Aaja Nachle

I finally got a chance to watch Aaja Nachle last night and despite the disasterous reviews, I kept an open mind. To my dismay, the movie turned out to be even worse than I had expected. Were writers even hired to write this screenplay? Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they did their job; so what were the editors doing? 

Aaja Nachle boasts of an impressive star cast; Konkona Sen Sharma, Irfan Khan, Divya Dutta, Kunal Kapoor, Akshay Khanna and of course, the illustrious Madhuri Dixit taking centerstage. Yet none of them were given even half a chance to deposit an iota of their talent into the movie. The director faked out his audence; each time I thought we were going to get a great scene from one of the actors, nothing happenend. 

I understand that the storyline was meant to be simple and that Madhuri was supposed to be the be-all-end-all and her supporting actors went into the moving knowing this. But not even Madhuri was given a chance to bring alive her sensational charm. The most disheartening thing about the film was that all of the actors were at their finest, but it was obvious that a lot of the meaty scenes were cut out.

Konkona and Kunal's chemistry was fantastic in the film but except for one cute song, it wasn't shown. Madhuri and Konkona should've been given a better chance to bond; the same goes for Madhuri and Kunal. She is their mentor and the student-guru relationship is one that is highly respected in Bollywood, so why not go there?

Irfan Khan is always delicious when potrayed negatively, but he just wasn't bad enough. Indian culture is rich in the arts and most everyone could've identified with the cause of saving the small city's historical art center, but even the filmmaker did not seem to take the cause seriously; so as an audience how could we?

I would understand if the movie was treated as a musical. With half-baked songs and yawn-inducing choreography (except Madhuri's iconic tumpas in the title track), calling it a musical would be a shame. A nice kathak sequence featuring Madhuri or a one-one-one dance session with Konkona would push the film more towards being a musical. At least than all its other flaws could have been excused.

Madhuri signature dance style runs rampantly throughout my own dancing, so she has always been an icon for me in that respect. But, I've never truly appreciated her looks or her acting--it never sparked any kindof magic for me. But after watching Aaja Nachle, it made me want to get out there and rent every old Madhuri movie ever made.