Cast: Abhay Deol, Soha Ali Khan and Shayan Munshi
Direction: Shivam Nair
Let me quickly run you through the plot of director Shivam Nair's Ahista Ahista which opened at the cinemas this week. Abhay Deol plays a young man who hangs around outside the marriage registration office in Delhi, offering his services as a witness to couples who have come to enter into a civil union but forgotten to bring the four witnesses it requires to legalise this union.
He crosses paths with Soha Ali Khan who's run away from her home in Nainital to be married, but seems to have been stood up by her boyfriend. The poor girl can't go back home, she has no place to live, and she has no money either.
Taking pity on her, Abhay finds her a place to live that costs him 10,000 bucks. As time goes by, he notices she's a very good influence on him and soon enough he finds himself falling in love with her.
Soha reciprocates his feelings and the couple decides to be married in two months, after setting aside some decent savings. Alas, all's not well that ends well.
Soha's ex-boyfriend Shayan Munshi shows up out of the blue, and apparently he has a perfectly logical reason for not being able to make their date at the marriage registration office two months ago.
Now torn between the man she'd run away from home to marry and the man who helped her get her life back in order, Soha must make a difficult choice.
I think you'll agree with me instantly when I ask, why did anyone bother to make this movie? After all, how many times have we seen this story play out on screen? It's one of Bollywood's oldest formulas, and sadly director Shivam Nair brings nothing new to this tale.
If anything, he even fails to dramatise the real conflict in the film. As a result, you sit suffering in your seat, more conflicted than the film's protagonists, wondering whether to leave midway and waste your ticket money, or to endure the ordeal till the end.
Problem is Ahista Ahista might have been a little less painful had it been a shorter film. But no, it goes on and on. The director wastes so much time establishing pretty much nothing. Things that could be conveyed in a few lines or just one scene, are dragged out endlessly.
Technically too, one didn't really expect anything out of the ordinary, but the repeated use of slow-motion over the plagarised background score of Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood For Love is highly objectionable, and really serves no purpose in the film.
If there's anything at all that deserves mention in this film, it's the spark of potential one notices in the supporting cast.
The director picks some talented actors in smaller parts, mainly those playing Abhay's comrades, including child actor Ashwin Chitale from the Marathi film Shwaas who has a teeny-weeny role in this film but draws your attention nonetheless.
Of the leads, Soha Ali Khan is uninspired and looks bored out of her wits. But Abhay Deol is uninhibited and makes an impression. His body language needs some attention, but he has a natural sort of comfort on camera, which is difficult to miss.
Ahista Ahista also suffers from what I'm going to call the Himesh Reshammiya backlash. I guess it's happened.
Four songs by the singer-composer in the same film - including one titled I Love You Unconditionally - is a bit too much to take even for Himesh fans like myself.
So that's a thumbs down for director Shivam Nair's Ahista Ahista. The only thing perfect about the film is its title. At the end of the film, when the lights go back on, you feel like you've aged many years sitting in there in that darkened hall.
Rating: 1 / 5 (Poor)
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