Jagmohan Mundhra, the king of soft porn in India, is back, but not with much of a bang. Having run out of ideas, he falls back on the corny subject of reincarnation. This film uses all the stereotypes related to the subject - Indian mysticism, ancient sculptors, foreigners getting involved et al. No, I am not talking about Divine Lovers, although that's what the film resembles throughout.
The film starts in the United States where we are introduced to Michael, a sculptor. Pretty soon, he is given a project in Khajurao. He lands in India with his girlfriend, Lisa. No sooner than he arrives, the statue he is scheduled to work on disappears. Then we have an Indian lady Loni, narrating a legend to Michael.
The legend dates back a thousand years and is set in the kingdom of Pallavas. Here too, we have a sculptor, Vinayaka, who is in the service of a sage. Vinayaka is recruited by the King to paint (never heard of a sculptor painting!) him and his wife in the process of making love. Here the director reaches for the much-maligned Kamasutra to feign an aesthetic touch to the proceedings. And this is the only scene in the movie wherein the charecters bare themselves.
Meanwhile, Vinayaka falls for the courtesan, Lochni. But soon repentance follows as Vinayaka realizes his duties towards the sage and his vows of celibacy. He deserts the courtesan and returns to the sage. This is where the legend ends.
Later, Michael pursues Loni only to find that they were Vinayaka and Lochni respectively. But Michael decides that he cannot ditch Lisa for her and moreover the sage had cursed him with impotency for the rest of his births.
Jagmohan Mundhra has worked out or rather lifted a theme that is tailor-made for his kind of films and has worked in the same context, before. Going by the resemblance it bears to Divine Lovers, and the lack of any hot scenes compared to it, the audience will be better off watching a re-run of the latter. Having said that, not everyone was completely disappointed, at least in the first half. And I guess, not many will mind the bad English of the actors.