Aiyyaa is a strange film; a narrative that takes you around a maze only to make you realise that there is no way out.
Directed by Sachin Kundalkar, Aiyyaa is the story of Meenaxi (Rani Mukherjee), a middle-class Marathi girl with a strong sense of smell and an overly dramatised family. A blind grandmother with gold teeth on an automated wheelchair; a brother who likes to pamper dogs; a drama queen of a mother and a business-obsessed father who smokes three cigarettes at a time. After continuously trying to break into the film industry, Meenaxi finally settles for a job at an art college as a librarian. This is where she finds the love of her life, Surya– an art student played by South Indian star Prithviraj Sukumaran who wears an alluring cologne that Meenaxi is drawn to.
The largely humourless script was a let-down, especially because Aiyyaa at first glance seems like a comedy film. Despite creating some funny-looking characters, Kundalkar fails to generate any genuine humour; anything meant to be hilarious is either just way too obnoxious — especially for a Pakistani audience — or too colloquial, and better suited for South Indian society. The excessive use of jokes is a technique usually popular in South Indian films and is now creeping into mainstream Bollywood. Some of these new movies are creating two extremes in Bollywood, like Aarkshan — a movie in a Sanskritised version of Hindi –and like Aiyyaa, with South Indian accents and slang. We know that Indian norms and values have already penetrated in our households through the Indian media, especially through Star Plus, but that infiltration is accompanied by some entertainment as well. Bollywood entertainment has played a pivotal role in bringing our cinema-going culture back.
However, Aiyyaa is a case of needless cultural exhibition with a flawed story and an even weaker script. It fails to be a cultural souvenir or a half-decent film. This is exactly why this new trend of South Indian narratives in Bollywood is not going to work in Pakistan. If there is one thing that works for Aiyyaa, it is that it is yet another splendid performance by Rani. Her antics get repetitive with time, but she still seems to have a hidden box of untapped acting and charisma left to explore. An Indian reviewer sums it perfectly, when he writes: “The director messes up a chance to let Rani’s inherent exuberance sing and dance across the length and breadth of the film’s canvas. He keeps placing the spontaneous actress into ridiculously compromised situations. It is to Rani’s credit that she survives all the bumps and belly aches that this weird yet watchable film serves up.”
It may be watchable for an Indian audience, but our audience here does not have an appetite for such cinema. It seems that the director wanted to satisfy personal nonsensical fantasies without keeping his audience in mind. People might call it an intentionally absurd film, but it is far worse.
Only the box office report will reveal whether Aiyyaa is a successful re-launch project for Rani. The rest of the cast members are there as supporting actors and don’t really add any sugar or spice to the story. The film has its highs, but mostly lows and a few funny moments, but they are rare. The story will drag and if you take your children, they will be horrified.
Verdict: Don’t cancel any appointments for this one.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 14th, 2012.
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I will have to agree with you that pakistani audience will not get it but even we North Indians are not going to get it! I am fed up of this trashy southie movies which are very distinct and have over the top action and comedy.The camera moves so fast in south indian inspired movies! These are cultural cliches peculiar to certain set of people and bollywood nowadays has been churning out trashy movies.All they want is money and as long as it makes money they won't give a damm about us.
Oh, I didn't know that ndian moviemakers were making movies solely for us Pakistanis. We are a very small percentage of audience for them. Err, how about we start making good movies for our own audience?
I watched this one today and I agree with the author that the audience in Pakistan may not get this movie. I am afraid a large part of India will not get it either. This movie is strongly influenced by the rhythms of Marathi theatre with its emphasis on creating impressions or scenes instead of building up characters and plot. None of the characters evolve through the film and the plot serves only as a thread to connect the impressions of the characters. The author rightly pointed out the "deliberately absurdist" attempts in the movie (the shouting, gold-teethed grandmother, and the amazing desi Lady gaga, or the gagabai, are some examples), but that too is the theatre influence. The central premises of a woman daring to dream at will and following her nose is somehow lost in the attempt of mainstreaming the movie that set the reviewer's the expectation that it is a comedy. I must say that this one is more in the genre of Amelie than of southie remakes. But I came away with a nagging feeling that the movie failed, although till the last scene I so desperately wanted it to succeed. However, I would still recommend this to people who are interested in directors who create an original idiom than following visually and emotionally gratifying templates. This one aimed high and even in its failure it is better than the likes of Rowdy Rathore, which the masses everywhere lap up.
We indians are ourselves scared to watch this trash