Producer: Dashaka Films 
Director: M. F. Husain 
Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shirodkar, Naseeruddin Shah, Ashish Vidyaarth
Music: Bhupen Hazarika

Way back in the mid 1960s Film Division had financed a short film (duration around 20 minutes) titled "Through The Eyes of A Painter" directed by eminent artist Maqbool Fida Husain. Well, Husain hasn't chnged over the decades and perhaps the most charitable thing one can say about Dashaka Films "Gaja Gamini" is that it is as nebulous and vague "Though The Eyes of A Painter."

Ostensibly, "Gaja Gamini" is Husain's tribute to Madhuri Dixit's pristine beauty. There is an age old adage, 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Husain's film belongs to this category with the only difference that like all precious things it should be kept carefully in a showcase in his drawing room.

The main problem with "Gaja Gamini" is that it has no soul. Nor any sense of progression. Surprising, since it is supposed to be representing the journey of a woman Gaja Gamini (Madhuri Dixit) with various facets stability (Noorbibi), poetry (Shakuntala), love(Monica) death (Phoolwania). Sangeeta, a blind singer meets these four women and they join hands in protest against a chauvinistic male society.

But, all said and done (and content be overlooked), the film is a fabulous tapestry of visuals from the first frame to the last. That Husain has not been able to hold his audience by narrating a story that can be comprehended even in parts is the film's Waterloo. No amount of visual beauty can prop up a vacuum. Husain has had about four decades to realise that. Unfortunately, he has found it to be unnecessary.

The resulted is an undiluted, unending boredom for the average viewer though the intellectual can search for metaphors, meanings in gestures or colour schemes etal.

Bhupen Hazarika's musical score is commendable and so is Saroj Khan's choreography.

Madhuri Dixit, like Mona Lisa, remains a mysterious entity all through. Shah Rukh Khan seems to be at a loss as to what is happening. Naseeruddin Shah as Leonardo da Vinci is on home ground but Inder Kumar as Kamdev is clearly groping in the dark. Shabana Azmi has been wasted and the same can be said of Shilpa Shirodkar. Mohan Agashe, Ashish Vidyarthi, Kalpana Pandit and Raeesa Husain go through the motions.

Looking back and thinking aloud one is at a loss to understand why Husain wasted precious time and money to make this film. Surely, he could have spent his energies in conjuring up several more master pieces as a painter!