Flashback: Aaina

{Often a times I revisit an old film or discover a film that I didn’t over the years and have so much to say about it. so these ‘Flashback’ posts will accommodate my opinions on those films.}

Gotta love it when you stumble across a gem of a film when hopping from one Wiki page to another. Whilst reminiscing on one of my favourite 90s films Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai I thought why not find more films by the same director, Deepak Sareen, and so Aaina happened.

Written by Honey Irani, also writer of Jab Pyaar…, Aaina is a Yash Raj Films production starring Jackie Shroff, Amrita Singh and Juhi Chawla. I just had to watch it when I saw it had two amazing actresses and Honey Irani as a writer. The fact that it had a suited up Jackie Shroff was just a bonus!

Its a dramatic sister rivalry storyline with brilliant performances and supremely impressive dialogue work. I say that because the film has very progressive characters, especially the women. They scream and yell in English at times and I don’t cringe! Today in 9 out of 10 films I cringe when they try to insert wanna-be casual angrezi talk in the dialogues but here I didn’t even blink or notice that they slipped in a sentence or two. I really think that is a feat worth a mention! The film worked I’m told at the BO but honestly feel it was quite ahead of its time with the female protagonists that Honey Irani wrote probably why even today I find it so impressive.

Juhi Chawla plays the silently strong type of role. Her character required attention to detail for body language and other small nuances. She catches them all effortlessly be it the way she walks or the way she pushes up her nerdy glasses. Amrita Singh gets an interesting role that many girls of the era wouldn’t get a chance to play. It had the potential for loads of overacting but she holds back quite well. Her screen presence is very dynamic and dominating much like the characteristic of her character Roma who has the ability to silence a room when she walks in. So I guess half her job was done by the screen presence that she had and the other half she took care of being the fine actress that she is. Jackie honestly doesn’t get to do too much in the film as the woman steel the show in their two clashing roles. He does justice to Ravi’s role and engages you in the story ensuring you feel for him when he’s dumped at the alter or that you cheer for him when he finally starts to move on with a girl deserving of him.

Some lovely tunes accompany the movie and you also realise that Juhi Chawla had hips that definitely didn’t lie! The woman moved like a pro in Meri Bano and Goriya Re. When re-watching the songs you realise how much we miss Saroj Khan’s style of choreography which was not to capture the beats of a track in the movements but rather the tone of the lyrics and mood of the track. She manages to catch and emote every word in the lyrics with her choreography.

If you’re looking for a 90s gem you may have missed or one you want to revisit, and assuming you’re not looking for action or slapstick, this is the movie for you. The best part about the film is that doesn’t feel like you’re watching something 20 years old! And you know when that happens the film has really done justice to the movie making craft.