Return of the prodigal beti
Madhuri Dixit’s comeback vehicle Aaja Nachle (Come Dance) is a surprisingly decent flick populated by great actors from Khosla Ka Ghosla (Khosla’s Nest). It’s remarkable how entertaining this battle-of-the-bands retread is. Writer Jaideep Sahni (Khosla, Chak De India / Come On India) is the master of meh, penning not-half-bad Bollywood flicks which don’t go out of their way to insult your intelligence. They’re about texture and character acting, not plot. You already know how they end, but the pleasure is in the watching.
Aaja Nachle marks an indie film takeover, stocked with alt.greats like Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, and an overacting Darshan Jariwala, and younger beefcake like Kunal Kapoor. Seeing them in a money spinner is an unexpected joy, like finding Sanjeev Bhaskar in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom and Nina Wadia in Namaste London. It’s even better, actually, since they’ve taken over the asylum. Akshaye Khanna plays a sensitive, new age rana who first appears on screen in apron and oven mitts and asks Madhuri to try his gourmet pizza. It’s pure relationship pr0n. Shorey plays a chaiwalla whose crush on Madhuri echoes Akshaye’s on the much older Dimple Kapadia in Dil Chahta Hai.
Madhuri made a gutsy and non-obvious choice in entrusting her comeback to an up-and-coming writer and younger romantic leads. The script acknowledges her return from Amrika and tweaks NRI kids with their constant demands for bottled water, mosquito repellent and air conditioning. It’s strange how the kid has an Indian accent, and Madhuri’s New York homage to Flashdance is the epitome of cheese. The updates to Purab Aur Paschim (East and West) still get our lives all wrong.
By Bollylogic, Madhuri’s character has to be single, so the writers kill off her marriage to a Martin Henderson lookalike (is Bride and Prejudice really the kind of movie one should be ripping?). She’s matured nicely into soccer mom MILF-hood. Staying up late with the babies has aged her — she’s thinner now but lumpy and softened, no longer the taut Devdas lush. Madhuri flaunts Bebe here, Bollyappearances being the kiss of death for Western labels. Sell your shares.
Khan’s villainy is magnetic. He infuses his oddly syncopated, Christopher Walken-like speech pattern with menace (here) and intimacy (The Namesake). Like Philip Seymour Hoffman and JoaquÃÂn Phoenix, he rarely raises his voice, which makes it all the more frightening. Sen learns all she has to do is straighten her hair, wear kajal and ignore her man, and Kapoor comes around like a pointer on a foxhunt. Watching Vinay Pathak take his wife to bed in cowboy hat and red silk is worth the ticket; a police constable doing the wave is pure falooda. ‘Aaja Nachle’ and ‘Show Me Your Jalwa’ stand out on this catchy soundtrack. The dance scenes are saturated with hue and bling.
Khan’s opulent house, its double stairways an upside-down tuning fork, looks like the set of Paresh Rawal’s house in Phir Hera Pheri, while the town of Shamli is a set in the telltale scrub brush of Film City. Clearly I’ve been watching too much Bollywood.
Here’s the trailer:
Baradwaj says the movie is a Midsummer Night’s Dream reworking of the Brasilian flick Xuxa Requebra:
… the story is about a Puckish sprite who awakens in those around her the potent magic of love - love for taken-for-granted spouses, love for hovering-in-the-wings boyfriends and girlfriends, love for the performing arts… it isn’t a stretch to see… Hermia disregarding her parents’ choice of husband and eloping with Lysander. [Link]
The NYT says Madhuri’s quiet Denver life makes her a female Clark Kent.
on Monday, December 3rd, 2007, 3:43 pm in Fashion, Film, Video clips › 
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Manish, you also forgot to mention how the dance moves are rehashed from earlier hits (i.e. Channey Ke Khet Mein, Devdas, etc.) Most Mad-fans run to her films to step up a dance craze for the next family party sharty in our local Indian restaurants. We were disappointed to find not only were her moves stale, but her once sexy backless blouses, are now cut long to cover her Mummy Mads tummy.
Those were homage, na?
You think? It looked like a cut & paste job to me.
They had girls doing Madhuri moves in the ‘Laila Majnu’ auditions, then they had the crouching-on-the-floor Devdas move– they were referencing old Madhuri.
Sorry, I was referencing her moves in Aaja Nachle, and the general cinematography of the rest of the songs. The shots from atop scream Bhansal, the billowy skirts reminice Anjaam, etc. The homage scene was ok, but every other shot seemed vaguely familiar from older hits.
Yeah, that whatchamacallit…Gap…that Shahrukh wore back in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, whatever happened to them?
I love that you mentioned Akshaye Khanna in more than just a list of people. That sentence alone confirms that I need to see this.
Gap does basics, hardly fashion!
Akshaye’s decent. He swaggers well.
Bebe is *not* fashion, either.
Isn’t it? I see silvery bits in the chest area and figure it’s either fashion or pasties.
I think Forever 21 has proved to us that it’s probably veering more towards the latter.
Thanks, Beth.
Bebe is synthetic mall chic, perfect for high-schoolers in the suburbs (guilty as charged). Mads can do much better.
When was the last time you saw a still-hip Western fashion brand in a Bollywood flick? People wearing Hollister used to roam my Bombay gym, which gave me cognitive dissonance.
That’s a good question. My Bollyclothing radar is mainly tuned to the atrocious with no respect to maker, so I’m probably not the best person to ask.
?
But I think *some* folks would argue that Bebe is “still-hip” ;).
That being said, there’s definitely lots of Marc Jacobs, Burberry, Gucci in Bolly-flicks. (See Johar, Karan.)
Those are well mainstream, though, long since those were hip.
Oh man, Karan Johar’s been pillaging Marc Jacobs? But everything always looks so…so nasty in his films, all shiny, and cheesy knitwear. And polonecks. And cheesy Burberry. blegh. I can’t think of any hip brands featured in Bollywood flicks. I do remember one with Aish in some Chanel ripoff tee though. I’m just satisfied if they make it through without looking like they crawled out of some 80’s bargain bin.
Gap UK/Europe is a bit more fashion. And I would cherish the day some Bollywood biddy tried to rock their jodphur look :)
but
so, so priceless!
Regardless, Madhuri looks neat and neutral. Looking forward to seeing this soon. Konkona! Irfan! Kunal! a package of bliss.
Whoops. I didn’t mean to put a “?” in my last comment.
LOL!
while not an avid bollywood connoisseur such as the commenters here, i am a cheapo youtube voyeur and have come to like shahrukh khan’s personal style - actually his pants. he really likes these ’squarish’ pants - no pleats and flat top pockets. (actually it could be because i own a couple of slacks like that, from eddiebauer actually. please dont skewer me :-). that the guy is wearing such uncool pants without any known glam quotient makes it hip to me.
brands are not hip any more out here excpet for the striving classes* and i suppose the same holds for the bollywood watching desi public; the same public whose only visibility to the West is through magazines that are overloaded with, you got it, adverts for the same brand names that most of us shun.
*unless you count the likes of ecoconscious items like Eco.
Reviews I read earlier were pretty bad for this movie, so I skipped watching this movie this weekend.
Hope the movie is still running in Indy next weekend so that I can see it. Thanks for the review..
bebe has pretty hip clothes, I liked toronto babe better than the one here..
And in a lot of new bollywoood movies actresses like kareena kapoor and the new generation actors wear pretty hip clothes..sharukh khan has pretty bad tastes though…salman khan dresses up well in hip clothes of all actors and kareena ,karisma, amisha dress up in hip american clothes as compared to other actresses.
And wearing a scarf like that on jeans and that yellow pink combination in that madhuri poster of this movie is the in-thing now I think…reds, yellows, oranges are all in now..
I finally saw this movie Manish, thanks to your positive review of the movie. I read reviews on rediff/ samachar/somewhere else and thought movie was bad and decided not to watch the movie..after I read ur review I decided to see it and Iam glad I did it..
mom and me thoroughly enjoyed the movie, specially mom liking a movie is special and she liked this movie. You are right madhuri choose the right movie to make a come back which suits her age now…the story was inspiring..simple and well made movie..
I thought madhuri looked hip in all her clothes and is totally in fashion in all those colors..yellow with pink scarfs, pink with red scarfs..
choreography was good, dances and songs were good, madhuri looks old but graceful..konkana sen was cute…kunal kapoor was the big stealer, he looked so cute when he says yahan sab majnu hi ek mere siva, akhir eh pyar kya cheez hi..he acted well..
ofcourse irfan khan as usual does a great job..so does divya dutta in her short role..Akshaykhanna had a short role but proved he is another fine actor.I didnot know laila majnu complete story until I saw this movie, knew they were great lovers but didnot know the whole story. The movie was like a musical and is so much fun to watch…power of dance…
thanks for the good review Manish..
I absolutely loved. It’s really what you go see Hindi films for. I really don’t understand how people who thought Dhoom was a good movie can call this bad. I most definitely recommend it.