Pretty boy Feroz Khan, it has to be said, here treats us to some of the least convincing athletic displays, swashbuckling and chase sequences I've ever seen, all the time wearing the requisite pink satin pants favoured by "butch" male leads in Bollywood historical pics.
He plays an impetuous youth called Qamar, who falls in love with a princess (Sayeeda Khan), but is exiled to the Black Island for sneaking into her palace boudoir.
En route his nasty brothers toss him overboard, along with the obligatory gay dwarf sidekick for company, and they wind up on a rock which promptly sinks.
It then gets all surreal when they come across an undersea kingdom where they worship a god who looks like Mr. Spock, and there's another princess being held captive by an evil sorcerer.
To free themselves they have to do battle with a golden two-headed giant, and enlist the help of an uncooperative giant "genie with a gentle physique" in a red skirt and ponytail, and a stone woman with laser beams for eyes.
This is all then promptly forgotten for the next hour when Qamar returns home to woo the first princess disguised as a prince called Norman – this bit drags on rather.
Then it's back to undersea kingdom where the stone woman turns out to be the mother of the two princesses and also a sorceress who transforms into a snake, sets the sorcerer on fire, and tricks Qamar into marrying the wrong princess. Then the biggest shock of all comes when the dwarf turns out not to be gay after all.
But wait, there's more Qamar is cursed with black skin, but redeems himself and is restored, and given a gift of magic mud which he uses to raise an army to recapture the throne which has been usurped by someone who had previously been under the radar, finally rescuing his princess after a fight on a burning magic carpet.
This is certainly not without its charms. It's fast paced-excepting the middle bit, very colourful, very camp, quite bizarre, and contains a very original dance routine involving felines. Negatives are the disjointed structure and pretty abysmal special effects.
He plays an impetuous youth called Qamar, who falls in love with a princess (Sayeeda Khan), but is exiled to the Black Island for sneaking into her palace boudoir.
En route his nasty brothers toss him overboard, along with the obligatory gay dwarf sidekick for company, and they wind up on a rock which promptly sinks.
It then gets all surreal when they come across an undersea kingdom where they worship a god who looks like Mr. Spock, and there's another princess being held captive by an evil sorcerer.
To free themselves they have to do battle with a golden two-headed giant, and enlist the help of an uncooperative giant "genie with a gentle physique" in a red skirt and ponytail, and a stone woman with laser beams for eyes.
This is all then promptly forgotten for the next hour when Qamar returns home to woo the first princess disguised as a prince called Norman – this bit drags on rather.
Then it's back to undersea kingdom where the stone woman turns out to be the mother of the two princesses and also a sorceress who transforms into a snake, sets the sorcerer on fire, and tricks Qamar into marrying the wrong princess. Then the biggest shock of all comes when the dwarf turns out not to be gay after all.
But wait, there's more Qamar is cursed with black skin, but redeems himself and is restored, and given a gift of magic mud which he uses to raise an army to recapture the throne which has been usurped by someone who had previously been under the radar, finally rescuing his princess after a fight on a burning magic carpet.
This is certainly not without its charms. It's fast paced-excepting the middle bit, very colourful, very camp, quite bizarre, and contains a very original dance routine involving felines. Negatives are the disjointed structure and pretty abysmal special effects.
