Aaja Nachle Movie Review Friday, November 30, 2007

TOI Movie Review - 2 and half Star

THE dhak-dhak diva returns, alas, minus the dhak-dhak . Surely, this was hardly a comeback vehicle for Bollywood's biggest female star, who once posed a challenge at the hustings to all the male superstars. Maybe, Madhuri thought this was `decent' enough, befitting her new status as suburban wife and mother. But for the viewers, it's an ekdum thanda reprisal of her screen career, minus all passion, romance and the adrenalin-thump that was almost always associated with her. Think Dil , Beta , Ram Lakhan , Khalnayak , Saajan , Dil To Paagal Hai ...

But let's be honest. The fault does not lie so much with Madhuri -- she's still riveting, despite her aging beauty -- as with the lack lustre script and the unconvincing narration. Madhuri, now a mom of a tween, returns from America to small town India to rebuild a decrepit theatre in memory of her departed guru (Darshan Zariwala). The theatre is in dire straits and would soon be demolished to give way to a glitzy mall on the behest of the local politician (Akshaye Khanna), unless the messiah-turned-mom turns on the arclights once again, but with local support. Local support? The usual suspects which include the goonda (Kunal), the tomboy (Konkona), the scared wife (Divya Dutta), the devdas who pines for the diva (Ranvir Shorey), the stodgy sarkari afsar and all the other `types'. Naturally, the NRI missus manages to put up a grand spectacle, after many hiccups and somehow brings husbands closer to wives, boyfriends closer to girlfriends, politicians closer to causes...All with her jaadu ki smiley!

Every little twist and turn of the meandering plot is predictable. Every character is a stereotype. The romance between Konkona and Kunal who play Laila and Majnu in the musical is minus all sparks and the music (Salim-Suleiman) of this film, ironically a musical, is insipid and forgettable. What remains is just a promise that the magic of Madhuri still lives. All it needs to explode again is a magical scrip