said that the actors complied and the next day, the shoot was done with only Ketan and the DOP present. The story was slanderous, even by today's standards. And as it happens with such stories, no by line was given and hence, nobody knew who wrote the article. Shah Rukh Khan read the story and was livid. A day after the article was published, he ran into a Cine Blitz journalist, Keith D'Costa, at a film function. Assuming that Keith had written the story, he abused him with choicest of words. Not satisfied, Shah Rukh Khan called Keith at his house and threatened to go there and beat him up. The next day, he actually went to his house and hurled abuses in front of his parents! He even threatened to castrate Keith D'Costa. Anupama Chopra wrote that Keith felt like SRK was possessed and that he was sure that Shah Rukh would hurt him. On his editor's advice, Keith complained to the cops. Shah Rukh Khan however continued to call his house and abuse him. Keith filed another complaint and requested police protection. The following day, Shah Rukh Khan was arrested from Film City and was taken to Bandra Police Station. Since he was a star by then, he was not jailed; few of the cops even took his autograph. SRK requested to make one phone call. And guess whom did Shah Rukh called? Keith D'Costa! It seems that in front of the policemen, he told him, "I'm in jail but I'll come f*** you." At 11:30 pm in the night, Shah Rukh Khan's close friend Chikki Pandey got him out on bail.Two years later, Virginia Vacha, another Cine Blitz journalist, convinced SRK that Keith had not written the article. Realizing he was wrong, Shah Rukh Khan profusely apologized for his behaviour. He hugged Keith D'Costa and offered to come to his house and apologize to his parents. For Cine Blitz, he did exclusive photo shoots and gave interviews. Anupama Chopra however didn't reveal who was it who wrote the shocking article about Shah Rukh and Deepa Sahi. Reportedly, the explicit intimate sequence was removed from the film thanks to the Censors. In 2008, this intimate scene surfaced on the internet and created a lot of furore. After all, Maya Memsaab was the last time that Shah Rukh Khan did something so explicit on screen.

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Connections

Version of Madame Bovary (1991)

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Soundtracks

Chayya Jagi
Music by Hridaynath Mangeshkar
Lyrics by Gulzar (as Sampooran Singh Gulzar)
Performed by Lata Mangeshkar & Hridaynath Mangeshkar

User Reviews

Ingenious if less than riveting

An ingenious but not entirely successful translation of Flaubert's classic novel to contemporary India. A nice idea, but it doesn't capture much of the sense of the original. Maya is shown as fey rather than bored and it's difficult to see this Madame Bovary as a doomed temptress. If you've read the original and are prepared to stick with it, it's not bad, but it's definitely on the slow side and on the whole you wonder why they bothered.