Aisha

*This article assumes you have seen the film!

The chronicles of aimless rich kids have been the centerpiece of commercial Hindi cinema for decades. Yash Chopra once commented that he made his characters hopelessly rich so that he won’t waste time showing the trials of love conquering the social disparity amongst other things. Karan Johar and the ilk have mastered this craft and now it’s almost impossible to imagine a classic ‘ameer-gareeb pyaar ki kahani’. So Aisha does venture into a relatively new territory as far as the popular Hindi cinema is concerned. Moving beyond GAP as seen on Shah Rukh Khan in KKHH, Aisha showcases Salvatore Ferragamo, Christian Dior, and Chanel as a part of Aisha’s very existence.

No, this isn’t the real reason why Aisha breaks new ground.

Beyond showcasing just about designer parked in the ground floor of DLF Emporio Mall or making the mall which the builder claims to be India's Most Luxurious Shopping Destination almost a room in Aisha’s house, this is the first time a film centers on a spoilt brat who never really transforms into an exemplary citizen!

Aisha lives in a life sized doll house and perhaps never really looks beyond the lunch date or the gig in the evening for which she has found the perfect dress. There isn‘t anything bad in such a character, after all this is a film and one doesn’t expect any life altering solutions from a work of fiction. But isn’t the transformation of a protagonist meant to be the backbone of story? Or could it be that some tales don’t really need characters to live the arc, say for instance, someone like Ram from the Ramayana. While everything and everyone changes in the span of the epic tale, Ram never really transforms. Even when he throws his wife out of his life just because some random person said some thing more random it’s not the part of the main story, if you know what I mean.

Looking back rich spoilt brats might be shining examples of everything good or bad in the society but as far as Hindi films are concerned they have always transformed in the course of the film. A boy agrees to leave his house to rough it out in order to convince the girl’s father that he is more than his father’s son (Maine Pyar Kiya), a troubled rich brat becomes the knight in shining amour for a young widow when love comes to town (Deewana), urged and accompanied by his father to live his life to the fullest we know that Raj will perhaps adorn the cover of Fortune magazine once married to Simran (Dilwale Dhulanhiya Le Jayenge) and some years were enough to make Raj (yeah again) to realize life’s isn’t all ha-ha he-he (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai), Aakash and Sameer might be affable imps but when the time comes they will stop traversing the city for a piece of cake (Dil Chahta Hai). Aisha has learnt not to treat people like projects, won the man of her dreams and even decided to get a job has she really changed? Even though Arjun looks at her as nothing more than a vanglorious brat who is wasting her life away, he can’t help but feel protective and to some extent responsible about Aisha. Aisha realizes her folly when Pinky walks out of her life but even the loss of a childhood friend and Arjun’s taunts don’t really open her eyes. The same thing repeats itself again when Shefali points out some truths but Aisha still never realizes her so called shallowness. Of course, she means no apparent harm and yes at places she operates on very simple Garfield hang-out-with-fatter-people-in-order-to-look-thin logic but nothing seems to get to this woman!

The lead character remains one of the weakest links of Aisha. Aisha’s overbearing presence on the proceedings ends up making all the women characters seem like a bad copy of each other for a larger part of the film. Pinky, Shefali and Aisha are same same but different. Aisha’s friends seem to fulfill two important needs of her- Pinky is the ‘real’ one which ostensibly means what Aisha should never be and Shefali is the ‘new’ one which gives Aisha a chance to ‘start’ all over again. Even Arjun points this out to her but while she thinks of him as the one thing that makes sense in her life, her only connection with the ‘other’ world, she never listens to him.

The men in the film- Randhir, Arjun, Dhurv, Suarabh as well as the elders are well etched and surprisingly have more meat than either Pinky or Aisha. This also seems to be a strange thing keeping in mind Aisha’s creative team is a salute to woman power. There’s not much to think about here- men are, as the parlance of our times goes, easier to understand so Arjun is the man you can take home to meet your mom, Randhir is the rich dude who is very simple scratch-where-it-itches kind of guy, the papa’s the safety net, the uncle is a strong softie, the man servant is a loving punching bag, and Dhruv is the friendly neighborhood hunk who will perfunctory cheat till he’s not married.

Its not that the titular role isn’t well written but it demanded a certain kind of tightrope walk which Sonam Kapoor never gets the hang of. While possessing the correct lineage, Sonam Kapoor just about manages to get Aisha right. Yes, she looks the part, she is stylish, dresses the part and even manages to get nuances right every now and then but one gets a feeling that she is a tad too conscious of the camera. Looking at her performance you tend to get a feeling that she is more consumed by the thought of playing a character like Aisha as opposed to actually playing her! It’s not that Kapoor won’t convince you of Aisha’s impish ways but she looks weak especially when surrounded by some really good characters.

So how come the film still works?

To a great extent its Devika Bhagat’s writing that makes Aisha’s rose tinted world largely believable. Bhagat nattily adapts Jane Austen’s Emma into a world that we might have lived, seen or at least heard about. While I may have not seen Bhagat’s popular TV series (Mahi Way), if her writing in Aisha is a parameter, then I’m sure the show would have been great. Looking at the subject and the credits one would have thought of Aisha as a chick flick or keeping in mind that Anil Kapoor produced this film even worse. Conceived as a vehicle for Sonam Kapoor who wasn’t getting any roles to showcase her talent, Aisha always ran the risk of becoming a vanity project for the star daughter. Thankfully Bhagat’s writing doesn’t allow Aisha to become a full blown Sonam Kapoor show. Managing to infuse life into almost all the character, Bhagat’s writing, that has some excellent lines peppered throughout the film ensures, that her characters don’t remain cardboard cut-outs.

Too much has been said about Sonam Kapoor’s exquisite sense of style and you won’t be let down if that’s what you seek but thankfully Aisha has more to offer than Sonam’s poise.

Click here for my review of the Aisha.

Image- Bollywood Hungama