Madhuri Dixit is back! That’s what the movie’s tagline screams. After a five year long break away from the silver screen, Bollywood’s Dancing Queen is indeed back with a bang – in director Anil Mehta’s latest, "Aaja Nachle."
In "Aaja Nachle", Madhuri plays Dia, the ambitious and cheerful village girl from Shamli, who elopes with a foreigner (much to the dismay of her parents and villagers), and settle down in New York where she worked as a choreographer.
11 years later, divorced, Dia returns to Shamli (something she swore she will never do) with her daughter, receiving news that her dance guru is on his deathbed.
On arrival to Shamli, Dia never get to see her guru – except for a filmed video tape in which her guru urged her to revive the Ajanta theatre of the village that is soon to be demolished by people in powerful ranks. Dia is now faced with the arduous task of resurrecting Ajanta where she learned to dance, and as well as, to live.
But in order to bring the culture of dance back to the village, Dia has to win over the people of Shamli, fighting her way with opposition from powerful people in the village. Can she succeed in doing so?
In this comeback vehicle of hers’, Madhuri Dixit looks ravishing as ever. She carried herself gracefully throughout the movie. Madhuri proved yet again that she is still great at what she does at her best – dance, of course.
I wouldn’t say this is her best performance to date or in recent times, but there’s no denying that Madhuri Dixit played her charachter reasonably well, considering the kind of role she was given in the movie.
The high point is, she still managed to save the movie from totally collapsing, else otherwise for a poorly-written plot. The performances from her co-star gang like Kunal Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Jugal Hansraj, Vinay Pathak and others have also helped a great deal in putting together the movie from falling apart.
The biggest downfall of the movie, as I have mentioned earlier, is the storyline itself. The plot is just too stale and somewhat predictable. But again, the finale involves a medley of heart-warming songs that lifts the spirit of the movie to a new level, thanks to the applaudable preformance by the cast.
Watch it for Madhuri Dixit, the dancing diva. Watch it for the performances by the rest of the cast members. You won’t be dissapointed!
Ratings: ***