SubscribeThe verdict is in: Aaja Nachle has failed. This is definitely a wake-up call for Bollywood.
First of all– the reason Aaja Nachle failed was because it had a poor script, lack of strong character development. It was filled with cliche dialogues, too many songs that took away from the story, and great actors that were completely wasted.
The thing is– this movie could have been monumental. A 45 year old single mother (Madhuri Dixit’s character) was the protagonist, a rare feat in Bollywood. The film was not another Mother India or any sort of Bollywood tragedy where the actress is crying the whole time or is faced with extreme injustices– it was supposed to welcome an era in Bollywood where producers would make films that could stand with a female as the lead in mainstream masalas.
But, this didn’t happen. And as this movie fails, people are labeling it as a failure for Dixit, for whom this film was a comeback. The problem in actuality is that, although the concept for the film was fresh, nothing else was. Along with Dixit, there were at least four other mainstream actors and three mainstream actresses. This is a typical Bollywood technique– fill the movie with surprise guest appearances and other stars to make it more marketable. The film wasn’t a failure for Madhuri– but for Bollywood’s mainstream masala formulas.
Many are using this film as an example of Bollywood’s glaring problem of how to deal with actresses that are too old to be love interests but too young to be mothers of 20- some actors. Aaja Nachle was an attempt to try a new “formula.” But the problem rests with this idea of a “formula.” The film was horrible because of the script and the addition of more than four love stories and many more subplots in the film. It should not be viewed as a Dixit failure, or a queue that Dixit should be done with Bollywood.
Aaja Nachle shouldn’t make the industry shy away with having older women as protagonists in mainstream cinema– but it should make Bollywood realize that the same routine techniques for hits that have been used throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s will not work. Aaja Nachle was one of the most anticipated films in Bollywood for 2007 because of Dixit– nothing else. That being the case, Bollywood needs to stop following the “formula” and be more innovative.
Filmi Geek
/ January 3, 2008I can’t disagree that *Aaja nachle* was far from perfect, but I’m kind of baffled by your criticism of it. You talk about seven additional mainstream actors – four male and three female – and four love stories. I’m not even sure which actors and arcs you mean – my own count doesn’t come nearly that high – much less why it’s a problem that they are there. Would you have preferred a movie with no side characters at all, or a movie in which only unknowns played them? It’s not clear what your criticism is.
I think most movies need a rich supporting cast to make them vibrant and interesting. Sometimes a side character’s arc provides contrast or highlights a portion of the main arc’s message. *Aaja nachle* especially is not a movie about one person; it’s a movie about that person’s influence within a community, and you can’t possibly show that without getting to know the community a little bit.
You may have felt that *Aaja nachle*’s side characters were poorly written or cliche, but the solution to that is not merely to excise them.
I think *Aaja nachle* went wrong in setting up a situation that had rich symbolic possibility and then copping out, shying away from all that possibility and instead telling a hackneyed, predictable story without much meat on its bones. That’s a shame. It didn’t fail to be fun to watch while it was happening though – at least to this viewer.