Directed by award winning director Sachin Kundalkar, ‘Aiyyaa’ tries to explore a woman’s quest for lust and love for his dream man. The premise of the movie sounds promising but weak screenplay and confused direction lead the movie to nowhere. Meenakshi Deshpande (played by Rani Mukerji) is a girl who lives in her Lala land. She has grown up on reading books like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and watching heavy duty Bollywood masala flicks.
Her family is something that gives you an impression of a madhouse. A father who smokes four cigarettes at one go, a cantankerous woman as a mother and granny who gives a call for revolution without any provocation and to a brother who spends all his times with stray dogs.
Meenakshi knows what is going around in the real world while she continues living in her dream land. She knows that she needs a job so that she could live her life independently without facing much pressure from her family to get married. She finds job at a local Arts college. There she meets two interesting people. One is Maina who looks like a creature from another planet. Buck-toothed Maina’s weird dressing sense and mannerisms are so irritating that she gets on to your nerves the moment she says something. The second one is a ‘tall dark and handsome’ guy named Surya.
Story takes a turn when Meenakshi finds Surya (played by Prithviraj Sukumaran), a student of arts in her college. Meeankshi is so obsessed with the ‘scent of her man’ that she forgets that she is a woman. Looking for Surya’s trails she sniffs air like a ‘bitch in heat’ and even follows his trail to the Gents toilet. This man hunting turns tedious as Surya shows no inclination to oblige or flirt back just to save a woman’s dignity. Meenakshi’s character starts looking stupid thereafter.
The screenplay of the movie is poor and sloppy. Unnecessary scenes have been included in while narrating the story and it stretches the movie’s length beyond a certain point. Drug dealer scene, Meenakshi’s scenes in which she follows Surya to incense factory and Maina-Nana escapades are some of those scenes scripted in the movie for no good reason. Before the movie could reach the half way mark you lose all the interest and even want the movie to end. Occasional songs like ‘Dreamum Wakepum’ and ‘Aga Bai’ give you some relief from multiple monotonous and melodramatic scenes.
Credit goes to Amit Trivedi for his hipshaking and thumping musical score. Performance wise, Rani Mukerji displays some acting skills, Prithvi doesn’t get much opportunity and others look plain stupid and melodramatic.
‘Aiyya’ is one of those movies which promise a lot and deliver much below expectations. If you are planning to spend your hard-earned money on watching this cropper then do it at your own risk!
