Aaila!!?? This is what you feel after a few minutes in Aiyyaa and as the movie progresses your expressions gets as wired in bewilderment as its characters.
Touted as Rani Mukharji's come back film, Aiyyaa is the story (is there any??) of Minakshi Deshpande, (Rani) an overtly filmy buff who lives in her own dream world with her crazy family that includes her retired father who is obsessed with telephones, a mother whose only purpose is the marriage of Minakshi, a brother who loves dogs more than humans and last but the not the least a nearly blind and highly dramatic dadi on electronic wheel chair.
During her new job in an art school she develops a huge crush for Surya (Prithviraj) who is a painter and gets attracted with his smell but can't gather the courage to tell him her feelings. Meanwhile, her family arranges her engagement with Madhav (Subodh Bhave). On one side Minakshi's affection for Surya increases day by day and on the other side their date of engagement approaches. She tries hard to get Surya's attention but fails to do so. On the day of her engagement she confides in her colleague Maina about her feelings for Surya after drinking vodka from her JUMBO water-beg. She follows Surya to his house and then to his factory. When Surya catches her following him he explains his life story and drops her to her home where people are still awaiting her engagement ceremony. In the meanwhile her brother goes to search for at Maina's house and they both falls for each other. In the end she tells her family that she loves Surya and want to marry him only.
Aiyya is a contrivance of its director where all the characters are projected with as much idiosyncrasy as possible. Their lifestyle as a typical Marathi family, their daily house hold chores, the way they use colloquial Marathi etc. all looks so unnatural. National Award winning director Sachin Kundalkar seem to have gone too far this time with his fantasy in Aiyyaa with irrelevant and non-rational sequences. His treatment to the characters and situations in the movie is very artificial and never look comic as they are intended to be portrayed. While the first half is a bit interesting,second half is stretched too long with total nonsense which force you to take a nap with those “Baraatis†waiting for Minakshi's engagement.
Rani Mukharji looks beautiful as a simple Marathi girl and her performance too is worth a praise. Unfortunately she becomes a helpless victim of a terrible script. All other characters are just caricatures or so unrealistically contrived. Madhav's character is probably the only character which looks real and authentic. South Indian star Prithviraj debuts with Aiyyaa and looks good with his machismo as an aloof Surya but hardly get any chance to speak barring last few minutes.
With only 2 songs (Apart from Rani's performance) – Dreamum wakeppum and Aga Bai as tolerable factors, Aiyyaa is a total disappointment.