Team - the Force [DVD]

Aisha, merrily tooling around in her cute yellow Beetle, maxing out her father's credit card, looking posh and chic. Aisha is beautiful and young and comes from a well-to-do family. She loves to draw, but her passion is matchmaking, a hobby she pursues to everyone's distraction. One of Aisha's childhood best friends, the level-headed Rajun, constantly scolds her for meddling in other people's affairs; Rajun's remarks always fall on deaf ears. Aisha loves playing Cupid. Her latest project is a mousy Punjabi girl, Shefali, and the film tracks Aisha's indefatigable attempts to find Shefali the right guy. When, really, the project Aisha needs to take on is herself. It's the matchmaker who needs to do some growing up. Her life falls apart.

It's clear that Jane Austen has a strong following in Indian cinema, and that her stuff translates pretty well. Regarding Indian cinema, the best adaptation of her works, by far, is KANDUKONDAIN KANDUKONDAIN ("I Have Found It") which reworks SENSE & SENSIBILITY. BRIDE & PREJUDICE is a colorful hybrid of Bollywood and Hollywood. (And both of those films star the glorious Aishwarya Rai.) AISHA is Bollywood's take on EMMA, and while AISHA isn't as clever and inspired as CLUELESS, its stunning and leggy star, Sonam Kapoor, provides looks and a measure of substance. Sometimes, a striking presence alone can carry a movie. Aisha, all up in everyone's business, is shallow and snobbish and judgmental. But Sonam Kapoor infuses her with a core of sweetness and vulnerability. She makes Aisha likable despite her excesses. I only wish Abhay Deol ("Arjun Burman") had gotten more face time. The film really comes alive when Abhay and Sonam are in the same scene, picking a quarrel with each other.

It's not a traditional Bollywood picture. Although prominent in the opening and closing sequences, saris are few and far between. The viewer can't help but take cues from the bright and breezy visuals. The sleek modern fashion - dare I say, Westernized fashion? - plays a strong supporting role, establishes that mood of glamour and entitlement. AISHA, in essence, is about India's young and privileged at play. We observe scenes in which the girls hang out in pricey boutiques and trendy nightclubs or holiday out in the wilds but sleep in luxurious tents. These folks think nothing of flying out to Mumbai or Delhi on a whim. This would all be very boring if only I could take my eyes away from Sonam Kapoor. Mostly, you have a sense of where the story is taking you. While Aisha's friends play romantic musical chairs, it's fairly obvious from start which guy was meant for Aisha, this guy who's been the one grounding element in all her life. It maybe shouldn't have taken as long as it did for the film to get them together. But what's a Bollywood film without its drawing out the love story as long as possible? In the end, Emma grows up. I mean, Aisha.

What I've got is the 2 DVD set. Disc 1 has the feature presentation which comes with English sub-titles. Disc 2 has the following bonus material (which are mostly in English): the "Making of the Movie" featurette (00:21:24 minutes long) and "Look & Styling," a segment focusing on the film's fashion sense and costumes and the costume designers' breaking down of each character's look (00:18:53).

Aisha is an, if I can call it, a fusion of the film `Clueless' and the book `Emma' and takes place in New Delhi, this is not the city that most people are familiar with. The proceedings take place in upper class locations and people are all well dressed, they hardly work, if they can escape art shows and sometimes enjoy a game of Polo. Sonam Kapoor is Aisha, an inhabitant of this upper crust who spends most of her time shopping, spending copious amounts of cash on clothes, generally doing nothing but has time to moonlight as an event planner. She is fun, slightly prudish and convinced that she has the match making skills to pair up people in matrimony or in relationships. The only one who thinks this is all a waste of time is her friend Arjun Burman (Abhay Deol), and has consistently warned her that this presumption about people's feelings about each other will only amount to a world of hurt for her and everyone else.
There are several interesting characters and they all have their charm but seem to be very one dimensional and superficial ( perhaps that was the idea) These bumbling characters who are desperately out of reality and living in their silk cocoon seem engaging at first sight but never interesting later. However they are all lively enough to make the proceedings brisk and fun.
Sonam Kapoor is engaging and tries the hardest and why not after all it is her home production but I thought Amrita Puri as Shefali Thakur stole the show with her act as a poor girl caught in the midst of these rich folks. She was pleasant and earthly enough although the director could have toned the sweetener and bimbo effect a wee bit. Abhay Deol is wasted and could have been better used. However Rajshi Ojha the director has done a swell job for her debut and everything manages to look pretty and neat. The songs are lively and hummable, and distributed evenly throughout the film. Three stars. 6/12/11

Aisha, which just came out last summer, is Bollywood's version of a modern Emma. Set in the high society of Delhi, it follows Aisha in her misguided matchmaking attempts. Like Emma and Cher, Aisha is a spoiled rich girl who means well but is really clueless. This one follows the book a little more closely than Clueless did and includes more characters, like the John Knightleys and Jane Fairfax (Aarti). Here, the Miss Taylor character is Aisha's aunt. This version's Knightley (Arjun) is still her childhood friend and brother-in-law's brother, but younger this time. Emma dislikes Aarti, his colleague from America, but she doesn't realize it's because she's jealous. Dhruv (Frank Churchill) is her new uncle's son and they flirt for a little bit but she's just not that into him so he goes for Aarti instead. There is an Elton character, but he's not a pompous jerk at all, just a bit dorky.

I thought this version borrowed too many elements from Clueless rather than Emma. Maybe that's inevitable in a modern setting, but I'm not sure. Aisha has a best friend, Pinky, who's only equivalent is Dionne. She disapproves of Pinky's love interest (I won't give away who it is!), like Cher did to Dionne. Like Cher, Aisha loves to shop till she drops. The Harriet Smith character, Shefali, comes from out of town and Aisha gives her a makeover....sounds pretty familiar! Emma never gave Harriet any sort of makeover. She liked Harriet because she was very pretty and sweet already. I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into it.

For anyone hesitant about seeing this film because they don't like Bollywood, I just want to say- don't let that stop you. This movie is very, very Westernized. At least half the dialogue is in English, possibly a bit more. There are some "musical" scenes but the music is Western-style, not the typical Bollywood singing. The characters don't break into song either- rather the music highlights what's going on onscreen. These characters behave very much like rich Westerners would (I've read criticisms that it was trying too hard to be American, even) and there are even a couple kissing scenes.

I thought this was a good movie, but not great. The production values were obviously very high- everything looked great. Unfortunately, I think that was part of the problem- they focused too much on style over substance. The script needed a bit of work. The whole Jane/Frank story was handled very poorly in particular. Still, it was a fun movie, even though, like Clueless, it's not going to go down as one of my favorites.