The first thing my dad did when the credits were done rolling (do stay through the end of the credits because they don't tie up a storyline until then), was to pat me on the back and say thank you for pushing him to come see Aaja Nachle because he hadn't seen such a good film in a long time. Not counting Omkara, this was probably the best film I've seen this year. It was uplifting and beautifully done, especially the Laila-Majnu part, which I wanted to watch again. Madhuri (who I was too young to appreciate in her hey-day) was vivacious and elegant and seeing her dancing and her expressions were such a treat. She's surrounded by the stalwarts of Hindi parallel cinema- Raghubir Yadav, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, etc, and I won't even bother saying anything about Akshaye Khanna because I'm just too damn biased. The plot drew from stories that have been around since the beginning of cinema. It's cute and inspiring and it appealled to me more than Chak De India because of the dance/theatre aspect of it. I think Anil Mehta did a wonderful job. As I was leaving the theatre, everyone kept saying how wonderful it was, and that oddly made me feel proud because I think this a truly non-conformist film and if it does well, which it should, it does completely on it's own merit, not because of star-power (Madhuri excluded), gimmicks, or because it's part of some trend. So, do go see it!
Review of Aaja Nachle
