Movie Review : Ahista Ahista

First day, first day screening of Ahista Ahista (AA), and the cinema hall is half full / empty (depending on your leanings). Now that’s really surprising. It should have been totally empty (now you can lean as much as you want). For AA, is one long and ahista journey to … no where. Its like you wanna get somewhere in your car, and your grandmom in the back seat keeps holding you back saying Ahiste bete, ahiste.

Perhaps the best thing about the movie was its music. But then, when Himesh Reshamia is the best ‘part’ in any assorted ‘whole’, one can estimate what the big picture is gonna be like.

At times, one undergoes a tortuous journey to reach a favored destination. At other times, the journey is fantastic, but at the end you feel like shit. But the plot in this movie is an exception. Not only does it end at square 1, the encircling journey there isn’t any good either. And man… it’s slow. But you’ll have to leave the tomatoes behind. The director has delivered as promised. AA.

In an age where movies like 2 Fast 2 Furious have come and gone, AA seems to have hit the Asspot. Ok… lets define slow. Close your eyes, and imagine you have called your friends at tea time. The guests come and then leave. Years pass. They all age, have children, and some even have grandchildren. A few die. You’re invited to one such funeral. So you put on your dentures, take your walking stick in your wrinkled hand and get someone to drive you there. At the venue, you see someone, and say with great difficulty “Oh I’m fine, thank you… Can I get you tea or some coffee?” Now imagine this played in front of your eyes in … slow motion. Now open your eyes. What you can see now, as clear as crystal, is the movie AA.

So what happens in this slow saga? Megha (Soma) is waiting for her would be at a marriage office, where Ankush (Abhay) is self employed as a witness, ever present to sign on the dotted line for a sum. The would be Dheeraj (Shayan), opts for a no show.

Having run away from home, and now without money or relatives, Megha finds herself in deep shit. The friendly neighborhood witness docks her at a home for the aged, and slowly…excruciatingly slowly… falls in love with her. Imagine a small light feather falling in a draughtless, bottomless pit.

Nevertheless, hurt over the no show and having taken one favor too many from Ankush, Megha accepts Ankush’s proposal.

If only all that’s well that ends well, the movie certainly needs urgent paramedical attention. The deserter Dheeraj, finds his way into Delhi and the plot, is now looking for his lost love. After some tomfoolery with trying to get him out of the way, Ankush falls out with a friend who leads the old wannabe right upto Megha, armed with an unshakeable alibi.

And, now Megha asks Ankush what she must do?

The movie does have some points on the non negative scale as well. For one, it has revisited the aam aadmi hero, something amiss since Karan Johar stepped into tinsel town. It does have traces of the Raj Kapoor flick, Mera Naam Joker, where the hero is not the larger than life cutout, but one who lives in worse conditions.

When it comes to the acting, the less said the better. That the actors successfully managed to recite their dialogues in the final edited version, now in hindsight, seems to be an absolute miracle. All of them, Soma, Abhay and Shayan, underplay their emotions, in a role in which was never too emotional in the first place. And the supposed comic relief Khala is an eyesore cum earsore and should be told as much. As far as the story goes… that far it comes back also. Much ado about nothing. Back to square one. Life comes full circle, ahista, ahista.