Aisha

Sonam Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone burst onto the Bollywood scene just about the same time with one another in 2007, with the Kapoors (no relation here) starring in their first feature film together in Saawariya. We know how prolific Ranbir Kapoor has become with a successful 2009 and 2010 seeing him all serious in Raajneeti, while Deepika Padukone herself is fairing none too bad with a string of releases. This is not a tabloid so I'll stay hands off on the on-off romance between these two, but somehow Sonam Kapoor has got off the blocks rather slower than her peers, and seem to be making up for it just recently.

Thanks to dad Anil Kapoor and sister Rhea as producers, I suppose a project like this will only befit one of their own in taking on the starring role as the titular Aisha, or shall you say the Hindi version of Jane Austen's Emma, directed by Rajshree Ojha. Sonam Kapoor steps into the role as the romantic matchmaker wannabe who, as the idle daughter of a rich man in Delhi, takes it upon herself to be a Ms Fixit, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. Not hers of course, but that of her friends and family. With best friend Pinky (Ira Dubey), Aisha takes it upon herself to transform plain Jane Sheali (Amrita Puri) into an air-head femme fatale, and just about as confused as Aisha herself is.

I suppose if you know the story of Emma, then you'd know the story of Aisha as well, although it's more like Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone than Austen's literary epic for the more modern, upbeat feel to it. Amongst Sonam Kapoor's role, I actually disliked her portrayal of Aisha, who's more negative than a positive one, highlighting with some cliché humour on the fairer sex's indecisiveness when it comes to the matters of the heart, and seriously, creating more problems out of nothing than to actually address the issues at hand. The coy yet arrogant, cloy yet independent behaviour when in the midst of different parties just brings out the sheer hypocrisy of the character.

Which is not to say that Sonam Kapoor didn't do well with the role, but I felt her earlier roles were more challenging. If anything, she shows that she's quite the clotheshorse here with, I think, almost every scene seeing her decked out to the nines in designer togs, and carrying them off very well on her lithe frame. In some ways the film becomes an advertising feature for the various fashion houses and labels that Aisha endorses, and becomes like a huge product placement during one of the montage sequences.

Everything else that goes on in the film, sad to say, you wouldn't care too much about, because the rest of the supporting cast are quite the caricature, offering not much depth as they either pander around or loathe Aisha's presence as she sashays her way to manipulate the lives of others, only to see her plans backfire hard one by one onto herself. However, every spoilt brat deserves a break, and in comes the indecisive (as well) hero Arjun (Abhay Deol) who drapes a New York based colleague Aarti (Lisa Haydon) around, to invoke the natural bitchy comparison by any pretty lass when another prettier, more popular lass is in their midst. Meow.

There seems to be quite the disconnect with the characters as they all seem to be fairly loaded without doing anything substantial, most born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and watching them wild about their idle time attending weddings, parties, and the likes, just seems too surreal to be rooted in reality. But as a romantic comedy, this one had its eye candy cast galore to thank for to hold your attention as it plods its way (and thankfully for a Bollywood film, just slightly over 2 hours) to a finale which you know all's well that ends well, with all the messiness of relationship entanglements straightened out in no time. Strictly for those with Emma fetish and want to compare across all versions and variations.

Aisha is about this super rich good-hearted luxury-snob who sees nothing beyond anything high class, and she can very well afford to. Sonam Kapoor plays Aisha, who is some sort of a cross between Sex and The City's Carrie (in her quintessential fashion sense) and Cher from Clueless (in her adorable snobbishness). She's into social services such as protecting animal rights, appreciating and creating arts, and not to forget her newly found talent, match making.

Teamed with her best friend Pinky, Aisha tries to match make a plain-Haryana-Jane (named Shefali) with her friend Randhir, whom she thinks is perfect for Shefali, but Randhir in fact is in love with Aisha herself. Her only obstacle is Arjun (Abhay Deol), or so she thinks.

In a nut shell, Aisha is a feel good movie, with cute and lovely characters, who each leave their mark with their roles and acting, although I felt Abhay Deol was shortchanged for the amount of potential he has. Amrita Puri (Shefali) in my opinion is the best one to watch out for. Sonam is also very lovable in the snobbish role of a high society snob whom we'd love to hate.

One downside of the movie is that I felt the movie was really pretentious with the amount of super high flying luxurious life shown, especially with the polo match and unreal river rafting getaway in a well-equipped camp house for the vain people. On a positive note, the movie was some very light hearted moments, even makes a what seems serious love declaration at the wedding function into a light comedy moment. You can't help loving Aisha!

Aisha is a modern-day adaptation of Jane Austen's famous novel Emma. Now I'm personally not into this kind of movies, but I still wanted to see it for Abhay Deol, whom I consider to be one of the most talented actors in India today, and most of whose films and performances I highly appreciated. Aisha actually centres around the young Sonam Kapoor, whose Aisha is a take-off on Austen's Emma. The movie reminds me of many of those kitschy Hollywood fairy tales like The Princess Diaries, and it tries very hard to be western. It actually is supposed to be a fairy tale, but it mostly looks like a wannabe rather than a good movie on its own. Its dialogues, songs, characters, and its overall atmosphere all seem to have been inspired from various foreign movies of this sort, and sadly, not even once does it try to show the beauty of India, using it only in some comic scenes of parody instead. Sonam Kapoor plays the title role, and she is okay. She does manage to carry the film on her shoulders, but despite being pretty and vivacious, she somehow seems to lack the charm her character requires, and at points she gets a bit annoyingly unnatural. Abhay Deol is reduced to a role of minimal importance and by the end of the film I was left wondering what on earth he could find in this movie or role that he accepted it. Aisha is not a complete bore and it does have its moments from time to time, but overall it's an ordinary and rather mediocre tale, which could be easily skipped.

I thought Aisha was really cute. As an Emma adaptation, I thought it was excellent- they kept all the important elements of the story in, and I saw a few homages to Clueless in there as well. I like that Aisha wasn't 100% likable, as she shouldn't be- she is a girl who's been given everything in life, which doesn't always lend itself to peachy sweetness. Of course she's going to be arrogant! Nobody other than Arjun ever says no to her.

Because this film is about a very wealthy girl and her matchmaking pursuits, which do often come across as very superficial and celebrating monetary pleasures, and the characters are very shallow at times (their problems are hardly anything, compared to the very real struggles other Indians face) I can see how some people might not like it- my dad thought it was absolutely ridiculous (his exact quotes were "I can't believe filmmakers would waste celluloid on this trash").

However, the essence of the film is to show how silly Aisha's attempts are at forcing what cannot be forced, regardless of how much she tries to manipulate the situation or how much money she throws at it. She is portrayed as an arrogant girl, but we are shown that doing so ultimately alienates her friends from her. Do the filmmakers celebrate what could be labeled as "western excess" in the process of telling her story? Sure, but who doesn't like seeing pretty clothes and hairstyles once in a while? Aisha Kapoor is not one of the "mango people"- who would expect her to be?

The music was terrific, and the supporting cast did a wonderful job- especially Amrita Puri, who played the character of Shefali. For those who have seen Clueless, I definitely felt echoes of Brittany Murphy's character Tai through her performance- in a great way. She was really cute! And Ira Dubey played Aisha's sarcastic friend Pinky (Dion in Clueless) to a T, and Abhay Deol and Cyrus Shankar were great as Arjun and Randhir.

I personally highly recommend this film if you're looking for a fun, escapist Jane Austen adaptation with great clothes and danceable music.

Lets be clear that style is more important than substance in this film. Its almost a paid promo for Sonam and the brands she endorses.. L'Oreal / Dior / Elle / Louis Vuitton getting as much footage as some of the characters. What keeps it together are some good punch lines and very good performances from Abhay Deol (who basically carries the film on his shoulders), Ira Dubey (plays her part to perfection) and Amrita Puri (who puts heart into the girl from Bahadurgarh). They manage to hold it reasonably together till the first half but then it starts to fall apart. Key reason is that we never understand why the characters behave the way they do because character development is sacrificed at the altar of fast paced storytelling. And promoting Sonam, making sure she is always the centre of attention. And its all very predictable. For more on this movie & other reviews visit apurvbollywood at blogspot