Mela (2000 film)
Mela () is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language masala film directed by Dharmesh Darshan and produced by Ganesh Jain. The film stars Aamir Khan, Twinkle Khanna and  Faisal Khan in the lead roles. Mela was released on 7 January 2000 where it received negative reviews from critics and bombed at the box office. Plot
Roopa Singh is the only sister of her soldier brother named Ram Singh who returns to her village in Chandanpur to arrange her marriage. However, Roopa's happiness is short-lived as the village is raided by a group of terrorists led by Gujjar Singh, who murders a visiting politician and gets attracted to Roopa. As Gujjar attempts to escape with the terrified Roopa, Ram and Roopa's young friend Gopal comes to her rescue only to be killed by Gujjar. Enraged, Roopa attempts to commit suicide by jumping into a waterfall, but she survives and steals the clothes of a theatre actor named Kishan, who works with his best friend Shankar. Kishan meets Roopa and falls in love with her, where he also decides to make Roopa as the heroine of their dance show. With no option, Roopa travels with them and tries to escape, but returns when chased by the gang and a drunken cop named Surendra Pratap Singh, who was her rejected fiancée. Roopa is saved by Shankar and Kishan, where she feigns love for Kishan and the two men agree to help her return to Chandanpur. Learning that Kishan is going to marry her, Roopa feels guilty over her betrayal and tells her past. Shankar becomes her brother while Kishan gets  heartbroken and leaves in disgust. Roopa and Shankar return to Chandanpur, where Shankar mobilises the village and attempts to set a trap for Gujjar, who has learnt of Roopa's survival and terrorizes the village to find out her whereabouts. The trap backfires horribly until Kishan returns with a suspended cop named Pakkad Singh. The trap is re-set with another carnival and the terrorists are attack as planned. Roopa is kidnapped where Kishan and Shankar gets taken to Gujjar's hideout and are forced to fight him and his men. With the arrival of Chandanpur's villagers, Gujjar's men are  finished while Kishan kills Gujjar with Shankar and Roopa's help. While driving along with Kishan and Roopa, Shankar meets Champakali where Kishan and Roopa watch them. Cast
 Aamir Khan as Kishan Pyare
 Twinkle Khanna as Roopa Singh (faked herself as Radha to Kishan)
 Faisal Khan as Shankar Shane
 Tinu Verma as Gujjar Singh
 Ayub Khan as Ram Singh, Roopa's brother 
 Johny Lever as Inspector Pakkad Singh (mistakenly called Inspector Pakoda Singh by Kishan)
 Navneet Nishan as Bulbul, a Postwoman
 Asrani as Banwari Baniya
 Tiku Talsania as Murari Mukhiya
 Kavi Kumar Azad as Warning Watchman 
 Sharad Sankla as Warning Watchman
 Archana Puran Singh as Vidyavati, a village flirt
 Tanvi Azmi as Gopal's mother
 Parmeet Sethi as Surendra Pratap Singh (special appearance)
 Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Minister (special appearance)
 Aishwarya Rai as Champakali (special appearance)
 Viju Khote as Patil Rao Singh
 Harish Patel as Seth Chandulal Popatlal
 Anirudh Agarwal as Kaali 
 Veeru Krishnan as Ghungroo
 Omkar Kapoor as Gopal, Roopa's best friend (Special appearance)

Production
Kajol was initially offered the female lead in the film. However, she refused, as she was concerned about Aamir Khan's habit of doing multiple takes. The role ultimately went to Twinkle Khanna. Darshan told in an interview that the 1971 film Caravan was an inspiration for Mela. Aditya Pancholi was signed for villain's role but opted out as he did not want to be bare chested throughout the film. Soundtrack

Aamir Khan, approached and persuaded A. R. Rahman to do compose music for the film, but due to time constraints, Rahman declined the offer. The music was then composed by 4 composers, with Anu Malik, Rajesh Roshan, and Lesle Lewis composing the songs and Surinder Sodhi composing the film score. The song placements in this movie were heavily criticised, particularly the excessive usage of the title track ‘Mela Dilon Ka’. The lyrics were also perceived to be inappropriate as they were paradoxical and contradictory in nature. Track listing

Sify gave the album a 3/5 rating. Reception
Sharmila Taliculam of Rediff called Aamir Khan as the "saving grace" of the film and the "only one who does complete justice to his role". She found the film a mix of The Seven Samurai, Caravan and Sholay and also praised Tinu Verma's performance labeling his portrayal of the antagonist as "convincingly menancing". She noted that dubbing Khanna's voice was a "gamble that ... misfired" and "[added] unnecessary drama and aggression to her role". Sify gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Mela is not the best film to start the millennium with, but if you are an Aamir Khan fan you can tolerate it, but for his sakealone." References

External links
 Mela at IMDb

2000 films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films scored by Rajesh Roshan
Films scored by Anu Malik
Films scored by Lesle Lewis
Indian action films
Films shot in Thrissur
Films shot in Chalakudy
2000s masala films
Films scored by Surinder Sodhi
Films directed by Dharmesh Darshan
2000 action films