Genre : Musical / Drama
Year : 2007
Running time : 2 hours 25 minutes
Director : Anil Mehta
Cast : Madhuri Dixit, Akshaye Khanna, Raghuvir Yadav, Divya Dutta, Irfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kunal Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Yashpal Sharma, Sushmita Mukherjee
AAJA NACHLE : SIMPLE AND ENTERTAINING
Madhuri, when she was reigning queen of Bollywood, epitomized the idea of an earthy, voluptuous, youthful desi beauty. Now, in her first film after her return from Uncle Sam’s land, the voluptuousness is toned down, and the youthfulness dissipating. What is unchanged however is Madhuri’s star power – the 1000 mega watt smile is still in eminence, and the power to carry off a film totally on her own, minus a major “hero”, is there for all to see. How many current heroines can actually do that ?
It doesn’t hurt ofcourse that Madhuri is one of the better actresses on the desi film scene, or the fact that she dances like a dream. Or that ANL is a Yash Raj productions, with decent direction, excellent dialogues and some pretty catchy numbers. But what makes this film one of the better films of the year, is Madhuri herself. Yes, I will say to all the nay-sayers right now, she does look older; age shows on her face, crows-feet and all. Still, she is fitter than ever before – less puppy fat on face, and I’ve never seen her look this good in jeans. In the “Aaja Nach le” number, she absolutely sizzles on stage. And lest I forget, there is an unmistakable confidence in her step, when playing the “Angrez” so to speak. She is gauche no more, and that actually may be the result of a real-life personality change.
Madhuri is Dia, a small-town girl, partial to dancing and the arts, and devoted disciple of the Makrand (Darshan Zariwala) Guru of Ajanta, a dance-theatre group. As is customarily seen in small-towns, in Shamli too, conservatism rules. And when Dia falls in love with National Geographic photographer American Steve, tongues wag. Her parents arrange a hurried match with local chai-shop wala Mohan (Shourie), and Dia unable to stomach this runs away with Steve to the good old USA.
Several years down the line, she returns with a daughter in tow, at her Guruji’s death. Her Guru is now gone, but Dia is determined that his artistic vision will live on. And if that means taking on the local MP (Khanna) who’s determined to tear down the dance school to make way for a mall, or the townspeople who won’t give her the time of day, so be it. Thus when the modern, pizza-loving MP challenges Dia to prove that Shamli does indeed need Ajanta as much as she thinks it does, by organizing a performance with local dancers, Dia is more than upto the task . . .
OK, first the good, because I’m such an optimist you know, and especially around the holidays. It’s another thing ofcourse that most big banner films this year have reduced my optimistic tendencies to a smidgen of their previous selves, AND made my hair stand on end (I don’t need the straightening iron anymore.)
This is a classy, clean film – perfect for family viewing. There’s almost nothing in here that’ll make you worry about your kid’s sensibilities being adversely affected. Most of the characters are played by fairly strong actors. Konkona Sen Sharma plays a local girl, angling for a part in Madhuri’s dance production and is good. As is Kunal Kapoor playing a young goon, in the employ of your resident, slimy politician. Raghuvir Yadav as Doctor the “caretaker” of Ajanta is immaculate, but with him you expect nothing less.
Akshaye Khanna is charming as the MP (and Raja) of Shamli, and delivers some of the best lines; when Dia’s daughter wonders who he is, he mutters matter-of-factly “I’m the bad guy”. Plus they finally got his hair right – they took it all off ! Ranvir Shourey has a pretty meaty role as in-love-with-Dia tea-shop-owner Mohan, who’s devotion to her knows no bounds. Quite the under-dog, he got my sympathy. Vinay Pathak is delightful as the rigid government officer and Sushmita Mukherjee (remember Kitty from Karamchand ?) as his contrarily lively wife is sweet.
This film has fantastic dialogue. From the razor sharp repartees that Dia snaps back at the amused MP, to the description of Konkona that Dia comes up with – “You are”, she says, “like a cat in a gunny sack” of Konkona’s disheveled appearance – they all had me chuckling.
The story is a little sparse, but does have it’s strong points. I’m glad, for example, that Dia as a divorcee is still portrayed as a complete woman, and the divorce is not rubbed in her face as the “fault” of a “fallen” woman. It happened, she moved on, and built a life on her own terms. Nice, and really quite innovative for desi films still in the clutches of a patriarchal hangover. I’m also glad that there is only a hint of a romance between Dia and the MP, and the story does not get side-tracked to encompass the love angle. Quite a leap for Bollywood to portray that a woman can focus on her goals, and not “need” a man to fulfill them for her.
Now for the bad – it’s a tad ‘traditional”, in that all the mean characters in the film, miraculously turn goody-goody at the end of the film. The whole character black-and-white thing reminds me funnily enough of this :
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
I mean I’m all for realistic cinema, but you can’t pick and choose realism can you ? An example : Madhuri in her dance performance at Shamli has a bunch of extras, and a set that looked like it would have needed Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s supervision to build. Always assuming (as in all Hindi films) that God supplies the music and the orchestra, we would still need a group of dancers where Dia’s having trouble coming up with a handful, and enough moolah and expertise to transform the ramshackle Ajanta theatre into an atrium for the Gods.
Still, why sweat the small stuff, yeah ? This is a good film, even after minor drawbacks. It should be interesting to see how Madhuri fits into the desi film scene, now that she has her share of stretch-marks. I’m quite pleased that she chose to make ANL her comeback vehicle, where she took on an age-appropriate, graceful, strong, woman-centric role (Dia’s a woman with gumption, no less !), instead of trying to fit into the mindless pretty-young-thing slots. And even though I’m not the biggest Madhuri fan, I hope she has a good run.
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