Movie: Aisha
Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Ira Dubey, Cyrus Sahukar
Aisha the desi version of Jane Austen's novel Emma (though quite out of tune when compared to either the book or BBC's “Emma” 2009) is a light movie with catchy songs and has Sonam Kapoor looking her stylish best. It lacks a good sense of humour (essential in a rom-com like “Emma”), has a weak story-line and some of the dialogues don't make any sense at all. The only plus points are the stylish outfits by Pernia Querish (for women) and Kunal Rawal (for men). Clothes form a huge part of “Aisha” — from Chanel to Marc Jacobs; but you wonder — ‘Parisian glamour in the streets of Delhi?!’
The story is about how a beautiful, accomplished, event manager and socialite (Aisha Kapoor) inclined to play the role of Cupid (she loves match-making) discovers the way to her own heart in the process. When she takes up protégé Shefali (Amrita Puri – Harriet Smith in the novel) under her wing, her attempts at match-making are supposed to lead to the most entertaining of ramifications but they do not!
No Emma this!
While Emma (as a person) is interesting, Aisha (as a person) is boring. Emma's vanity is tolerable but Aisha's conceit and patronising attitude is insufferable. Emma is clever, intelligent and quite likeable in-spite of her faults, while fashion-drama queen Aisha is incredibly silly at times, can be rightfully termed a spoilt brat and is disagreeable. The loving and caring side of Emma's nature has also been left out. The only care Aisha lavishes in the movie is on the oh-so-cute dogs at an animal rights centre, her nails and her clothes. Abhay's role as Arjun (though enacted superbly) is so short that it makes the audience wonder where was the time or the opportunity for him to fall in love with Aisha?
Abhay Deol was superb but you want to see more of him in the movie. Lisa Haydon looks stunning and plays the role of Aarti (Jane Fairfax in the novel) to perfection. The same can be said for Arunoday Singh (Frank Churchill in the novel, Dhruv in the movie).
Bottomline : In-spite of it's failings, it has good music, holds good on it's own if not compared with the original Emma and can be watched once.
SHIVANI SHRIMAL, XI, Sishya
