Aashayein Review, Rating : Already declared a dud

Nagesh Kukunoor’s latest deserved to be a better film. It comes with a good idea but needed better writing. There’s a twists of sorts but that’s clearly not enough. The film has interesting characters but it needed a more self-assured cast than John Abraham and Sonal Sehgal.

Watching Aashayein you realize this film must have looked good in the conceptual stage.

Kukunoor tries to bundle hopes and despair, reality and fantasy to drive home a feel- good message. But the film goes wrong in execution.

The slip between vision and execution went against the filmmaker in his last two films, 8X10 Tasveer and Bombay To Bangkok . It’s happened again.

Aashayein is about Rahul (John), compulsive gambler. The script lazily moves towards drawing up a twist.

Chain- smoking Rahul discovers he has lung cancer and moves into a home for the terminally ill. There, his interactions with an assorted bunch of patients will change his notions about life forever.

For a narrative that wholly depends on a single plot spin, Kukunoor doesn’t look too confident as a storyteller.

As soon as he introduces turmoil in Rahul’s life, you’ll probably guess how the film will end. What happens in between is not enough.

Still, Aashayein has its moments. You feel happy for Rahul as he fantasises being Indiana Jones.

Or, note the irony when he sits down to watch Anand with an inmate. These little details, as well as outdoor locales, are brilliantly captured by Sudip Chatterjee’s camera.

John Abraham looks good in the scenes where — well — he is only meant to look good. For a man who finds himself in a serious spot, John’s Rahul bears expressions that are too plastic to impress. Sonal Sehgal as Rahul’s fiancée hardly has much to do. In comparison, the supporting cast excels. Kukunoor regulars Girish Karnad and Pratiksha Lonkar — as also Anaitha Nair — are the best in this cast.

Sad, that won’t salvage the film. This one’s another bag of dashed hopes coming from Kukunoor.