Suryanarayanan
One of the best movies of 2007,finest songs from the best singers in the country and finest dance from the best dancers in the country. Story line is wonderful,and actors are brilliant,locations and direction are also remarkable. This movie gives a taste of Indian classical music and dance,has got a romantic angle to it. Love and culture being the main theme of the movie,it takes you to a fun filled ride into lives of people trying to save their heritage and building bonds with their loved ones. It has a positive energy all the time and sends a sweet message to its viewers, shower love and kindness and world will be a better place to live.
Peter Young
Upon release, Anil Mehta's Aaja Nachle, which was widely promoted as Madhuri Dixit's comeback vehicle, failed miserably. I watched it now for the first time, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It is such a nice film - colourful, musical, beautiful. This it the story of Diya, a trained dancer who, many years ago ran away from her town with an American man she fell in love with and moved to New York. Now Diya is a professional dancer-choreographer, and a divorcée with one kid. In spite of having promised to never return to India, she hurriedly flies back when learns that her trainer is on his deathbed. She is late, as he has already passed away, but he leaves a message for her as his last wish, to save an old theatre named Ajanta (where she used to dance) from getting ruined and turned into a shopping mall. The story follows Diya's firm decision and later efforts to revive the Ajanta theatre in a town where she is widely infamous. Her plan is to set a new play named "Laila Majnu". The problem is that people in the town dislike her, and only a good response to it can change the theatre's fate.Aaja Nachle is essentially a musical, nothing very serious, nothing to be taken seriously, and nothing that will provide you with new lessons in life. What it definitely does provide is entertainment, and there it scores. It is not a great movie, but it has a great sense of fun and it flows well. The song numbers are appropriately incorporated into the film, and in this one they are presented mostly as realistic situations in accordance with the story. The film has many subplots, many of which I think were effectively presented, particularly the one involving the character of Mohan Sharma, Diya's past fiancée who was abandoned as she ran away. Several sequences are extremely funny. My favourite is when different girls, most of whom know nothing about dance, audition for Diya's play. Director Anil Mehta is an accomplished cinematographer and he uses his skills to the max in his first directorial effort. Choreography by Vaibhavi Merchant, which is obviously very important, is very well done. The music directors duo Salim-Sulaiman compose a nice soundtrack without which the film would.Aaja Nachle rests on the able shoulders of the wonderful Madhuri Dixit, who is as charming, natural and charismatic as ever. Clearly, her absence from movies has dimmed absolutely nothing about her, neither her acting prowess nor her ever-so commanding screen presence. Dixit is according to me one of the most beautiful women in the world, and here, her youthful, juvenile beauty is replaced by a more mature and ripe look which is equally appealing. Her eyes speak volumes, her expressions and gestures remain refined and forceful, and her smile... oh this gorgeous smile, it is as amazing and mesmerising as ever. Diya's persona is actually the one that made Dixit the star she is, the star who at some point could give any hero or heroine a run for their money. She is a strong woman who reeks charisma and dares to live life on her terms. The film doesn't give Dixit many opportunities, but she delivers. She is feisty yet gracious, fiery yet elegant, and she is always vivacious and graceful. And what can one say about her dance? Nothing except it is astonishing.The supporting cast includes many great actors, most of whom are not given that much scope, some of whom getting really small parts, but all are good. Konkona Sen Sharma is awesome. She is simply hilarious as the aggressive, unrefined Anokhi who is madly in love and will do anything to get the man she wants, including dance like an idiot. Towards the end she looks very pretty and it is overall a very good performance. Kunal Kapoor as Imran Pathan is very fine in what can be termed as his own version of the angry young man. Nothing great, but despite playing an overly hostile and hot-tempered guy he's quite a likable fellow. Ranvir Shorey steals the show in a small role that is surely the best-written of all, and he is excellent. Akshaye Khanna in an extended guest appearance is good as he is in most of his films. Divya Dutta is very good in a tiny role, Irrfan Khan is criminally wasted in the even tinier role of her husband. Vinay Pathak is wonderful as "the boring husband". Sushmita Mukherjee is funny as his wife, while Raghubir Yadav and Jugal Hansraj provide good support.Among the songs, I really liked the title track which is catchy and Madhuri's dance for it elevates it further. My favorite song, however, is the melodious "Ishq Hua". The film's best sequence is when the "Laila Majnu" play finally takes place. It is just beautiful, spectacular, and is clearly well-invested and wonderfully executed and performed. The ending is expectedly sugarcoated, but who cares? It seems like some people just cannot appreciate anything that is not dramatic. This film is generally a lighthearted musical, that's how it's treated - it is good Hindi film entertainment, and a time-pass movie, in the most positive sense of the word. Another complaint was that Madhuri got a rather bland role which didn't do justice to her talent. So, people had not seen her weeping copious tears for so long that they badly expected her to do it again? Can't an actor be good when he's playing a character with less tears and more smiles? Actually, the film is more of a tribute to Dixit's mastery of the art of dance, which was one of the main factors that made her so popular, and I say it's worth a watch.
Abhishek Kumar
My categorized comment about the whole movie is like thisActing : 3.0/4 Direction : 0.5/1 Screenplay : 0.7/1 Cinematography : 0.9/1 Sound : 0.8/1 Music, Dance n Song : 2.0/2in all 7.9/10All in all it is a very good musical movie, actually its songs are very good and also the choreography is exceptionally good. Salim, Sulaiman should be given the credit for the wonderful music. Also, one particular thing about the movie is its song is shown in parts that gives a kinda different touch to the movie.At last the play portrayed at the end of the movie is wisely knitted. Must watch for a music lover, for choreography and ya for Madhuri fans.
c_va28
A movie dedicated to the arts. A movie spellbinding enough to woe any audience. A movie so beautiful it gets you speechless. Aaja Nachle, stars the dancing legend Madhuri Dixit, in a comeback role as Dia. Well, as we know her dancing skills are inevitably one of de best Hollywood has seen, to top it up her timeless beauty and on screen grace grabs the attention of any movie lovers. The movie resolves around a controversial topic Where Dia, an average Indian family daughter falls for a white guy and runs away from home due to parental and society objection. Dia, is a dancing student in an arts institution in her hometown India. Her world revolves around Indian arts. When a national geographic photographer comes to town, he is captivated by her and love blossoms. Due to objections from her world, she decides to run away with him to the United States. There she becomes a well established dancer with a dancing school on her name. She returns to India after several years when she hears the news of her dying guru. The man who taught her How to dance. Upon her arrival with her daughter, diva realizes it's too late. Not only her guru has passed away, the arts foundation founded by her guru is left abandon. Political play comes in when a new mall is proposed to be built replacing the history old art centre. Story kicks in with the message from her guru asking her to save his institution, and diva without doubt, takes control and places a bet with the politics involved that she will drive the residences towards her act in saving the country's piece of history. Her hurt always the story moves on with diya recruiting fellow city folks on her play to be staged at the very place she learned to dance. Emotions are collided with manipulations as some try to sabotage her plans. How she over comes it and How she pulls off the play is the climax of the story. The movie emphasizes on musical aspects on portraying emotions and acting. Madhuri radiates her beat in glamour's ways captivating the audiences mind and soul. Songs accompanying the movie transcends generations where classical and modern touches are combined. A must watch movie I would say. Unlike other movies, the story line is different and the movie is made with such perfection that it doesn't give a single cliché aura towards the audience. A must watch movie for its songs, dance sequence, beautiful choreography, beautiful people and definitely a well made top notch story line. Two thumbs up for madhuri and the entire crew of aaja nachle. Kudos!
