Aaja Nachle fails at home

Years ago, the reigning star of the 1970s, was staging a comeback with the David Dhawan-directed Aandhiyaan [1989]. Having grown up on Mumtaz's films, I was keenly looking forward to one of my fav actresses stage a comeback after a substantial gap.

One of the finest actresses of her generation, I was completely disillusioned when the reels of Mumtaz's comeback film began to unfold. The script lacked meat and most importantly, it never gave the supremely talented actress the opportunity to take that big leap.

Something similar happened to Madhuri Dixit. From Abodh to Devdas, Madhuri scaled dizzy heights of success, going from strength to strength with each passing year. That explains why her new film, Aaja Nachle, was special for all those who have enjoyed Madhuri's movies over the years.

Teaming up with the Numero Uno concern [Yash Raj] gave the film an edge, but Aaja Nachle was like one big balloon with a leak. Like Aandhiyaan, the script of Aaja Nachle never gave Madhuri the opportunity to regain the charisma. But what came as a rude shock was the thanda response at the ticket counters.

What went wrong? Clearly, the promos never created a strong buzz. Also, the music -- lacklustre in this case -- never caught on. Besides, Aaja Nachle never gave you the feeling that you had to catch it first day, first show. And the audience feedback reflected in the day-wise collections.

Despite the controversy over a song and the front-page prominence in newspapers, the collections never showed a big jump. Aaja Nachle remained below par on Saturday, showed an upward trend on Sunday, but came down heavily from Monday onwards.

All said, a terrible waste of a terrific opportunity!

Aaja Nachle trailer