Increasingly confident of his hold on the North Indian audience, Mani Ratnam made this film simultaneously in two languages, Tamil and Hindi, with different headliners in each language.

The logistics involved -- a large number of scenes were shot simultaneously, which meant having to get the three heroes, as many heroines and support casts, from each language to one locale on one day -- make for a story in itself.

The film blends the story of three men whose lives collide in one apocalyptic moment; it is another attempt by the director to limn India's propensity for self-destructive violence.

Too many 'tricks,' however, in the final analysis went against the movie. For instance, the narrative style of Amores Perros was force-fed into a film that did not call for it, with the result that audiences got the feeling they were watching the same story thrice.

Then there was the creating of stereotypes, then casting against type -- the clean cut Abhishek Bachchan as the never do well goon Lallan Singh; or Ajay Devgan as the crusading hero Michael Mukherjee, with a dilettante Arjun (Vivek Oberoi) thrown in for good measure.

Ravi K Chandran's cinematography and Sreekar Prasad's editing were among the highlights; A R Rahman's music, while good enough, was not up there with his previous collaborations with the director.

You got the feel, watching this, that the director was over-reaching himself; that for once the film was not about the story, but about a director attempting to showcase his own increasing mastery over form, structure and narrative.