Just over a month ago, I watched Sachin Kundalkar’s Marathi film Gandh, which by the director’s own admission, was inspired by World Cinema. It was a collection of three short-stories based on the theme of smell. The first story in Gandh was Lagnaachyaa Vayaachee Mulgee, quite a watchable short-film  thanks to its combination of zany absurdity and sensitive realism.

 

 Now Kundalkar joins hands with Anurag Kashyap Films to create Aiyyaa, an extended and much altered Hindi avatar of that short-story. They rope in Rani Mukherjee (who is desperately in need of a solo hit!) and as a safety net get two top regional actors-Prithviraj and Subodh Bhave. How well does this adaptation work?

 

What’s the plot?

 

Aiyyaa tells the story of a spunky, young Marathi girl Meenaxi Deshpande (Rani Mukherjee) and her wacky family. Staying in a house right in front of the overflowing garbage container, Meenaxi keeps dreaming about a Bollywood-style romance and a permanent getaway from the foul stench. Working in an Arts college, she falls for a newly admitted student (Prithviraj), more for the sweet fragrance he emanates, than for his tall, dark, handsome South Indian looks. The Tamilian guy goes on to become the college’s most prized artist (and Meenaxi’s daily dream-fodder!) but his constantly bloodshot eyes also make him the topic of many unsavoury rumors. Meanwhile the Deshpandes have been quite busy finding the right Marathi groom for Meenaxi and finally they find one (Subodh Bhave) that fits the requirement to the tee. With the engagement date looming large, will Meenaxi gather enough courage to go and get her love before it is too late? Will her Tamil lessons help her in finding the right words at the right time?

 

What’s hot?

 

·         Rani gives her all to the central role. Chirpy, bubbly, dreamy and always ready to break into a bosom-heaving dance-dream-sequence, her Meenaxi makes quite an impression but the effort shows.

 

·         Multiple wacky characters. (Special mention to Anita Date, who plays Meenaxi’s Lady Gaga-esque moronic office colleague and Girija Subhash, who portrays the wheel-chair riding golden teethed white haired grandmother.)

 

·         Even in his small role, Subodh Bhave delivers a likeable performance.

 

·         The item songs Aga Baai and Dreamum Wake-upam are fun to watch.

 

What’s not?

 

·         A story-line stretched too long to fulfill the ‘full length Bollywood film’ specs.

 

·         A far-too-over-the-top comic approach which works in the first half but then starts becoming predictable and even irritable.

 

·         Excessive vulgarity in the name of humor and item-numbers.

 

·         Prthiviraj serves just as an eye-candy, having little else to do.

 

·         Needless stretching of side-plots.

 

Verdict

 

Writer-director Kundalkar leaves his World Cinema far behind and embraces Bollywood in full earnest. If only he had brought in some subtlety of the former into the over-the-top excess of the latter, Aiyyaa could have been an absolute charmer. But in his over-enthusiasm to turn a warm and sensitive romance of the original Marathi short into a wild and wakda Hindi comedy, what finally emerges is just a watered down entertainer that tries to pad up a thirty minute original material with a surplus of crazy characters, a Marathi-Tamil angle and multiple coital item-numbers.

 

Compromise – isn’t thy name Bollywood?