From childhood I have been a Jane Austen fan - I particularly loved Pride & Prejudice and Emma. I re-read them as often as I could - everytime I didn't have a new book in my hands, I automatically gravitated towards Jane Austen for yet another read (I was a compulsive reader in my youth). So when I heard that Emma was being remade as Aisha in apna Bollywood, I was stoked. I loved the Hollywood adaptations with Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma and Alicia Silverstone in Clueless so obviously I had high expectations of the Bollywood adaptation as well... but alas. That was not to be... but we jump ahead of ourselves.
Aisha stars Sonam Kapoor in the title role and Abhay Deol as Mr. Knightley or in our version he's Arjun, Aisha's family friend for many years and now Aisha's sister's brother-in-law as Aisha's older sister is married to his older brother. Aisha and Arjun are more like buddies and have fun hanging out and teasing each other. Aisha is a self-confessed matchmaker and believes that she is a great success at it... Aisha's friends' circle includes her BFF Pinky (played by Ira Dubey, Lillette Dubey's daughter) and Randhir (played by Cyrus Sahukar) and newly inducted Shefali (Amrita Puri). Shefali is Aisha's new project in her matchmaking scheme and she tries to push Randhir and Shefali together but it backfires badly. She then tries to push her towards Dhruv (her maasi's stepson) and that too fails. Arjun is the voice of reason and constantly tells Aisha to stop interfering in people's lives and do something worthwhile with her own. Does Aisha succeed in finding romance for Shefali? Does she find her own happy ending? This, in essence, forms the basis of the movie.
I thought the cast of the movie was pretty good overall with the exception of the lead. I did not like Sonam as Aisha which is probably why I was disappointed because Aisha is the basis of the movie!! She does not have the combination of the well-meaning charm and innocence of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless and she is sorely lacking in acting abilities in this movie... and I do think Sonam can act but for whatever reason she plays Aisha in a one-dimensional way - the same tone of voice for all dialogue delivery. The redeeming factor was that she and Abhay Deol share pretty good chemistry. Abhay Deol was awesome - he plays his role effortlessly and is a complete charmer (love those dimples!!). The surprise package of the film though for me was Amrtia Puri as Shefali - the pretty actress completely pulled off her role as behenji trying to become modern and keep up with the pace of big city life. I hope she gets good roles after this and makes it in the big bad world of Bollywood. Ira Dubey was also decent.
Loved the soundtrack - especially Suno Aisha and Gal mitthi mitthi bol. The style quotient of the movie rocked... everyone looked suitably attired and glamorous especially the girls. It's a decent movie for a one-time watch especially on DVD. It could have been way shorter and crisper but we can't get everything right all the time!!
