Dirty Dancing!

When you hear Guruji (Darshan Jariwala, awful!) tell Dia (Madhuri Dixit)- "Jo dil se aata hai, woh kala hoti hai, jo dil mein chhupa hota hai, woh kaala hota hai", you feel like whistling for the brilliance of Jaideep Sahni! The unfortunate thing is that there are only two or three of such scenes/ dialogues, the rest of the movie whizzes past you without impacting you at all!

When you have Mr. Money bags, Aditya Chopra for a producer and an ensemble cast comprising of Madhuri Dixit, Akshaye Khanna, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shoerey, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sushmita Mukherjee, Irrfan Khan and Divya Dutta with a crew of excellent technicians (Salim- Sulaiman, Vaibhavi Merchant, Manish Malhotra, Mohanan), you expect celebrated cinematographer turned director, Anil Mehta to come up with something unique. Unique the storyline is- of an NRI single mother trying to save a dilapidated theatre from being demolished in the name of commercialization. Where the director fails is in evoking the empathy of the viewer. The attitude of the audience remains the same as that of the villagers of Shamli towards Dia- they think she is beautiful, they enjoy her brilliant dance but when she starts giving a bhashan, they are disinterested!

Unfortunately for the film, a foreign- educated young, dynamic and non- corrupt MP is projected as a villain and throughout the movie, you keep wondering what is it that he is doing wrong! The film also fails to answer that pertinent question- what will happen of the theatre when Dia goes back to the US? There is not enough evidence for the audience to believe that some one would take charge of the theatre and organize plays and ballads with a certain regularity in future. That remains the single biggest drawback of the movie- something so big that it takes away the charm and sincerity of the performances- Konkona and Kunal are in love with each other, but you are not bothered: Vinay Pathak is indifferent to his wife Sushmita Mukherjee and you dont care; Irrfan completely ignores his wife Divya Dutta and you feel you have better things to do than worry about her: Ranvir Shoerey is trying to come to terms with the fact that Dia will never be his and you end up thinking how big a fool he is!

Music and choreography are simply not upto the mark, especially when you are talking about the much publicized come back of the biggest dancing star in Bollywood of all times! You really miss Saroj Khan during the Laila- Majnu ballet in the climax. It is high time Jugal Hansraj stopped acting, he should find out an alternate profession soon! And couldn't Yash Raj find a more mature husband for Madhuri, the American guy looks young enough to be Ms. Nene's son.

In spite of all odds, there is one thing that works strongly in favor of Aaja Nachle- and that, you guessed it right, is the undeniable talent, unquestionable screen presence and the unearthly charm of the undisputed actor that Madhuri Dixit- Nene is- she looks rocking at 40 and smiles and dances her way straight into your heart! The best part is that there has been no effort made to hide her age and you are surprised that you dont really mind it! That for me is an actress- perhaps one of those few Indian actresses who will never pass her prime! Go and grab the DVD of this one guys- Mads is reason good enough to spend 3 odd hours on the movie!