Director Sachin Kundalkar’s Aiyya was in the spot light first for the reason that it was produced by Anurag Kashyap. Then for its Wakda first look that made extreme reactions among audience. Well the result is not extreme and the movie ends up being an average one time watch. For Malayali audience who is seeing this movie as a Prithviraj movie, the experience won’t be that pleasing as he is just an important character that drives the movie. Well the movie is about this middle class Marathi girl Meenaxi who always lives in her filmy dreams and is still waiting for her dream man. Her parents are looking for groom and the things are not working out smoothly with almost all the proposals getting rejected. In the mean time Meenaxi gets a job in a college library as assistant librarian. There he sees the south Indian boy Surya and she is attracted to him for his smell. Surya is a painter, but he has the image of a drunkard, drug addicted guy in his college and Meenaxi is fully on to him. Meanwhile Meenaxi gets engaged to a normal middle class Marathi man Madhav who finds her character as an impressive one. The film is about the man hunt of Meenaxi. An understanding Madhav who gives her a lot of space and an arrogant Surya with whom she even can’t talk a single word but his smell makes her forget everything else.
Well the plot has a very fresh feel to it with the ingredients like man hunt and smell. The first half of the movie is really a delightful watch with Rani fully in her Bubly avatar and with all the drama that happens with her marriage proposals. The negative of the movie is its tiring second half that really takes too much time in establishing a good relationship between Surya and Meenaxi. Script establishes such a solid feel good mood to Madhav’s character that the audience won’t be that comfortable with the final result.
On screen, Rani has portayed the role of Meenaxi quite charmingly. She steals the show with impressive dialog delivery and bubbly expressions that are very much required for the character. Well in the case of Prithvi, he has done his part smartly but apart from the two songs there isn’t much in the movie to test him as actor. In a 2 hour 30 minutes movie, the main male lead is speaking only after 2 hours. That factor will surely annoy the audience from the south. He has made his screen presence and his hindi accent is also cool and confidant. Subodh Bhave is impressive as the shy Madhav and Amey Wagh is also impressive as the brother of the leading lady. Nirmiti Sawant also gives some crackers as the mother of Meenaxi.
In the making, Kundalkar has tried too much of wakdapan that spoils the fun and drags the movie. The long portions of the second half are quite empty and require some spark. The quirky feel of the first half is lost a lot in the second half and that really matters. Dialogs are quite funny and the screenplay is uneven and some wakdas are total disturbance. Cinematography of the movie is really good and the choreography of Vaibhavi also requires a special mention. Amit Trivedi’s music is cool but I think they haven’t really given much publicity to some of the best songs of the movie.
On the whole, Aiyya is a flawed experiment which should be appreciated for its fresh approach. I am giving 2.5/5 for this Sachin Kundalkar movie. Fails to press the accelerator when it is needed the most