Aashayein

Terminal illness is a depressing subject. Venturing into that territory is generally abstained. On that note, Hrishida's "Anand" and Mani Rathnam's "Geetanjali" feature in my top-of-mind-recall. Though both depressing but great writing pushed it high on entertainment quotient. Of course fantastic performances, sub-plots, auxiliary characters and the rich music add flesh to the bones.

"Aashayein" is is Mr. Kukunoor's ode to both classics (and very subtly he fits in the "Anand" bit into the story).

☼ John Abraham:: Perhaps his best performance till date. This time around you will certainly see an actor behind the good looks and the dimpled cheeks. About the character, I wasn't completely convinced with the compulsive gambler bit. He could have simply been rich carefree and cool character.

☼ Anaitha Nair:: Every terminal illness story warrants a character depicting "live life kingsize". This time around it is Anaitha Nair. She pours her heart out to breathe life into the character of Padma (paradoxical statement indeed!). The writing deserves a special mention.

☼ Sonal Sehgal:: Doesn't get enough scope as Anaitha Nair steals the thunder practically right under everyone's noses. Nearly gets relegated to "miss-goody-two-shoes" had her character was not resurrected in the penultimate moments.

☼ Girish Karnad:: Under-utilised.

☼ Farida Jalal:: Under-utilised again. And perhaps a younger actress should have been chosen for the role in question.

☼ Prateekha Lonkar:: Not enough meat in the role.

☼ Vikram Inamdar:: Nagya's lucky mascot from "Hyderabad Blues" gets a compassionate but short role.

☼ Elahe:: Another lucky mascot in a blink-and-miss role.

I particularly found that the sub-plots did not get enough screen time to be fleshed out (reference to Girish Karnad & Farida Jalal).

Music was not promoted adequately. Shreyas Talpade's special appearance was not warranted, in fact John Abraham should have done it for greater impact.

Though the response was a mixed bag, I particularly found the "Indiana Jones" layer complimenting neatly to the character of John Abraham.

"Aashayein" has suffered a great deal owing to the rift between the makers. Lack of promotions marred the recognition it rightfully deserves. And last but not the least, Nagesh is a well-rounded entertainer and no questions to that. Having said that, it is my opinion that he should let go the writing department and channel his creative abilities to deliver goods of his standards on a more frequent basis.

Well, the last two flicks of Nagesh were a gross disappointment. But, not this time. He has come back to his forte, that of, sensitive and touching cinema. John has given his best till date and the seventeen year old Anitha was outstanding.

The story revolves the last few days of a lung cancer patient. The way he deals with his pain, his isolation and paradox of life. In this process he discovers that he needs a purpose in life which is shown by a child who resembles a monk. Slowly he discovers, instead of gloating and wasting life, he devotes himself for the happiness of others. There are frequent references to Karma and the hidden messages are nicely conveyed through this film. He uses his surplus of funds for the fulfillment of desires of his friends and thus kind of liberating them. The parallel story of Indiana Jones is well woven and strikes a parallel to the needs of the protagonist.The films ends on a positive note and the protagonist still seeking a new adventure.

The music is outstanding with the same team as that of Dor. It Blends very well with the situations and embellishes the movies further.

All in All ! Nagesh is Back ! Looking for further great movies from him.

It does not surprise me that the so-called critics did not think much of this movie. I think it's just the times we're living in - movies such as Aashayein fare poorly at the box office because majority of the people neither have the patience nor have the IQ to watch such movies.

This is the 3rd movie of John Abraham I have watched after Kabul Express and New York, and he has just continued to show what a tremendous actor he is. Despite his other masala movies, he seems to find an off-beat movie and leaves his mark. Anaitha Nair acted excellently in a role that was very different than her role in Chak De India. She fit greatly in her role of a hospice patient. Supporting cast of Farida Jalal and Girish Karnad filled in their roles well.

The little boy Ashwin Chitale's role was mystic and portrayed well. Music was by and large melodious and lyrics were fresh (change to today's bollywood junk). Ab Mujhko Jeena, Shukriya Zindagi, Chala Aya Pyar were the best tracks and rest were good too.

I'm rating this movie 10/10 easily simply based on the fact that I can watch it again. Must see for serious movie fans that enjoy a strong story line and sensible movies.

Out of the many shiny bollywood masalla action packed, brainless plots and pointless movies, here comes a treat to watch. John Abraham is getting better everyday in bollywood and I assume the day is not far when he will stand with the top line of bollywood. I don't know but he is the only actor I feel who gives a strange feeling of belongingness to the masses. Anyway ! About the movie.. It's a story of a dying man and his experiences after wards. (Full Stop! Find out the whole of it in the movie). This is a very touchy and sensitive subject and the way it was portrayed in the movie is the brilliance of the Production team. No fun intended, no typical bollywood happy-happy moments, Its a movie with hard facts and human emotions and PAIN. It's a difficult movie to watch because of the pain and hopelessness it carry. Throughout the movie you will be in pain and misery for the characters. And that credit goes to non other then John himself and the new talent portrayed in the character of Padma. They managed to transfer the agony to the viewers and that's the 'job-done'. With out a doubt this is the best ever performance by john Abraham as he himself claimed it in a TV show interview recently that people would be stunned to see the performance and they sure do! The music number 'shukrya zindagi' is very well pasted in the film at different moments when 'needed' (no pointless bollywood songs at least in this movie). And why an 8 for a movie which deserves at least 9? Yeah the Indiana Johnes segments (Dreams). This would have been a much better treat to watch without those scenes and the story should have focused more on the realities of life, but anyway still no hard feelings for a great movie. By the way this is not your weekend reliever and a pop corn flick!! As a whole it's a very serious movie and not many people would like to watch it (sorry for that John). But those who have a taste of such movies would definitely remember this one for a long time. Aashayein.. Yeah!

As far as the story plot is concerned, AASHAYEIN may not have anything new to say to the viewers. But talking about its fresh treatment, the movie does have few worth mentioning merits in its kitty which rightly differentiate it from all the previous ones made around this particular subject.

If we look back, then all the films revolving around a dying person made by many famous directors in the past, have two things in common. Firstly it's the fun element incorporated in them which lightens the mood of the viewer throughout the film, till it reaches its climax. Before coming to the concluding moments every such venture first makes you smile with few hilarious or enjoyable moments and then leads you towards the end, talking about the ultimate death of the hero. Secondly, all those movies have never been too verbal on the subject of death. If you can recall, their characters always talk about the most certain truth in a very subtle way without any strong offensive or direct dialogues in a sheer poetic kind of mood.

AASHAYEIN breaks all these preset modes of the subject and takes you into a more bitter, hard hitting and truthful kind of arena where every character clearly knows that he has to die in few months and they don't feel shy or uncomfortable talking about it freely with each other. All the key characters of the script live under one roof, getting their decent daily life facilities while waiting for their final moments to arrive any time. And it's the interaction between these different dying people in the film, which transforms it into a worth watching venture, dissimilar to anything you have seen before.

Especially the sequences between John Abraham and Anaitha Nair, which are beautifully written and superbly enacted by the talented duo. The verbal expressions of Anaitha when she talks about her experiences within and outside the help-house are simply a treat to watch. In fact, death has never been expressed so freely on Indian screen before as done by Anaitha in AASHAYEIN. In short she gives the most explosive performance of the movie which deserves to be seen as a must.

Apart from John-Anaitha's brilliant on-screen chemistry, the movie has some highly enlightening scenes featuring Farida Jalal, Girish Karnad, Sonal Sehgal and a charming child actor Ashwin Chitale. Here I would like to mention a dialogue which has never been used before in a movie on the same theme, where in Sonal explains her trauma to John saying, "Your pain gets over within few days when you would be gone, but what about us, the people you will leave behind. How are we suppose to live with this pain all our life?" Indeed a well written thought put in by the writers.

John Abraham being the central character surprises you with an honest and heartfelt performance. After the few initial moments, you just forget about his killing looks and star status and start believing in his pain as he easily establishes an emotional relationship with the viewers. Undoubtedly he delivers a performance he can always feel proud of. Other than the main lead, Nagesh extracts some great performances from his entire supporting cast (including himself in a cameo) and with this; he once again proves his mastery over the medium when it comes to emotional and sensitive subjects.

Salim Suleiman's music works as you are watching the movie, but the song featuring Shreyas Talpade as the rock band leader remains the one in your mind while walking out of the theater. And Shreyas is also equally good performing it on the screen. Another merit of the movie remains its Cinematography which captures both the indoors and the outdoors fantastically.

Now let's talk about the main avoidable glitch in the movie which serves as a big unwanted interruption in its otherwise smooth progression. Here I am referring to all those sequences in the film wherein John imagines himself as Indiana Jones leading to some strange dream sequences inside a cave where there are many white faced ghosts tied in thick chains. The relationship of the dream with the reality was fine but why it was used in such a length was quite weird and out of my understanding as it hampered the overall impact of the film on its audience.

Along with this big mistake, Nagesh also uses another half baked and unexplained character in his script who gets no justification of any sort right till the end. This refers to the character of a small child who is shown to have some magical healing powers in his body. Now whether he really had some powers…., if yes then how did he actually benefit John with his powers in the end remains a mystery.

So, in all AASHAYEIN could have been a much better and highly appreciated movie in absence of The Indiana Jones character in its script. It certainly has its own highly commendable moments to watch and learn from. But minus all those dream sequences it surely would have impressed a lot more people in the theaters as well as in the industry. Still it didn't deserve to be canned for more than a year for whatsoever reasons.

Regarding its box office prospects, the chances are not so bright as today's busy generation is simply not interested in seeing a movie revolving around the theme of Death, unless there is a Shahrukh, Aamir, Salman or Hrithik dying on the screen. But I would really like to recommend it to my readers, for the effortless performance put in by Anaitha Nair and its few not to be missed enlightening moments, capable of teaching some new lessons of life to all of us.