Aiyyaa (2012)

A woman goes on the hunt for her dream man, armed with her wild imagination, her passion for Masala-films, and her ultra-sensitive sense of smell.

Director:

Sachin Kundalkar

Stars:

Rani Mukerji, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Nirmiti Sawant

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rani Mukerji	...	Meenakshi Deshpande
Prithviraj Sukumaran	...	Surya (as Prithviraj)
Nirmiti Sawant	...	Aai, Meenakshi's mother
Subodh Bhave	...	Madhav
Jyoti Subhash	...	Dadi, Meenakshi's grandma
Satish Alekar	...	Baba, Meenakshi's father
Anita Date	...	Mynah
Amey Wagh	...	Nana
Kishori Ballal	...	Surya's mother
Thamizh	...	Pakkada, canteen boy (as Pakkada Pandi)
Shubhangi Damle	...	Madhav's mother
Umesh Kulkarni	...	Newspaper boy
Suraj Satav	...	College registrar
Prashant Tapaswi	...	College peon (as Prashant Tapaswee)
Dinesh Mapari	...	Auto rickshaw driver

Storyline

Wildly imaginative and film-obsessed, Meenakshi Deshpande has an extra sensitive nose. After she is hired to work in a local college's library, she catches a wonderful scent in the air. The source is Surya, a handsome and enigmatic art student from a Tamil family. Meanwhile, Meenakshi's eccentric Marathi family has arranged for her marriage to Madhav, a kind and sensible man. Meenakshi is torn between marrying her parents' choice for a seemingly ideal husband, or following her nose and chasing the hunky stranger who may or may not be all that he seems.

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Plot Keywords:

library | sense of smell | scent | tamil | marathi | 

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Taglines:

Go wakda (Go crooked/wacky)

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

12 October 2012 (India)

Also Known As:

О, Боже!

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anurag Kashyap Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

152 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Debut of Malyalam actor Prithviraj.

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Connections

Features Dostana (2008)

User Reviews

A simple yet irritating, over the top and weird kind of attempt.

Promoted as a fun filled love story mixing the Maharashtrian and South Indian backdrops, AAIYYA was also considered to be the comeback film for Rani Mukherjee returning after a long gap. But the promos were not able to generate the right amount of curiosity as there was a clearly visible loud kind of effort put in by Rani herself in all those sensual dance numbers using some new distorted words. Moreover the promotional campaign was safely stressing too much on "The Dirty Picture" style of strategy to bring in a wider base of audience which didn't really work as expected.

Therefore if studied from that angle AIYYAA can also be taken as one of the after effects of "The Dirty Picture" which was not a good choice of subject by its makers. Actually TDP worked majorly due to its novelty factor, full of boldness which is difficult to click again in a second similar attempt. So, where the catchy songs of AIYYAA, sound great when played in the DJ dance parties, the same is not the result when we see them on the screen coming in as the usual fillers.

The film offers a good enjoyable 20-25 minutes in the start, when all the characters are being introduced and the narration seems to be fresh as well as interesting. But after those initial fine moments, the viewers keep waiting for some entertaining twists or sequences in its basic storyline which refuse to come and it all goes on at a very uneasy pace. As a result, all those weird but amusing mannerisms of its various characters gradually turn into repetitive, ridiculous and irritating leading to an avoidable mess.

Being an experienced professional, Rani Mukherjee works hard for her unusual role and she does well too to portray the character in the best possible manner with a little over-acting where ever required. But she also looks a complete misfit in few songs and her sniffing act starts getting on your nerves after a while. Frankly, I also found the same quite odd & silly, since Rani is purely in love with just the smell of Prithviraj in the whole film, without knowing anything about him or his nature personally. And if that was an innovative idea thrown in, then it was certainly a first on the screen, thoughtfully penned by the writers literally going out of the box. May be, the phrase "Love is Blind" should be now replaced with a new one saying "Love is Smelly" – courtesy AIYYAA.

The male lead, Prithviraj, the actor from South is impressive in his silent act (wherein he only gets to speak towards the end) and so is Subodh Bhave as the official fiancé. But there are more than one hamming stars in the rest of the cast lead by the actors playing Rani's parents, brother and grandmother. And on top of all is the girl playing Rani's office colleague, posing as the Indian Lady GaGa. The writing is quite patchy since there is no clear indication of what Rani actually wants to become in her real life as per her ambition shown in the first scene. Her passion for films and the dream of becoming a heroine suddenly takes a back seat once the love story starts off and then she is only interested in getting married and nothing else.

But despite of all the above mentioned flaws, the film continues to hold some ground until a sick song "Izzat Paapad" suddenly breaks in all of a sudden and ruins it completely. It simply pulls the film down in the bracket of below average ventures and the viewer starts looking left & right like a lost person. Further it goes on a stretching mode offering a pretty weak, lackluster climax without any exciting or entertaining moments which force you to just leave the theater at once without any further thinking.

As a matter of fact, AIYYAA talks about some strange characters coming from the imagination of director Sachin Kundalkar who remains drowned in his own world or script, forgetting the truth that the film was basically being made for the viewers alone. His unconventional and uninteresting narration not only lets down the hearty effort ofRani Mukherjee but it also affects the brand name of Anurag Kashyap presenting the film as a producer.

In all, few enjoyable tracks of Amit Trivedi and a passionate performance of Rani Mukherjee are the only two merits in AIYYAA. And if these two excite you well, then do watch it in the theater or else wait for its DVD release in the next few weeks.