Aiyyaa

Aiyyaa
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sachin Kundalkar
Produced by	Anurag Kashyap Guneet Monga Viacom 18 Meraj Shaikh
Written by	Sachin Kundalkar
Starring	Rani Mukerji Prithviraj Subodh Bhave Nirmiti Sawant
Music by	Amit Trivedi
Cinematography	Amalendu Choudhary
Edited by	Abhijeet Deshpande
Production company	Viacom 18 ShowMaker Pictures
Distributed by	ShowMaker Pictures
Release dates	12 October 2012 (2012-10-12)
Running time	152 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Aiyyaa [Translation: Ouch] is a 2012 Indian romantic comedy film written and directed by Sachin Kundalkar. The film is jointly produced by Anurag Kashyap and Viacom 18.^[1] The film stars Rani Mukerji and Prithviraj in the lead roles. This film is the debut Bollywood film of Malayalam actor Prithviraj Sukumaran. The trailer for the film was released on 6 September 2012. The movie was released on 12 October 2012. Aiyyaa was an average grosser.

Plot

The story is about a Marathi girl Meenakshi (Rani Mukerji) falling in love with a Tamil artist Surya (Prithviraj Sukumaran). She is a librarian at a college. She has five members in her family(including herself): A wheelchair ridden grandmother (Jyoti Subhash) who is blind and has gold teeth, her father who smokes four cigarettes together, her mother (Nirmiti Sawant) who is obsessed with marriage, and her brother Nana (Amey Wagh) whose only love in life is dogs. To add to her miseries the government garbage bin is placed right in front of her home. To escape the craziness of her family, Meenakshi lives her life in dreams, and in her dreams the only thing she's doing is dancing and enacting her favourite actresses: Madhuri, Sridevi, Juhi etc. Then there is Maina or "Gaga Bai"(Anita Date), her colleague, 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 doesn't believe in arranged marriages, is waiting for her prince and wants her dream wedding. That's when Surya (Prithviraj) 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' Maadhav (Subodh Bhave) for her, and are rushing with her wedding. The rest of the film involves Madhav running around after Meenakshi, and Meenakshi following Surya.Nana gets engaged to Maina under bizarre circumstances when Meenakshi goes missing on her engagement date when she actually was following Surya and ends up in his incense sticks factory. Meenakshi learns that Surya's fragrance, that she got enthralled to, was actually because of his involvement in the factory. In the end, Meenakshi eventually succeeds in winning over Surya's heart and they get engaged in a traditional Maharashtrian ceremony.

Production

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.^[2]

Certifications

Aiyyaa was Given a UA by the CBFC despite the sexual scenes.^[3]

The BBFC gave Aiyya a 12a for Infrequent moderate sex and drug references.^[3]

The MPAA gave the film an R and then PG-13 due to demand for Infrequent comic uses for drugs.^[3]

Soundtrack

All lyrics written by Amitabh Bhattacharya; all music composed by Amit Trivedi^[4].

Reception

The soundtrack has received positive reviews on release. Music Aloud's review rated it 8/10.^[5] Musicperk.com rated the album 8/10 quoting "Aga Bhai, Mahek Bhi, What To Do and Dreamum Wakeupum are the picks of the album".^[6] 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.".,^[7] while Suhail mir of Gomolo, gave the soundtrack 4 out of 5 stars mentioning, "'Aiyyaa' is a truimphant album all the way. Dares to be quality entertainer with experimental tracks that are promising. Amit trivedi shows his real – class with 'Aiyyaa', a mix of styles, tastes and generes. An intelligently packaged complication."^[8] Rumnique Nannar said "Aiyyaa is one of the most spirited and hilarious albums in such a long time that lives up to its trailer and wacky style. Each of the songs has something to celebrate and enjoy, and it is often so rare to hear an album so joyous and downright fun." and gave 4 on 5. Rani & Nirmati Sawanat won best actress & supporting actress filmfare awards respectively for this film. Moreover, Anita date was praised by the entire film fertinity for her top notch performance.^[9]

Commercial reception

Both Aga Bai and Dreamum Wakupum became super hits and 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.

Critical reception

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. The film garnered mixed to negative reviews. While the performance by Rani was praised and admired by the critics, the inadequacy of the plot led to its disappointing outcome. Bravos, a movie review aggregator website specifically for Indian movies, assigned the film an average score of 38 (out of 100) based on 7 reviews from mainstream critics, which is considered to be an average score. 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." said ToI.^[10] "Aiyyaa is let down by its weak script" writes Prasanna D Zore of rediff.^[11] 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." wrote Roshni Devi.^[12] Social Movie Rating site MOZVO gave it 2.9 putting Aiyyaa in 'Average' category.^[13] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 3 stars.^[14] Kanika Sikka of DNA gave it 2.5 stars. "Aiyyaa is an average entertainer" said DNA.^[15] Kerala Films gave the movie 2 stars and added "Aiyya is let down by a confused script.".^[16] Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times rated Aiyya 2 Stars and added "Whackiness can't carry a film.".^[17] Reviewers on IMDb gave Aiyya an overall all mark of 4.1 out of 10.^[18] Shilpa Jamkhandikar of India Masala rated Aiyaa 3 stars praising the cast and the stories, however 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.^[19] 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.'.^[20]

Box office

Overseas

Aiyyaa was released overseas in a very limited number of theatres (30 in the United Kingdom) and as a result did poorly in overseas markets with its opening collecting around $125 500 overseas; however, it averaged $4,000 in each theatre over its opening weekend. However, it dropped 90% the following weekend.^[21] Subsequently it was declared a flop by Box Office India for its overseas performance.

India

Aiyya had many high expectations at the box office from both filmmakers and box office predictors due to high advertisement and raving reviews from the 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.

References

External links

• Aiyyaa at Bollywood Hungama
• Aiyyaa at the Internet Movie Database
• Movie stills