What does not work is so much it kept me checking my watch so I could get a coffee in the intermission, and then wait for this film to end. Ranvir Shorey does a good job as the jilted lover, and Divya Dutta plays her role well. The music is decent in parts but better outside the film. But to her credit, she is the one who manages to make the film somewhat engaging. What works in this film is so meager Madhuri has a flat role with no nuances, and the bravura kathak dancer is made to tap dance! I do not think a worse role could have been written for this actress who left her mark on the 90s and then shot back to notice as Chandramukhi in Devdas. And we all flock to the multiplex at the biggest mall to see this travesty! The older Diya has to return, lock horns with the Raja turned MLA (a totally wasted Akshaye Khanna), many goons (led by a bemused Kunal Kapoor), her old flame (Ranvir Shorey), her old friend (Divya Dutta) now married to her arch nemesis (a non-acting Irrfan Khan), and has to find a suitable Laila (an overacting Konkona Sen) for staging Laila Majnu Ki Daastaan on the stage of Ajanta. She turns into an aerobics instructor as far as I can tell! Then the dervish dies and the small town has to be taught that parampara and Ajanta are more important than a mall on that site. What parampara you ask? Well this parampara seems to be a cross between the dancing style of J Lo and Madhuri in Dil To Pagal Hai, a parampara that is very much alive and has nothing to do with our culture at all! The young Diya (Madz) runs off with a white photographer for National Geographia (sic!) and is disowned. He gathers young girls and trains them in the dancing parampara that must not die. This is the story of Ajanta, a dance/drama school with a supposedly revered teacher (?), a guy I do not know in a wandering dervish type avatar. A Yash Raj film scripted by Jaideep Sahni of Khosla Ka Ghosla, Bunty Aur babli and Chak DE fame, that was set to have the diva dance back into our hearts in other words a must see film? I went with great expectations that were never met and was left with a sense of sadness for what Madhuri's comeback could have been but was not.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |