I am playing the game on the VBA emu. The game froze at a later point though. When I entered a particular area, the music became slightly high pitched, and if I tried to leave that area, the game froze with some crazy music.
I didn't enter that particular aea, but instead used a warp pipe to get to the desired location(the final level). That rectified the issue.
After 2 hours, I got through Bowser's Castle, and beat Cackletta in a 30-minute long battle. So, I am now done with Mario, and back to my analyses, once my test week ends tomorrow.