’Aaja Nachle’ is a film that suffers on several counts. To start with, Madhuri’s rather sketchy characterisation doesn’t quite give her the scope to perform to her potential. No doubt, she now looks her age and therefore, there were certain inherent limitations to how her role could be etched out. Besides this, there are glaring situational flaws; in one shot the stage appears to be lying dilapidated in ruins and in the one that immediately follows, there are huge, opulent sets and host of junior artistes appearing from seemingly nowhere. The 25-minute ’Laila Majnu’ caper at the end has no realistic build-up and appears to have been shot in a studio and simply transplanted on to the main narrative at the editing table. The music is sorely disappointing. I feel it was a huge tactical error on the part of the Yashraj people to have selected Salim-Sulaiman, who are known primarily for their nippy, techno-based background scores, as the music directors of a film that thrives on the spirit of ’Indian-’ness’ and espouses our strong cultural ethos. It is also quite perplexing that Madhuri’s dancing skills are showcased in just the one title song which too, I feel doesn’t strike the right chord. The one that appears with the titles in the beginning seems completely out of sync with the rest of the film, with its rambunctious Westernised beats.

Her physical limitations aside, Madhuri gives a fairly competent account of herself. Of the rest, Konkona is a natural but occasionally goes overboard and so does her partner. Akshaye Khanna has nothing much to do except mouth some inane dialogues of his badly written character. The rest of the performers are more of cardboard appendages than anything else. But the two artistes who need special mention, are Irfan Khan & Divya Dutta who shine brilliantly even in their miniscule roles. In Irfan we surely have one of our most original performing artistes and as for Divya, I feel the industry is losing out on such a volcano of talent by using her in such cameos. I feel she deserves a much better deal from our producers.

Overall, I feel Madhuri should have chosen a much better come-back vehicle than this one, for ’Aaaja Nachle’ has far too many loose ends to make for a noteworthy film.


Jay Subramanyam
Lucknow

Plot Revealed In The Review:	Not revealed
Best to watch with:	Family
Movie Genre:	Drama
Best part in the movie:	Not sure