Nagesh Kukunoor is best known for his films that talks about life. ‘Iqbal’ and ‘Dor’ are some milestones in his career which was liked by the audience. People like Nagesh's offering because it touches the sensitive chord of life and with a desire to taste something similar like his last outings; they stepped to the theatres to watch ‘Aashayein’. But what they find is absolute disappointing. ‘Aashayein’ speaks about what a person goes though when he knows that only few days are left to survive. The film lacks in execution and hence could not impress the audience. Some story sounds good when it is only read in books rather then converting it into films and ‘Aashyein’ falls in this category. It is a story of a gambler who lives life of his own and happy with his girlfriend. But the day when he wins a huge jackpot, he came to know the dark truth of his life that he has only counted days left to survive. How he fought against his destiny and managed to live the left out days of his life happily is what ‘Aashyein’ is all about.
Rahul (John Abraham) is a compulsive gambler who can put the earnings of his lifetime in a single bet. In one fortunate day, he won a jackpot of Rs. 3 crore and the same night he threw a grand bash. When he went to propose his girlfriend Nafisa (Sonal Sehgal), he collapsed. He was diagnosed with lung cancer. Knowing this dark truth, Rahul was heartbroken. One day in the middle of the night, he left the city leaving behind a large sum of money for Nafisa.
Rahul went to a hospice in Pondicherry and gave some amount of money to the home and decided to live the rest of his life there. The people he met there boost up his confidence and he was highly impressed to see their self assurance. There he met with a retired banker, G. Parthasarthi (Girish Karnad) who lost speech but even has the strength to face life. Another inspiring character, he met there is a middle-aged, high class, ex-prostitute, Madhu (Farida Jalal) who is an AIDS survival but has got all the spirit to live boldly in society. Another high spirited personality that he met is a 17 yr old cancer patient, Padma (Anaitha Nair) and another survival is Govinda (Ashwin Chitale) who has a passion for comics and possesses spiritual powers.
How those lives inspired Rahul to live in a new way forms the rest of the story.
Salim-Sulaiman’s music is soothing. Very calm and goes very well with the script. This time Nagesh Kukunoor fails to do justice to the script. There is not any emotions and thrill that could appeal the audience.
Speaking about performances, John Abraham has performed the intense role very well. Sonal Sehgal was just fine. Girish Karnad was as well superb. Farida Jalal played his role with full perfection. Anaitha Nair, Ashwin Chitale was just ok.
In the nutshell, the film lacks the appealing element. Execution was poor which one did not accept from Nagesh Kukunoor. Leave the mass, even the multiplex audience won’t be lure towards the film.
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