Aiyyaa

Meenakshi is so real,she portrays any gal's dilemma of pursuing inner desires vs choosing a life which is practical and realistic. except for the raunchy numbers, this movie is a beautiful. the songs seems like they were added for the masses otherwise its a very well written and directed story. i love the chemistry between meenakshi and surya . her helplessness in expressing her true intent was portrayed very well by Rani Mukerji. i like prithviraj and i would watch this again for him.

There was a time in the early '2k era' when an actress was slowly making a mark in Indian cinema. She was small, impish, vigorously spontaneous and ever charming. Her crackling voice appeared unpleasant initially leading filmmakers like Mahesh Bhatt to dub someone else for her. However, like a true talent would, she turned every scar to star. Rani Mukherjee, the actress with all her effervescence was missing all this while from the silver screen, she made her fans wait and grumble. However, the wait was worth!! With "Aiyaa", Rani is rightfully "back with a bang". She rants, she banters, she raves and she rules!!!

Meenakshi Deshpande (Rani Mukherjee) loves to dream herself as Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi and Juhi Chawla (the ladies who ruled Indian cinema in the 90's). She idolizes them...but wait, she is not a wannabe actress, she simply loves to dream! A typical 'teenage Bollywood freak' at heart, Meenakshi's dreams are pompous, opulent and larger-than-life, no matter how diminutive her real life existence is. While her parents almost hound for a suitable match for her, she secretly nourishes the idea of eloping with her boyfriend by taking away all her grand ma's assorted jewellery. A secret wish to fall in love and get rid of the 'ever-so-mundane' ways of life is all that she wants. The movie begins by elucidating upon the innuendos of this freaky, simple yet vivacious Marathi mulgi. Meenakshi's dream is perhaps every (middle class) girl's dream and this is where an instant connection takes place between the audience and the gripping narrative of this girl.

Rani Mukherjee with all her gusto gives a live wire performance as Meenakshi on-screen.

Before one could settle down with the vibrancy of this girl, another aspect about her comes to surface. Meenakshi is hyper-sensitive to 'smell' in general. The municipality dustbin is just a stone's throw from her house. She is agitated, screams and rants about it all the day. Feels stifled almost every time she passes by it and gets nauseated by its foulness. However, the fragrance of dreams never ceases to grasp her. The bin here works as a complete metaphor to showcase the innate quality of this girl to live life just the way she wants to!

The story develops further. Meenakshi eventually manages a job as a librarian in an art college and consequently feels a magnetic pull towards an art student there for the "heavenly" smell that he emanates. Is it the perennial stingy smell that she has to bear with back home which makes her so drawn towards this "out-of the world" smell of this man? We ponder! Prithviraj, I was told is a South superstar. He absolutely lives up to the expectations in the film. Super dashing as he looks on screen, his contemplative face as an artist is a "countenance to reckon with", so much so that Meenakshi eventually falls head-over-heels in love with him and so does most of the girls in the audience! (I included)

Like her dreams Meenakshi follows him almost everywhere. She goes all out of her way to learn Tamil. She barges into the men's toilet, gatecrashes into his house as a sales woman and secretly steals his shirt only to wear it in the night and feel closer to his 'existence'. The longing to be with the beloved can also be satiated by wearing his clothes, his belongings and their remnants. A beautiful expression indeed!!

Gyrating dance moves and raunchy make-ups are nothing but an expression of her fantasies that plummets the moment real life strikes.

Meenakshi's marriage gets apparently fixed up with the 'Farooque Sheikh' admirer Madhav which she couldn't impede even after a forceful horrendous rendition of a Tamil song.

She continually follows her dream man who is continually oblivious about her. Meenakshi pulls out all the stops to follow him for an entire day and escapes from her pending engagement. She finally meets him eventually discovers the reason for the heavenly smell that pulls her....

Almost a fairytale story told in a fairytale fashion, 'Aiyaa' wins your heart with its softness, unique expression of love and ever so pure "smell" factor attached to it. What is it, other than the looks, which make a person different from the others externally? Smell right?

No two individual can smell the same technically. The director harps on this fact and colors it with all the possible shades of romance. The intensity of a person's body, the feeling of getting attached with him by inhaling that fragrance…..emotions become almost palpable at the very realization of it all!!

'Aiyaa' other than being a fun to watch movie is also very profound in the message it inadvertently conveys. With some comic relief in the form of the 'golden tooth of the grand ma' and Meenakshi's pro-PETA brother (which I honestly feel the script did not need at all), the film fulfills all the quotients of entertainment. After Sridevi's powerful performance in English Vinglish, its Rani's exuberance that comes our way this time round. What a treat for movie buffs! Much like Sridevi's Shashi, who ends up completely transforming herself as an expert in English, Rani's Meenakshi too coverts from speaking "aiyaa" to "aaiyo". She meets her dream man finally and becomes "Meenakshi Deshpande Iyer".

P.S- Extra ordinary dance prowess showcased by Rani (especially the belly dance). Beautiful movie, must watch!!

Too long and uneven pacing weren't helped by a problematic script. That said we really enjoyed our first look at this really popular actress and the view of how Northern Indians view Tamils. The dance numbers are great and we never laughed harder than at the little fantasy where the romantic lead gassed up the motorcycle. Some things work in every culture.

It was Times of India that voted this one amongst the worst movies of 2012 and it didn't get a lot of love in the reviews either. I am surprised about that.

Rani Mukerji is one of my favourite actresses in general. Her comic talent is phenomenal. As a dreaming librarian who smells the world, sees through the eyes of a romantic movie and lives amongst a range of quirky but adorable characters she reminds me of an Indian Amelie poulain. Menakshi is a little awkward, carefree and full of good intentions with an indestructible faith in the power of love.

Of course the story is nothing new and for Non-Indians it might be a little over the top.There are a few characters the film could do with out for sure, one being the librarian and Menakhis colleague. She brings the rating down with at least 2 points on IMDb. How did they come up with the idea to pair the lovely Rani with this creepy caricature?) But when you take that lightly you want to follow Mukerji's Meenakshi in her pursuit for love and the adventures of her chaotic family are worth every minute of your time.

'Aiyyaa' is a film that redefines zany, whacky, and crazy, or should I instead say 'Wakra'? It's leading lady – a librarian in an Art College in real, and a Bollywood Diva in her fantasies - Meenakshi (played uninhibitedly by Rani Mukherjee) and her acute sense of smell and by connection, unfathomable attraction to the tall, dark, and handsome art student Surya (a delightful Bollywood debut by Malyalam star Prithviraj Sukumaran) and maddeningly Bollywood fantasies drive not only her, but also those around oscillating between sanity and the puerile.

Be it her motor mouth mother who keeps laughing and telling all and sundry about how perfect a bride her daughter will be, her father, surrounded by innumerable mostly dysfunctional telephones who has the quirky habit of smoking 4 cigarettes at the same time, her jobless class 10 failed brother 'Nanu' who loves dogs and is dogged in his hate for humanity, or last but not the least, her blind grandmother with her golden dentures who keeps zipping around the house in a motorized wheelchair and passes expert comments on everything.

Add to that a crazy co-worker 'Mayna' who is a cross between Lady Gaga and Bugs Bunny. Be it her crazy Lady Gaga inspired dressing, bad Bollywood dancing, maddening fondness for John Abraham, or overall behavior with those around her. She really is as whacky, if not more than Meenakshi's family.

The only sane person in her life is her forced fiancé – Madhav Rajadhyaksha (played aptly by Marathi actor Subodh Bhave) whose logicality almost threatens to overpower the smelly attraction Meenakshi has for Surya. And therein lies a terrible tale.

This is a classic example of too many ingredients confusing the cook. For, while several sequences stand out for their whacky quotient, the overall picture is one of incoherence. The story and plot are as weak as Meenakshi's knees every time she spots Surya. The funny lines, superb acting, excellent choreography, and beautiful music are somehow thrust at the background every time you desperately hope and wish to hear the mostly silent Surya speak. His body however speaks, rather screams, every time he enters a fantastical dream of Meenakshi and ends up displaying some groovy dancing, a chiseled body complimented by a shaved chest, and six pack abs that stand out in stark contrast to his unkempt chest hair ravaged painter avatar in the real portions.

But for the most part your heart might actually go out to the more earthy suitor of Meenakshi with his love for the kind of romance exemplified by Farroukh Sheikh and Deepti Naval.

If you shirk your nose every time you catch a rerun of MTV Fully Faltoo, this film might be the smelliest thing to have entered your nostrils. If a great story and plot are those that drive you, this film is likely to be a huge let down. But if you are one of those who are ready for some zany humor, this indeed might be the film to catch. Though a better script/story/plot rounded with some crisp editing would have done this film a world of good, it stills holds its ground for several reasons. Watch it for its characters, presentation, dialogues and crazy sense of humor (thanks to National Award winning director Sachin Kundalkar), whacky lyrics (Amitabh Bhattacharya), fantastic music (Amit Trivedi), exuberant choreography (Vaibhavi Merchant) and last but not the least, for Rani Mukherjee.

Be it her enacting of iconic songs and dialogues of Sridevi, Madhuri, or Juhi, her attempts at learning Tamil, her overpowering melodrama about everything happening to her, and for her trio of terrific dance performances - a luscious Lavani, a Silk Smitha inspired 'Dreamup Wakeupum', or her fantastic Kamasutra inspired Belly Dancing in 'Aaga Bai'. Rani is fantastic or should be say 'Wakra'? Go decide for yourself.