Aasma - 2009

Story

Sometime, you've zilch expectations from a movie, but it catches you by complete surprise with a power-packed, riveting script. And there're those days when zilch expectations result in zilch results. AASMA falls in the latter category.

Frankly, you're completely clueless about what this film is attempting to say. It pretends to be DIL CHAHTA HAI and JAANE TU... YA JAANE NA, but fails again. It pretends to be PHIR MILENGE, fails once more. It pretends to be a musical... Frankly, it lands up nowhere.

The writing is amateurish and the direction [Rohit Nayyar], bad. You actually want to ask these guys: Hey, do you know the grammar of film-making? Barring a spirited performance by debutante Shubh and a couple of tunes [music: Afsar-Sajid], AASMA is an exercise in boredom. It aims for the aasma, but falls on zameen.

Aasma, a theatre group, comprises of aspiring actors. But along the way, they face a lot of hardships, when their main sponsor [Sachin Khedekar] backs out. They try to pool in resources, but in the midst of it all, the protagonist is diagnosed with HIV.

Right from the writing to performances to the making, everything about this film is tacky. Even a serious and sensitive issue like HIV is treated so carelessly that you are shocked.

Talking of performances, Shubh displays confidence. Only thing, he needs to shun the SRK hang-up fast. Hrishitaa Bhatt and Nauheed Cyrusi suffer due to ill-defined roles. Raghuveer Yadav is not in form. And why is Seema Biswas speaking in English all the while? Aditya Lakhia is sad. Ravi Gosain is miscast. Sachin Khedekar gets no scope. Mushtaq Khan and Sunil Rege [Shubh's father] are fair.

On the whole, AASMA has dim prospects.