FILM REVIEWS: AASHAYEIN & HELLO DARLING
This weekend, two big titles hit theaters for Bollywood audiences to chose from, including Nagesh Kukunoor’s Aashayein with John Abraham opposite Sonal Sehgal, and Manoj Tiwari’s Hello Darling starring Celina Jaitley, Eesha Koppikhar, Gul Panag, Javed Jaffrey, Seema Biswas, Chunkey Pandey, and Divya Dutta. Buzzine Bollywood reviews the final two releases, both of which close out the month of August and are sure to keep audiences occupied long enough in the two weeks preceding the blockbuster release of Salman Khan’s Dabangg.
Aashayein
Grade: A-
A heartfelt drama starring John Abraham, Sonal Sehgal, Pradeep Singh, Farida Jalal, and Anaitha Nair, Aashayein is an unexpected film. For starters, Bollywood fans will see John in a different light, as the award-winning actor puts aside his steamy-hot hunk image and exchanges it for a deeper, more serious role.
The story itself is quite simple. John Abraham is Rahul Sharma, a compulsive gambler who, in his risk-taking, casino-style escapades, finally wins big and comes across a large fortune. Coincidentally, not much longer after he claims his winnings, Rahul finds out he has cancer and only has 90 days left to live. What transpires is a riveting story of a man who finds new meaning in life. Taken aback from his condition, Rahul finally comes to terms with his situation. Along the way, he meets Nafisa (Sonal Sehgal), a hopeless romantic, and Padma (Anaitha Nair), a bratty yet lively young girl.
Aashayein has two things working for it: top-notch acting and a well-intentioned message. John Abraham delivers a career-defining performance. For starters, he lost nearly 35 pounds during the course of production to give his character realness of the physical transformation an actual cancer patient would suffer through in the same condition. In one film, John Abraham helped redefine his image as someone who is more than just a hot body.
Beyond a stellar performance by John, Aashayein also delivers a solid message. Just like the film’s title, Aashayein is about hope. It is about how to make the best of life, irrespective of what may (and eventually will) go wrong.
A tad overdone at times and slightly aged due to sitting on the shelf for nearly two years, Aashayein is ultimately a must-see, if anything, just to experience the masterful performance delivered by John Abraham.
Hello Darling
Grade: B-
Quite of bit of havoc may very well be wrought with a trio of beautifully flirtatious women running about town. As if taking a page from Charlie’s Angels, Manoj Tiwari introduces Bollywood fans to a laugh-out-loud comedy about the push-and-pull relationship between three women working in the fashion design industry and their lustful owner.
Starring an ensemble cast of Gul Panag, Celina Jaitley, Eesha Koppikhar, Javed Jaffrey, Divya Dutta, Chunky Pandey and Seema Biswas, Hello Darling features several universal themes about workplace politics, social class, and the negative side effects of being a beautiful woman.
The three main characters are Candy (Celina Jaitley), Mansi (Gul Panag), and Satvari (Eesha Koppikhar). All three of them are stunningly beautiful and work in the same fashion design company, despite coming from different socio-economic circles. Unfortunately, all three have to deal with a shady boss in Karthik (Javed Jaffrey). A lurching man with playboy-like tendencies, Karthik constantly tries to corner the three of them for his own gain.
A vast majority of the film is one notorious situation after another, with the three girls coming together to plot schemes to sliver out of whatever situations their boss puts them in. Equally as headstrong is Karthik, whose covetous mind empowers him to chase after the trio with near reckless abandon. In the end, it is just a question of who wins out.
Hello Darling is quite a roller-coaster ride in that there are moments of absurd comedy and others of little value or sense. Whether the number of positively comedic scenes outweigh those that do not work is really a matter of perspective and sense of humor. Yet, in the end, Hello Darling, which is a remake of the 1994 Tamil film Mangalir Mattum, is a decent comedy with moderate jokes and all-around decent acting performances.
Be sure to “Like” Buzzine Bollywood on our Facebook Fan Page.
