Notwithstanding the presence of Mumbai's creme de la creme, including Adi and Parmeshwar Godrej, Tina and Anil Ambani, Dilip and Shobha De, Subhash Ghai, R H Mendonca, Amrish Puri and Prem Chopra, the Rs 1.4 crore extravaganza flopped miserably after numerous technical glitches forced a halt mid-way.

The mega-production took off on the wrong note when it started at 9:00 pm, an hour-and-a-half behind schedule and wound up abruptly within an hour. Nehru's Tryst of Destiny speech flagged it off, but the artiste playing Nehru was so engrossed in the rhetoric that he almost fell off the podium when it started moving! Later, the actor playing Chandrashekar Azad met with a similar fate.

The mockery of history in what was touted as a portrayal of India's freedom struggle was extended furtherwhen the narrator -- Husain himself -- referred to Mahavir Jain as Mahavir Jinnah.

But the biggest boo-boo came when artistes taking their positions to enact one of the scenes didn't realise the mikes were on and uttered an expletive which rang out into the stadium. Said Shobha De: "The unscripted *%&@!* summed up everyone's sentiments. The sets were dismal and clumsy. And the direction -- was there any?''

Husian, though, cast all blame on the technical errors. ``The central monitoring system needed a complete overhaul. We thought we were ready, that's why we went ahead with the show. But the rails weren't moving fast enough, and we were cutting scenes as we went along. Our technical team didn't consider some eventualities.''

But there were other gaffes as well. Polythene bags flew on-stage every now and then from the unswept ground; the artistes ran on and off the stage randomly; the lights appeared to have a mind of their own, and the smoke machines grunted like a Monica Seles delivering powerfulserves.

The sound system was so disorganised, those in the front benches got to hear varied expressions of backstage frustration. "You %&$@!*, come on, get on with it," was followed by a liberal sprinkling of other unmentionables throughout the show. Most in the audience said they found the backstage blabber more interesting than what was being said on stage.

Otherwise, the script was mawkish and graphic descriptions of British cruelty, which were intended to shock, proved a source of irritation to the audience.

Most members, including Anil Ambani and R H Mendonca, left within half-an-hour. Perhaps Husain, while creating India's biggest ever play, with 75 sets on wheels spread over an area of one lakh square feet, had given precedence to size over substance. Last year too, his mega production Legend of Ram, a critically acclaimed play, had run into legal problems due to the construction of the set at Bandra Reclamation.

The show on Sunday, sponsored by the WelcomeGroup, was cancelled, and thoughHusain said the play would open again two weeks later, he dolefully announced after the end of the show: "We hope you'll have the patience to join us again." Maybe the crowds will come, but Saturday's abbreviated show left the audience disappointed, and someone who left half-way through scribbled the following on his pass:

We came to see a play

Seventy five sets to lay

Work they all and work they may

We go home soon today.