REVIEW: Aisha

CLUELESS IN DEF COL

'Sex. Clothes. Popularity. Is there a problem here' was the tagline to Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995) which brought Jane Austen's 1851 drawing room romance Emma up to date. Aisha attempts to bring Austen to saddi Dilli. You could tear the wiki page for Emma and tick off every plot point Austen makes when you watch Aisha. Thank goodness for that.

Beautiful Emma Kapoor lives in a perfect house, with a kindly, indulgent daddy, wears fabulous clothes and shoes, carries bags that cost a little more than the GDP of a small country. She loves to organise people's lives, matchmaking being her single ambition. But she's Clueless about the repercussions of her attempts to change the lives of people she considers 'bechara'. Friend Pinky Bose is a reluctant partner in crime, when Aisha (Emma) attempts to makeover Shefali, who happily transforms into a cool kudi from bechari behenji with a little retail therapy.  

Yes, yes, there's Arjun Knightley, who frowns on her antics, and all other characters down to Jane Fairfax in the stunning shape of Lisa Haydon. 

So why should you see this chick flick?

It's a visual treat. Prerna Querishi and Kunal Rawal make everyone look so fabulous (and it is a treat to see the beautiful Anuradha Patel as Aisha's aunt) and the production design by Shruti Gupte is brilliant. Initially you wonder at the perfectness of it all, and then slowly settle down to enjoying the sight of 'society' dames and their lives. Ang Lee made Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow which was stunning visually, but most period flicks from Hollywood are.

Sonam Kapoor displayed a magnificent ease when she got into the clothes of the girl from Delhi 6 and her Massakali dance makes you smile every time you hear the song. You could not tell that it was just her second movie. And this role seems to have been written for her. You know she is a bit spoilt, but love her for it. You are with her when she runs over petals and offers the ring (by the way, this sort of entrance of hero/heroine is very old fashioned Hindi cinema, but it works really well here!) and you empathise with her situation when she feels let down by her friend Pinky who has chosen the loser Randhir Gambhir (Cyrus Sahukar) over her.

Unfortunately, the script suddenly begins to malfunction when they try to be too clever and fit in bits borrowed from Hollywood rom-coms like 27 Dresses. That's the second half. And that's when you notice that they just celebrated Diwali in Delhi, and when she comes to Bombay, it's raining. When does that happen? It's Shakespeare's fault, really. He is the one who started this whole thing about weather reflecting your thoughts. Sigh!

So your romantic sighs turn into mildly irritated ones and by the time Arjun Knightley climbs up the ladder to confess his love to Emma Kapoor, you want to climb the walls or at least hit someone who messed the script.

As someone who loves Austen enough to see the ghastly Amritsar to LA twice (in English and in Hindi), Aisha was a lovely surprise. See it with the gals. And not because the clothes are all-glam, but also because only girls will recognise and appreciate the way Aisha reacts to Dhruv (Arunoday Singh, equally hot when dressed and not!).