Alice in Wonderummmland!. Review on Aiyyaa

Make no mistake, this is a funny film laced with elements of intrigue and drama for the most part; its characters plop down on the screen with the only purpose of driving you round the bend or off the wall. It doesn’t follow any formulaic style of story-telling but adopts one of its own wakda techniques to keep you glued to the screens. Meet the Puneri mulgi, Meenaxi (Rani Mukherjee) who often takes fanciful flights of imagination to Bollywood and back as she gyrates to the popular numbers, drowns in a whirlpool of paparazzi, and even morphs into bite-sized versions of Juhi, Madhuri, and Sridevi (all rolled into one).

She is the proverbial Alice in wonderland with the only exception that her real as well as imaginary life culminate at several points as she encounters a bevy of oddballs (some include her own family members) and braves whimsical happenstances. Her family consists of a histrionic mother who is eager-beaver to get her married, a father who gathers piles of junk when not drowning the house with smoke, a brother who rescues pups a la PETA activist, and last but not the least a blind grandmom who spouts revolutionary rhetoric while roaming the length and breadth of the house in a motorized wheelchair! As if facing this battery of cranks was not enough, Meenaxi meets another quirky character Maina a.k.a Gagabai whose zany attires would even give Lady Gaga, a dear run for her money. Enter Surya (Prithviraj) who brings a waft of fresh air and sweet smells that makes our Meenaxi’s heart go thumpum and throbbinghum. She picks up nuggets of Tamil and watches “Midnight masala” to get closer to the man of her dreams. Her imaginations are now spiced with Tamil tadkas and replete with beating drums, heaving chests, and boisterous soundtracks! However, Surya stays quite aloof and there are some rather mysterious stories doing the rounds about him.

Unperturbed, Meenaxi follows him everywhere (even into the loo) but is unable to catch his attention. Around the same time, Meenaxi meets Madhav Rajhyadakdsya (Subodh Bhave), one of the prospective grooms that her parents have selected for her. Caught in a double whammy, Meenaxi is now desperate to seek a way out. The film has a surprise but lovely ending, which would well be to the liking of most of the people. Sachin Kundalkar as the debutant Bollywood director takes a leaf out of his two previous Marathi productions to refer to. He does a fine job of extracting good performances out of every character. Rani Mukherjee does make a strong comeback and proves yet again, that no role is difficult for her. Prithviraj is the real eye candy in the film, but unfortunately, we don’t get to see many layers of his acting. In a lot of ways, the movie resembles the narrative of Alice in Wonderland, with nonsense being it’s leitmotif and therefore it may not be liked/understood by a lot of people. However, it is worth one watch! Do check it out.