Aashayein
Directed By : Nagesh Kukunoor
Written By : Nagesh Kukunoor
Produced By : Percept Picture Company, T-Series
Starring : Nagesh Kukunoor, John Abraham, Sonal Sehgal
Prateeksha Lonkar, Girish Karnad, Farida Jalal, Ashwin
Chitale, Anaitha Nair
Music By : Pritam Chakraborty Shiraz Uppal Salim
Merchant Sulaiman Merchant
Cinematography : Sudeep Chatterjee
Editing By : Apurva Asrani
Release date(s) : 27th August 2010(08-27-10)
Country : India
Language : Hindi
That sublime theme of living life to the fullest even if there isn’t much time left to live finds a retelling in Nagesh Kukunoor’s somewhat good to middling tale of a compulsive gambler and chain smoker who discovers the secret to a happy life while counting down his last days to death. Aashayein, a bit delayed and staid, isn’t intended as a tear-jerker for kerchief-friendly audiences. It’s rather a subtle, slow, laidback cinematic experience that tugs at your heart now an
d then and leaves you in a state of sweet melancholy.Rahul (John Abraham), a reckless gambler who can put all his life’s earnings at stake in a single bet, would not have been what he’s if not for his loving, caring, doting girlfriend Nafisa (Sonal Sehgal). But life plays a cruel joke when he’s diagnosed with lung cancer and told that he’s got only three months left to live.With his days numbered, Rahul gives a lion’s share of his gambling wins to his girlfriend, who actually wants to stick by him until the inevitable end, and goes all by himself to live in a hospice at a scenic location next to a beach. There, at the hospice, he meets an
assorted bunch of terminally ill characters, racing against time like him, who change Rahul’s perspective on life and how it ought
to be lived.Girish Karnad, a regular in Kukunoor’s films plays an elderly who’s lost his speech; Farida Jalal somewhat overplays her character of a high class ex prostitute who’s now HIV positive and therefore shunned by many at the hospice for fear of contracting the deadly virus. Anaitha Nair pitches in a terrific performance as a cancer-stricken teen who has the hots for Rahul. And there’s also the child artiste Ashwin Chitale playing a spirited character full of life’s wisdoms too early for his age.
John throws himself completely into his character and delivers a performance worth noting. But is it his best? We doubt. Sonal Sehgal shows the promise of a good actress in her.
Aashayein has a number of poignant moments, including one in w
hich John and Anaitha are shown watching Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film Anand, that moving ode to the spirit of living to the fullest from a protagonist facing death. The reference obviously has a resonance with the film’s theme, but Kukunoor wisely abstains from cashing on it for a lump-in-the-throat moment. There’s also a fantasy sequence in which John, a fan of Indiana Jones, dresses up as the adventurer - with fedora, whip and khakis et al. The sequence stands out as a blur between the protagonist’s dream and reality.Aashayein has more such engaging instances, but the film unspools at a pace that may be a tad too slow for many audiences. There’s no in-your-face melodrama, no mawkish sentimentality; just subdued interplay of emotions as the protagonist learns some important lessons of life from the dying.
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