Aiyyaa
| Aiyyaa | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Sachin Kundalkar |
| Written by | Sachin Kundalkar |
| Produced by | Anurag Kashyap Guneet Monga Viacom 18 Meraj Shaikh |
| Starring | Prithviraj Sukumaran Rani Mukerji Subodh Bhave Nirmiti Sawant |
| Cinematography | Amalendu Choudhary |
| Edited by | Abhijeet Deshpande |
| Music by | Amit Trivedi |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Viacom 18 Motion Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 152 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Box office | ₹9.58 crore[1] |
Aiyyaa (transl. Oh my!) is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language parody film starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Rani Mukerji in the lead roles. It was written and directed by Sachin Kundalkar and jointly produced by Anurag Kashyap and Viacom 18 Motion Pictures.[2] The trailer was released on 6 September 2012. The movie was released on 12 October 2012 worldwide.
Plot
[edit]The story is about a Marathi girl, Meenakshi Deshpande, falling in love with a Tamil artist, Surya Iyer. She is a librarian at a college and has five members in her family (including herself): a wheelchair-using grandmother who is blind and has gold teeth; her father, who smokes four cigarettes together; her mother, who is obsessed with Meenakshi's marriage; and her brother Nana, whose only love in life is dogs. To escape the craziness of her family, Meenakshi lives her life in dreams. In her dreams, the only thing she's doing is dancing and enacting her favourite actresses, Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, and Juhi Chawla. Her colleague Maina, nicknamed "Gaga Bai," is an eccentric woman who dresses up in weird ensembles inspired by pop star Lady Gaga.
Meenakshi's family is looking for a suitable groom, but Meenakshi, who does not believe in arranged marriages, is waiting for her prince and wants her dream wedding. That's when Surya enters. Surya is an art student, and the moment Meenakshi looks at him, she falls in love with his tanned skin and a mysterious fragrance emanating from him. By this time her family has found the 'right guy' Madhav for her and is rushing with her wedding.
The rest of the film involves Madhav running after Meenakshi and Meenakshi following Surya. Nana gets engaged to Maina under bizarre circumstances when Meenakshi goes missing on her engagement when she was following Surya and ends up in his incense sticks factory. Meenakshi learns that Surya's fragrance, that she got enthralled by, was because of his involvement in the factory. In the end, Meenakshi succeeds in winning over Surya's heart, and they get engaged in a traditional Maharashtrian ceremony.[3]
Cast
[edit]- Prithviraj Sukumaran as Surya Iyer
- Rani Mukerji as Meenakshi Deshpande
- Jyoti Subhash as Meenakshi's Grandmother
- Nirmiti Sawant as Meenakshi's Mother (Aai)
- Anita Date-Kelkar as Maina
- Subodh Bhave as Madhav Rajadhyaksha
- Amey Wagh as Nana
- Satish Alekar as Meenakshi's father
- Kishori Ballal as Surya's mother
- Pakkada Pandi as Pakkada Pandi
- Devnendra Joshi as Babloo
- Madhura Deshpande as Kamala
- Esha Wadnekar as Anju
- Vineet Vatve as Purohit
Production
[edit]Pre-production started in August 2011 and the film went into shooting by the first week of October 2011. The shooting ended in April 2012, and the film was released on 12 October 2012.[4]
Certifications
[edit]Aiyyaa was given a UA by the CBFC despite the sexual scenes.[5]
The BBFC gave Aiyya a 12a for infrequent moderate sex and drug references.[5]
Soundtrack
[edit]| Aiyyaa | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | |||||
| Released | 21 September 2012[6] | ||||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack World Music | ||||
| Language | Hindi | ||||
| Label | T-Series | ||||
| Producer | Amit Trivedi | ||||
| Amit Trivedi chronology | |||||
| |||||
| |||||
All lyrics are written by Amitabh Bhattacharya; all music is composed by Amit Trivedi[7]
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Dreamum Wakeuppam" | Sowmya Raoh | 3:31 |
| 2. | "Sava Dollar (Lavani)" | Sunidhi Chauhan | 4:47 |
| 3. | "Aga Bai (Belly dance)" | Shalmali Kholgade, Monali Thakur | 4:25 |
| 4. | "Mahek Bhi" | Shreya Ghoshal | 5:18 |
| 5. | "What To Do Auwai?" | Sneha Khanwalkar, Amitabh Bhattacharya | 5:26 |
| 6. | "Wakda" | Amit Trivedi | 4:06 |
Reception
[edit]The soundtrack received positive reviews on release. Shresht Poddar, of Score Magazine, gave the album 3 out of 5 stars saying, "Melody-wise, the album is just above average. Innovation-wise, it scores full marks from me. Amit Trivedi dares to be experimental when his contemporaries are staying safe by sticking to tried-and-tested methods."[8]
Critical reception
[edit]| Professional reviews | |
|---|---|
| Review Scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Koimoi |  
|
| DNA India | 
|
| The Times of India |
|
| YAHOO |
|
| India Today |
|
| Hindustan Times |
|
| Bollywood Hungama |
|
| Kerala Films |
|
| Rediff |
|
| IMDb |   
|
| India Masala |
|
The film was released worldwide on 12 October 2012. Aiyyaa received mixed to negative reviews. While Rani's was praised by critics, the plot was criticised. Bravos, a review aggregator website for Indian movies, assigned the film an average score of 38 (out of 100) based on 7. Madhureeta Mukherjee of Times of India gave it 2.5 stars. "Even with such a talented ensemble, this one turns into a cultural showpiece, and gets lost in translation."[9] "Aiyyaa is let down by its weak script," writes Prasanna D Zore of rediff.com.[10]
Roshni Devi of Koimoi gave it 3 stars. "Watch Aiyyaa for a quirkily different film with very good performances but be warned that it drags."[11] The social movie rating site MOZVO gave it 2.9 stars.[12] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 3 stars.[13] Kanika Sikka of DNA gave it 2.5 stars. "Aiyyaa is an average entertainer".[14]
Kerala Films gave 2 stars and wrote "Aiyya is let down by a confused script."[15] Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times gave 2 stars and wrote "Whackiness can't carry a film."[16] Reviewers on IMDb gave Aiyya a score of 4.4 out of 10.[17] Shilpa Jamkhandikar of India Masala gave 3 stars, praising the cast and the stories, saying "What it doesn't have is something that binds all of this together. Kundalkar makes a bizarre mash-up of several genres and ends up with a film that doesn't do too much justice to any one of them."[18]
Raghavendra Singh of FilmFare praised the movie and says "It takes courage to present something never-done-before on the larger-than-life canvas of the big screen. And surprisingly debut director (at least in Hindi films) Sachin Kundalkar shows this trait with great effect in his film Aiyyaa. Hats off to an established star, Rani Mukerji, for showing such conviction in Kundalkar's experimental vision."[19]
The songs "Aga Bai" and "Dreamum Wakupum" were chartbusters, both getting over 1 million views on YouTube in less than 1 week of being released. Both charted in the top 5 of the India's Airplay Top 100 and have been promoted strongly on TV and radio broadcasts.
Box office
[edit]Overseas
[edit]Aiyyaa was released overseas in a very limited number of theatres (30 in the United Kingdom) and did poorly in overseas markets with its opening collecting around $125,500 overseas; it averaged $4,000 in each theatre over its opening weekend. It dropped 90% the following weekend.[20]
India
[edit]Aiyya had high expectations at the box office due to aggressive advertising and rave reviews from trailers and promos alike. They were expecting 80%–100% occupancy throughout the country on its opening day and that it would collect 15–200 million on the first weekend.[citation needed]
Awards and nominations
[edit]| Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5th Mirchi Music Awards | Upcoming Female Vocalist of The Year | Shalmali Kholgade – "Aga Bai" | Nominated | [21] |
References
[edit]- ^ "Aiyyaa Box Office Collection".
- ^ "Rani Mukerjee signs Anurag Kashyap's next". Ndtv.com. 4 October 2011. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
- ^ Bollypedia. "Storyline of Aiyyaa (2012) Movie Plot Trailer". www.bollypedia.in. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
- ^ "Malayalam actor Prithviraj to romance Rani Mukerji and the production budget of the film is 9 crore and marketing budget of the film is 7 crore a toal of 16 crore of investment". Rediff.com. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
- ^ a b Aiyyaa (2012) – Information, Review, Rating, Trailers, Videos, Posters, Box Office and more – Beekays Movies
- ^ "Aiyyaa (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". iTunes Store.
- ^ "A Tale of Two Worlds". The Indian Express. 30 September 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
- ^ Poddar, Shresht. "Music Review of Aiyyaa".
- ^ "Aiyyaa Review". The Times of India.
- ^ "Review: Aiyyaa, what a letdown!". Rediff. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Aiyyaa Review". koimoi.com. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Aiyyaa Review". MOZVO. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Aiyyaa". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Review: Aiyyaa is an average entertainer". DNA India. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Aiyyaa Hindi Review:script". Kerala Films. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
- ^ "Anupam Chopra's Review: Aiyya". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
- ^ "Aiyyaa". IMDb. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Aiyyaa: Theatre of the absurd". India Masala. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ Singh, Raghuvendra (12 October 2012). "Movie Review: Aiyyaa". FilmFare.com. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Boxofficeindia.com". Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- ^ "Nominations – Mirchi Music Award Hindi 2012". radiomirchi.com. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
External links
[edit]- Aiyyaa at Bollywood Hungama
- Aiyyaa at IMDb
