Aisha

About the film

Aisha is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama directed by Rajshree Ojha. It features an ensemble cast of Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Ira Dubey, Cyrus Sahukar, Amrita Puri, Anand Tiwari, Arunoday Singh and Lisa Haydon. It is set in the upper-class society of Delhi, India and is an adaptation of Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma with the same tone as the American film Clueless which is also an adaptation of Austen's novel. The soundtrack of the film, which was composed by Amit Trivedi with lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar, received highly positive reviews from music critics.

Aisha was released on 6 August 2010 and proved to be a moderate commercial success at the box office.

Plot

Aisha Kapoor is a young, rich, upper-class girl who believes that she is perfectly suited for matchmaking, amongst her friends in particular. Her superficial lifestyle and match-making schemes are constantly criticized by her brother-in-law to her elder sister, Aalia, and frenemy/ neighbour, Arjun Burman, who advises her to stop meddling with the lives of other people. Soon, she has a new project: trying to make a match between her middle-class, small-town friend Shefali Thakur and a sweetmeat business tycoon and friend, Randhir Gambhir, much to the chagrin of her best friend Pinky Bose. Aisha creates various circumstances to make Shefali and Randhir fall in love. During one such occasion, she meets her aunt's stepson, Dhruv Singh, whom she becomes attracted to. In the meantime, Arjun introduces Aisha to one of his colleagues, Aarti Menon, who is from New York City. Aisha feels threatened by Aarti's presence and is very antagonistic towards her.

Randhir organizes a river-rafting camp for everyone, and Aisha uses this as a chance to get Randhir and Shefali to spend more time together. Meanwhile, Shefali gets proposed to by her childhood friend, Saurabh Lamba, and she asks Aisha for advice, but Aisha passive-aggressively tells her to reject Saurabh and get with Randhir instead. However, one night during the camp, Randhir takes Aisha for a walk and then confesses his love for her. Confused and taken aback by Randhir's feelings for her, Aisha starts to doubt her match-making skills. Arjun learns of this and Aisha's dismissal of Saurabh at Shefali's behest and gets angry at Aisha, criticizing her for once again meddling with the lives of others and playing with Shefali's feelings. Aisha tries to console heartbroken Shefali. As time passes, Pinky starts to develop feelings for Randhir, and eventually they are engaged. This causes a disagreement between Pinky and Aisha, and they stop speaking to each other.

Disheartened with her previous failed match-making attempt, Aisha tries to match up Shefali with Dhruv. Shefali discovers Aisha's plan and confronts her, telling Aisha that she never viewed her as a friend, but rather as a project, someone whom she tried to mold and fix. Shefali then declares that she has feelings for Arjun. This greatly confuses and hurts Aisha, since she realises that she has been in love with Arjun all this time. Aisha realises that she has been selfish and arrogant all along, playing with the emotions and feelings of her friends. She goes back to her best friend, Pinky, and apologizes for her actions. Dhruv and Aarti get engaged, but Aisha chooses not to attend since she thinks that Arjun will be there with Shefali. After a late-night conversation with her father, Aisha decides spontaneously to go to the engagement and declare her feelings to Arjun. She meets Shefali, who tells her that love cannot be forced or planned, and also reveals that she has found her love in Saurabh, whose proposal she had previously turned down.

Soundtrack

The music of Aisha was composed by Amit Trivedi, with lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar.

The film's soundtrack by Amit Trivedi received extraordinary appreciation from critics.

IBNLive said, "With the stupendous music of Dev.D, Amit Trivedi proved his prowess and now with the soundtrack of the forthcoming film Aisha, he has reaffirmed that he is a young composer to look out for. Amit Trivedi deserves to be applauded for the soundtrack of Aisha, which is contemporary yet different. The composer has tried to fuse new sounds in the music of the film, which has worked very well."

Reception

Aisha received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics upon release.

Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India awarded the movie 4/5, saying that "Sweet love, substantial performances, super fun, slick 'n stylish, Aisha is a-ha stuff." Indo-Asian News Service of NDTV gave the movie a positive review, stating that "Engaging and endearing – Aisha makes you wonder if there's anything more important in the world than finding the right match." Sonia Chopra of Sify awarded the movie 3.5/5, commenting that "It's so rare for a film to get it all together: from the story, to the performances, to the atmospherics, to the music and more. This one goes perfectly with the popcorn; don't miss it." Taran Adarsh of Oneindia awarded the movie 3.5/5, concluding that "Aisha holds appeal for the youth mainly and there's a strong likelihood that this segment of movie-going audience will fall for its charms." Kaveree Bamzai of India Today awarded the movie 3/5, commenting that "It's trashy, but it's beautifully trashy. Almost like the food and conversation at a long Delhi brunch." Sukanya Verma of Rediff awarded the movie 3/5, saying that "Beautifully shot and packaged with a fabulous soundtrack and superlative ensemble cast, Aisha, quite often, gets caught up in a self-created tangle of brand-led vanity to ever let one get acquainted to its leading lady."

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