Movie Review: Aiyyaa | Filmfare.com

Director: Sachin Kundalkar

Cast: Rani Mukerji, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Anita Date, Subodh Bhave and Amey Wagh

It takes courage to present something never-done-before on the larger-than-life canvas of the big screen. And surprisingly debut director (at least in Hindi films) Sachin Kundalkar shows this trait with great effect in his film Aiyyaa. Hats off to an established star, Rani Mukerji, for showing such conviction in Kundalkar’s experimental vision. This truly is a good time for Hindi cinema. Only recently Gauri Shinde displayed fantastic finesse and subliminal storytelling skills in English Vinglish and Kundalkar has emulated the same skill in Aiyyaa. To simplify things you can safely sum up Aiyyaa as a wakda (twisted) film.

Rani Mukerji’s Meenakshi is a naughty, free-spirited and expressive girl who effortlessly juggles between reality and dream land at the drop of a hat. Her dreams are a quirky, imaginative and beautiful place but her reality is full of wakda characters too. Her father smokes four cigarettes at a time, her grandmother is blind but has 32 teeth of solid gold, her brother is the messiah of stray dogs and her mother is straight out of a Saas Bahu serial hell-bent on getting Meenakshi married. It is this over-the-top reality that Meenakshi escapes from into her dreams of being Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla. Kundalkar uses hit songs of these actresses (Kaate nahi kat te (Mr India), Oh piya piya (Dil) and Ghazab ka hai din (QSQT)) to express Meenakshi’s suppressed feelings.

Meenakshi’s family coax her into getting married to Madhav who by definition is ideal husband material. But Meenakshi finds herself attracted to the scents of a South Indian hunk called Surya (Prithviraj Sukumaran). When Meenakshi digs for facts about her mysterious stranger she comes across inconvenient truths like his habit of alcoholism and drug abuse. But Kundalkar uses this as a plot twist and finally when the truth is revealed you make sense of Meenakshi’s odd attraction to this strange man.

Aiyyaa is based on a previous short film by Kundalkar called Gandh (Roughly described as smell or odour). But translating this short story into a generous runtime of 2.5 hours proves to be his biggest challenge. Even though his film is peppered with captivating characters and slice of life situations their charm doesn’t quite last throughout the film. Certain scenes like the time when Rani and her brother approach a drug peddler and the song What to do seem out of context and bog the narrative down.

Having said that, Aiyyaa’s strength lies in its dramatic segments driven by the characters. Again, Kundalkar deserves praise for the fact that he does not try to make his characters real. Instead, the film captures them at their colourful and gaudy best. Even arbitrary props like stray dogs and trash cans have instrumental parts in his narrative. Perhaps because Kundalkar is a Maharashtrian himself, he is able to capture and utilise Marathi culture and attire to good effect in his film.

Rani lives the character of Meenakshi in every sense of the word. Her dancing especially in songs Dreamum wakeupam and Aga bai is simply out of this world. Meenakshi comes across as a vivid character with surreal dreams and touching real issues only because of Rani’s superlative and no-holds-barred performance. Her expressions are simply priceless. She is the hero of the film and mind you Prithviraj is the subject of the female gaze, all sexy and hot. That he’s playing a South Indian character works in his favour is a given. But Prithiviraj does so much more, at times holding his own especially in romantic sequences. Mynaa played by Anita Date (and her unique prosthetic teeth) is the breakout character of the film. She’s as wild and wacky as the film itself.

The sights are all there, but Aiyyaa excels in its sounds too. Amit  Trivedi delivers fantastic music and background score. But it’s the sounds of barking dogs, ruffling trash, clinking bangles that add a layer to the film. To top that, Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lyrics are as mad as the hatter. They are as much the USP of this film as Rani Mukerji. Cinematographer Amalendu Chaudhary captures the millions of Aiyyaa colours with beauty too. If you like entertainment with a twist, Aiyyaa is perfectly wakda.

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