Aashayein Review

Seems like Nagesh Kukunoor is all up sleeves to take his legacy of producing fresh cinema to a newer level! However, each time when he comes up with a novel concept, what falls short is the treatment. ‘Aashayein’ can be best described as a job half done. Two years since its making, ‘Aashayein’ too meets the fate of Kukunoor’s earlier products - unique storyline and heart-wrenching tale, but with a less than average treatment. Though the film opens brilliantly just like ‘Hyderabad Blues’ and ‘Dor’, it fails to carry the momentum, thereby making it a drab. The camera fails to continue the magic created in the first scene, thus creating loopholes in the reel.

 

The film opens with a terrific shot wherein we have television monitors zoomed in showing cricket matches and people hurdling around the screens to get a glimpse of the status of the game. It, then, focuses on the protagonist, Rahul (John Abraham) who happens to be a compulsive gambler. A few minutes into the film, Rahul learns from his doctor that he is struck with the deathly disease, cancer, and that he has only three months to live. He leaves his live-in girlfriend Nafisa, in an act of self-pity and heads towards a hospice for terminally ill patients, with a heavy heart, a somber expression, small baggage of clothes, tons of money and his Raiders of Lost Ark poster (Oh! And did we mention that Rahul dreams of living the life of Indiana Jones?)  

 

The films fares well in the section wherein Rahul interacts with the other inmates of the hospice, an older man Parthasarthi (Girish Karnad), a middle-aged, high class, ex-prostitute, Madhu (Farida Jalal), a 17-year-old high spirited cancer patient, Padma (Anaitha Nair) and a child, Govinda (Ashwin Chitale). However, amidst all this, what captures most of the attention is the time when Rahul starts fantasizing himself as Indiana Jones. Also, the sequence wherein Rahul and Padma buddy together is one to watch out for. It spruces up this otherwise-serious movie, bringing in the much needed zing factor. With each of the scene, Rahul learns that life, no matter how long or short it is, needs to be lived to the fullest and that one should make the most out of it. 

 

Coming to the performance, John Abraham does justice to his role, filling it with all the emotions that a patient on the verge of meeting face to face with death has. While he sparks off the celluloid with his killing smile and a cool unshaven look in the first half, in the second half we have a somber-looking man who is on a hunt of giving his ‘remaining’ life a new direction. Karnad and Nair play very convincing cancer patients, but it is Farida Jala who acts as a spoilsport. Not for a moment does she look like a patient who is suffering from AIDS! Sudeep Chatterjee works well behind the camera, but could have done better. As for Kukunoor’s direction, all that we can say is that all his films miss the fine print every time, ‘Aashayein’ being no less. 

Aashayein Pre-release Review

After ‘Bombay to Bangkok’ and ‘8x10 Tasveer’ bombed at the box office, Nagesh Kukunoor is back with yet another youth-oriented film ‘Aashayein’. The movie has been scripted and directed by Nagesh himself, while it is produced by Percept Picture Company and T-Series, under the banner SIC Productions. John Abraham and newcomer Sonal Sehgal play the main leads for the flick. The fresh and soothing lyrics have been penned by Mir Ali Husain, Sameer, Kumaar and Shakeel Sohail, and composed by Salim Merchant, Pritam and Shiraz Uppal. ‘Aashayein’ is due for a 27^th August, 2010 release.