Aaja Nachle

Saw ‘Aaja Nachle’ this weekend. I had been eagerly waiting for the release of the movie since the time I first saw the teaser some 6 months back. I was in US and we had gone to a nearby town to watch the hindi movie ‘Eklavya’. Seeing Madhuri Dixit dance to the beats of ‘aaja nachle’ (the title track of the movie – though at that time it was just the music playing as the songs had not released yet), I got pretty excited and started looking forward to the movie. So the moment I heard the film has released, I was waiting to see it. Didn’t get chance at the first weekend (thanks to yet another exam that I had to give). I didn’t want to read the reviews of this movie. It has happened since quite some time when ghastly movies have been praised like anything and good ones have been blasted left, right and centre. But even after intentionally avoiding reading the review column of the newspaper, I heard bits and pieces of it…. from friends, colleagues, and all who have either seen the movie or as in most cases, read the reviews.

Being a HUGE madhuri fan, I went to watch the movie with as unbiased and open mind as I could. So when the lights went dim and the movie started rolling in, I waited in anticipation for madhuri to dazzle the screen as she always does. I actually felt goose pimples on my hands when her name floated across the screen. And then she sizzled on screen urging us to dance with her. I do agree that I was a bit disappointed with the start.. somehow madhuri should have got a better entry than that for sure and the director fell short here. And then we all saw the same madhuri back on screen. It was like she has never been away. I am not sure how she felt coming back in front of the camera 2 kids hence.

The movie did start off fine. And even though she looked a bit old (something the makeup man/camera man should have handled better) , you can not help but admire her acting skills. She was so convincing in even the younger role in the flashback with her expressions, her naughtiness, her innocence in that part. This set the up pace for the entire movie. I enjoyed the movie immensely. Yeah on hindsight the story or shall I say the handling of the story could have been better, the movie seemed a bit unrealistic to me. Especially in the way the ‘choudhary’ sahab first fires up then gets cajoled by madhuri’s expert.. shall I say.. manipulation.. ;-). And then later betrays her before having a change of heart again towards the end. Also the character played by Irfaan Khan - such a talented actor - was so loose. Same goes for Divya Dutta’s character.. ok so I understand that she was always a weak gal but I was not able to understand what earth shattering situation arose that gave her so much strength later.

There are some similar idiotic instances in the movie. But what matters is madhuri was her usual self. She still dances beautifully, smiles even more beautifully and acts as good as she did earlier if not better. Arre she also was humorous enough to laugh at herself.. In that scene, when she plans to get her highly accented ‘dancers’ from NY and stage a show in her town and gets a reply with stress on an equally accented ‘dancers’.:-) The various other characters in the movie were also good, played with finesse by really good actors. Though again some characters were not that well formed. Also madhuri could have been given a stronger role. Somehow it seemed that the role didn’t do her justice.. it didn’t make her do anything stronger or different. That role could have been played by anyone and so easily by madhuri. It was so undemanding that it didn’t require a certain “Madhuri Dixit” in it. She should have got a chance to display her superb acting skills too along with her not-to-mention dancing skills. That’s where it fails in the expectations of so many madhuri fans. The film was too easy for her and unable to meet the expectations of her comeback movie. :-(

Even though it could have been much better, overall the movie was a good experience. Her fans saw madhuri dancing as only she can to the beats of ‘Aaja Nachle’ :-D. We saw madhuri on screen after a long break of 5-6 years. Hope our wait will be shorter the next time around. Go ahead and enjoy ‘Aaja Nachle’ and do temper down your expectations though and also don’t listen to too much of the negative comments in Media (Print/TV). I don’t know what they are using a basis as when rating movies.

PS: Another incentive, Akshya Khanna. He plays a good role in the movie and he is so sweet and charming – you can’t help liking him. With his enigmatic and suave personality, he will charm his way into your system. ;-)