Aiyyaa, with its bright visual palette, its strong female perspective, and its intentionally peculiar humor, is evocative of Almodovar’s quirky cinema, but the plot here is wafer thin, and while some elements work, it never all comes together as a satisfying whole.It certainly doesn’t help that the film unfolds over two hours and thirty minutes…an excruciatingly long running time for what’s essentially a slim story of a one-sided crush. In the end — the impressive camerawork and Amit Trivedi’s winning tunes aside — Aiyyaa is at best an original and promising experiment let down by its many indulgences. I’m going with two-and-a-half out of five for director Sachin Kundalkar’s Aiyyaa; an unusual film that could’ve been so much more.

More than anything else, ‘Aiyyaa’ is a film that could have been a truly subversive, exhilarating ride with a sexually aware, sensually charged woman at its centre. What we get is a flat, heavy-footed clomp through screechy lines and overstated, dragged-out situations. this is not a film which generates the sort of mad hysteria that makes you laugh. After a while, it becomes just another film we can’t wait to get out of, despite the trying-to-get-back-in-the-reckoning, still-watchable Rani and the sizzling Prithvi. Taking a cue from one of its songs, I have to say that, post watching, I barely saved myself from being in critical conditionuum.

Aiyyaa is a bewilderingly odd film. Rani is delightful as a woman in heat.She expertly manages to be both a simpleton and a seductress. She looks stunning and dances like a dervish. But the film can’t match her performance. Kundalkar’s story soon runs out of charm and wit. His lovely idea and original voice is stretched to the point where even Rani’s mannerisms start to feel repetitive.

Widely talked about as Rani Mukerji’s comeback film, Aiyyaa, in one word is director Sachin Kundalkar’s fantasy. The director is so self-absorbed and self-obsessed that it seems the film was not made for audiences but to satisfy his own creative urges. Aiyyaa is a make-believe world where characters are as contrived as they could be. There is no way to find fault with Rani but she is shockingly let down by the storyline.However, one can’t help but say that after every ten minutes or so as the film progresses one expects an unexpected turn that never comes.

From top to basumm Rani is truly Wonderum! As Meenaxi. Prithviraj is simply Eroticumm! He exudes chiselled, raw sexuality in every scene; gets wet, adds Southern masala with his moves, but says nothing reallySachin Kundalkar starts out well, but while juggling between Marathi matrimonials and midnight-masala, his plot goes ‘wakda’ (read: digresses). After a few giggles, erotic gasps, and gaanas (Amit Trivedi), the story stretches pointlessly and loses its scent.Even with such a talented ensemble, this one turns into a cultural showpiece, and gets lost in translation. That’s the sad-partumm!

Though filled with clichés and caught in stereotypes, there is something that works in favour of Aiyyaa as it slips into the category of mindless comedy without crossing the line into idiocy like rom-coms normally do. Meenakhi’s dreams, when juxtaposed with her real life, add to a capturing first half. The second half however, tends to move slowly, with the last 20 minutes becoming intolerable due to a forced song and redundant twist in the plot, which fails to bring a chuckle. Though the film is limited by cheesy dialogues and prosaism, it proves to be an entertainer and a definite treat for every Rani Mukerji fan.

The movie is a (nonsensical) ‘fairy tale ‘of a middle-class Maharashtrian girl called Meenakshi (Rani Mukerji) who yearned to be an actress but eventually settled down with a job in an art college.Meenakshi is melodramatic and a dreamer who escapes into her fantasy land anytime and anywhere. While Meenakshi is a dreamer, the girl’s family is no less and somewhat remind you of characters of ‘The Addams Family’.In straight words, ‘Aiyya’ is not a script badly handled rather it is a script wrongly written. We can only hope that Sachin Kundalkar doesn’t repeat his mistake and make his audience go ‘Aiyyaa’ in pain again.