I watched Aisha, as I finished reading the book Emma. I didn't have high expectations but the movie disappointed me in terms of the screenplay and the acting (by Sonam Kapoor). In fact, I would not have understood Aisha as the person if I hadn't read the book.Talking about screenplay, they focused more on style/fashion than the substance. Too much focus on Sonam. I know it was supposed to focus on her, but the focus was on her screen space, not her part/work in the story. Many crucial scenes were played out quite superficially, and left me wondering why/how it happened.In terms of acting, Sonam was not up to the mark (awful in some scenes I would say). Looking pretty doesn't always work, she needs to learn how to act. Even with the same script, the movie could have been way better if Sonam acted well. Aisha, the character, was irritating, shallow, stubborn and pretentious to me, and I would guess it is the lack of ability of Sonam to portray the character of Emma who was spunky, headstrong, affable but pampered and manipulative. Amrita Puri and Ira Dubey did way better job than Sonam. No comments on Abhay. He is usually good, but in Aisha, there was no spark between the lead actors, and I blame it on Sonam. Aisha is just a feel good movie, and I would not recommend it to anyone who loved Emma.

Well, Aisha is a modern day adaptation of the classic Jane Austen's novel Emma. Emma is the story of a wealthy socialite who tries her hand at match-making with some very contradictory results. Aisha follows Emma hand-in-hand with a few exceptions here and there. Talking about the performances, I expected a lot from the tall and lanky Kapoor dame, Sonam. She was plain mediocre at best. She neither delivered her lines effectively nor did her facial expressions convey her inner conflicts. She could've done much more than just giggling her way throughout the movie or looking stern when it's not needed at all. Obviously, Sonam has a long way to go before she can scale the heights of her father, Anil Kapoor in Bollywood. I was utterly shocked to see that unlike Kapoor, her colleagues acted really well in this movie. Cyrus Sahukar, Ira Dubey and Amrita Puri are the ones who walk away with the laurels. These threesome are really good and display raw talents. I am sure they can go a long way in Bollywood. Abhay Deol is improving leaps and bounds from his previous movies and he does show vast improvement as an actor. I did catch a glimpse of the Deol look in him. Arunodhay Singh is just okay. He should really think about taking voice modulation classes. The songs in this movie are fantastic. "Suno Aisha" and "By The Way" are my personal favorites. The cinematography is quite impressive and the look of the film is appealing. A good time-pass flick. Go catch it if you have nothing else to do.

This movie was like a 2 hour commercial, with Dior and L'Oreal being the two main fashion and beauty sponsors respectively, one could only wonder why a bunch of teenager girls would go to the mall and shop at only one store "DIOR" and every moment they pause to reapply their makeup, the name of the brand "L'OREAL" is focused on. That said, let's move on to the acting. Only one person really stood out to me and that was the girl who played Shefali (the Brittany Murphy character from Clueless), she just stole the show from right underneath our so-called filmy kid lead actress Sonam Kapoor who is becoming more and more repetitive with each new film. No growth, no depth. She plays every character the exact same way. There was another debut in the film by an apparent imported model named Lisa Haydon whose acting seemed like she had been studying the non-existent acting skills and language challenged challenged Katrina Kaif. The only other saving grace in the film beside the actress who played Shefali is Abhay Deol who was hopelessly wasted in his role. Emma is a book, read it and get bloody creative. The makers of Clueless did not copy anybody, why did Aisha have to lift and ape so much. BAKWAS!!!!!!!

Sonam Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone burst onto the Bollywood scene just about the same time with one another in 2007, with the Kapoors (no relation here) starring in their first feature film together in Saawariya. We know how prolific Ranbir Kapoor has become with a successful 2009 and 2010 seeing him all serious in Raajneeti, while Deepika Padukone herself is fairing none too bad with a string of releases. This is not a tabloid so I'll stay hands off on the on-off romance between these two, but somehow Sonam Kapoor has got off the blocks rather slower than her peers, and seem to be making up for it just recently.Thanks to dad Anil Kapoor and sister Rhea as producers, I suppose a project like this will only befit one of their own in taking on the starring role as the titular Aisha, or shall you say the Hindi version of Jane Austen's Emma, directed by Rajshree Ojha. Sonam Kapoor steps into the role as the romantic matchmaker wannabe who, as the idle daughter of a rich man in Delhi, takes it upon herself to be a Ms Fixit, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. Not hers of course, but that of her friends and family. With best friend Pinky (Ira Dubey), Aisha takes it upon herself to transform plain Jane Sheali (Amrita Puri) into an air-head femme fatale, and just about as confused as Aisha herself is.I suppose if you know the story of Emma, then you'd know the story of Aisha as well, although it's more like Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone than Austen's literary epic for the more modern, upbeat feel to it. Amongst Sonam Kapoor's role, I actually disliked her portrayal of Aisha, who's more negative than a positive one, highlighting with some cliché humour on the fairer sex's indecisiveness when it comes to the matters of the heart, and seriously, creating more problems out of nothing than to actually address the issues at hand. The coy yet arrogant, cloy yet independent behaviour when in the midst of different parties just brings out the sheer hypocrisy of the character.Which is not to say that Sonam Kapoor didn't do well with the role, but I felt her earlier roles were more challenging. If anything, she shows that she's quite the clotheshorse here with, I think, almost every scene seeing her decked out to the nines in designer togs, and carrying them off very well on her lithe frame. In some ways the film becomes an advertising feature for the various fashion houses and labels that Aisha endorses, and becomes like a huge product placement during one of the montage sequences.Everything else that goes on in the film, sad to say, you wouldn't care too much about, because the rest of the supporting cast are quite the caricature, offering not much depth as they either pander around or loathe Aisha's presence as she sashays her way to manipulate the lives of others, only to see her plans backfire hard one by one onto herself. However, every spoilt brat deserves a break, and in comes the indecisive (as well) hero Arjun (Abhay Deol) who drapes a New York based colleague Aarti (Lisa Haydon) around, to invoke the natural bitchy comparison by any pretty lass when another prettier, more popular lass is in their midst. Meow.There seems to be quite the disconnect with the characters as they all seem to be fairly loaded without doing anything substantial, most born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and watching them wild about their idle time attending weddings, parties, and the likes, just seems too surreal to be rooted in reality. But as a romantic comedy, this one had its eye candy cast galore to thank for to hold your attention as it plods its way (and thankfully for a Bollywood film, just slightly over 2 hours) to a finale which you know all's well that ends well, with all the messiness of relationship entanglements straightened out in no time. Strictly for those with Emma fetish and want to compare across all versions and variations.