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Home > Bollywood Movie Reviews > Aaja Nachle Mad & Co. Cast Their Magic APK | November 30, 2007 Rating: *** (***** Very Good, **** Good, *** Fair, ** Average, * Bad) User comments Art: Sukant Panigrahy-Fali Unwala. Choreography: Vaibhavi Merchant. Cinematography: Mohanan. Costumes: Manish Malhotra, Mandira Shukla & Dolly Ahluwalia Tewari. Editing: Ritesh Soni. Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni-Piyush Mishra. Music: Salim-Sulaiman. Sound: Indrajit Neogi. Screenplay & Dialogue: Jaideep Sahni. Direction: Anil Mehta. Story & Producer: Aditya Chopra. Banner: Yash Raj Films. Release Date: 30th November, 2007.  There is only one thing to be said. If you are a Madhuri fan, then you'll love Aaja Nachle. Not because she holds center stage, not because it is a cleverly woven script with enough screen time to know the other characters, not because there is a lot of dance and music and not because she looks svelte and dominates the movie (remember Dil To Pagal Hai & Devdas?). It's because she casts her magic, along with the ensemble cast and all you have to do is sit back, relax and enjoy it.The movie is a feel-good, theatre versus shopping mall drama with a Laila-Majnu musical in the end thrown in for good measure. The first half is gripping, while in the second half everything just seems to fall into place without much struggle. The story and screenplay have nothing new to offer, but it's nice to watch Madhuri again and the rest of the actors have been cast well. Plot Dia is a part of a dance-drama group run by her 'Dada', where she meets Steve, an American photographer and elopes with him. The marriage doesn't work, and she runs a dance school and lives with her daughter. When news comes in that her Guru is on the deathbed, she returns to her town only to find herself scorned, her Ajanta Theatre in ruins and ready to be broken down to make way for a shopping mall. The local MP (Akshaye Khanna) tells her to get the place to run again and to get the people from the town itself to do a play. How she gets back her beloved theatre and earns the respect of the people back is the rest of the plot. Story, Screenplay and Direction Even for Yash Raj standards, it is very feel-good and happily-ever-after. Choosing a dance-based theme for Madhuri's comeback makes complete sense. The rest of the cast are also chosen well and fit their roles perfectly. Some characters get bleak conclusions and the second half could have been much better. One more thing that could have been so much better is the music. Madhuri's personal life and Dia's character have a lot of similarities. This has worked in favor of the script, which would have been otherwise weak and strengthens with Madhuri's presence. Apart from that, the movie feels like old news, although that doesn't make it any less watchable. We've seen all this before in Lagaan (although it was cricket-taxation instead of theatre-shopping mall) and Dil To Pagal Hai (another Madhuri starrer, another Yash Raj production) and in several international movies. Madhuri and her impeccable dance sequences, Akshaye Khanna who steals the thunder in a cameo and Kunal-Konkona are the plus points of the movie. The scenes before and after the musical which lack any conviction, the mediocre music score and some badly written characters are the minuses.  Performances Madhuri Dixit makes you forget the sabbatical she took. It's like she never took a day off from what she does best-and she is a complete entertainer. Kunal Kapoor and the ever-dependable Konkona Sen make a cute pair, and in the limited space they get, they do a good job.When Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak first appeared on Channel [V], no one would have guessed they'd one day become such solid performers. Vinay as a boring and orderly Government employee, his chirpy wife Sushmita Mukherjee and Ranvir as a simpleton in love with the lovely Dia are perfectly cast. Irrfan Khan's role goes haywire towards the end, and he has done better work really. The little kid playing Madhuri's NRI daughter is convincing as is Divya Dutta as Dia's friend Najma. Akshaye Khanna is a powerhouse performer, and the chemistry between him and Madhuri is explosive (unlike the bland Mohabbat where people made fun of the mismatch). Raghubir Yadav as 'Doctor' who helps Dia revive the theatre is flawless. Darshan Zariwala as Dia's Guru is okay while Vinod Nagpal, Uttara and Felix D'Alviella as her parents and lover respectively have little screen time. Music and Dance The title song is catchy and Madhuri rocks in the song. The final musical is not bad, but overall the music is not Salim-Sulaiman's best surprisingly. For a dance-based theme, the music could have been much, much better than this. Last Word From Shakespeare In Love to Dil To Pagal Hai, the theme has been used often with repetitive storylines and usually with reasonable success. For a comeback film, Madhuri has been given a meaty role where she needs to dance, perform, cry, laugh and do some trademark 'Nautanki'-and she excels. As a movie, Aaja Nachle has nothing new to offer and has two dances including the one in the climax, a scene here and a moment there and of course, Madhuri Dixit. If the music was better and the second half had more drama, the movie would have been loads more interesting. But for now, Aaja Nachle is for Mad fans and admirers of pure candy floss and soppy and happy endings. |