Aashayein

*This review might contain spoilers

Rahul Sharma (John Abraham) is a compulsive gambler who hopes to strike it big some day. Following his mantra of ‘all or nothing’ he puts everything at stake and ends up winning more money that he could ever dream of. Rahul loves his life and hopes to settle down with lady love Nafisa (Sonal Sehgal) but life ends up playing the same game of all or nothing on him. When he gets to know that he just has 3 months more to live Rahul believes that he can be his cool self and go with a smile but the when the realization dawns upon him he loses his bearings. Unable to express himself to the people near him he decides to live at hospice. He meets Padma (Anaitha Nair), a fellow terminally ill patient who not only understand his fears but also the zeal to live a complete life in some months.

In the making for many years Nagesh Kukunoor’s Aashayein aims at being the Anand of this generation and even uses iconic moments from the evergreen film as an ode. A film about imminent death can be sad, painful, endearing, bitter, and sweet but it also runs the risk of being boring and sadly a huge portion of Aashayein falls in this category.

A certain film called Bombay to Bangkok notwithstanding, Nagesh Kukunoor has carved an exclusive place for himself in Hindi films but off late he seems to be in a transitory phase. Aashayein shows a certain state of flux the filmmaker’s mind might be in for the film never really gets a grip on itself. The film starts off with a very strange and solemn feel perhaps to depict Rahul’s gambler state of mind and he seems restrained even when he is celebrating his win. We never really get to witness his ‘compulsive gambler’ full of beans side so to expect us to feel his pain is asking for too much.

Kukunoor has been known to extract engaging performances from his actors in almost every film and John Abraham joins the list. Never really considered an ‘actor’ Abraham manages to surprise with a pretty decent show especially in the scenes with Anaitha Nair, who is a real treat! Nair infuses life into proceedings and shares a fantastic camaraderie with Abraham, who greatly benefits.

While Aashayein tries to be ‘real’ it falls prey to the trappings of films about the indomitable fighting spirit usually posses. There is a great deal of theatrics that such a subject can’t seem to escape and Aashayein has oodles of sad tales- an HIV Positive middle aged prostitute (Farida Jalal) whom no one wants to talk to, a successful businessman (Girish Karnad) abandoned by his family amongst others. Kukunoor’s unsure screenplay is largely responsible for keeping the film at a distance for even with some sweet moments Aashayein never really manages to strike any chord.

Rating: 2/5

Cast: John Abraham, Anaitha Nair, Sonal Sehgal, Farida Jalal and Girish Karnard

Written and Directed by: Nagesh Kukunoor