Actually I wasn't planning to see the movie , but then I saw this review where this movie was compared to Peepli live .........the writer was whining about how Aisha lives in a different world where no dirt or beggars are seen on the street ,how unrealistic it is , blah blah blah............and how the real world is shown in Peepli etc.........Then I decided to see the movie for one reason --- We go to movies to escape from reality , not to encounter it .........I mean ,what is the point in seeing movies if the same dreariness of real life is shown in them , the same poverty ,injustice .........we go to indulge in our dreams ( which are never going to turn to reality ) ,like marrying beautiful women or rich men ( depending on the gender you belong to -- sorry for being presemptous ,but here I am taking the liberty of thinking that all women want rich men )..........thats why the old movies many a times showed rich people marrying poor people breaching the rich poor gap and all that ........they allowed the poor to indulge in such dreams for three hours..........Coming to the movie , it shows Sonam kapoor as a scatterbrained rich girl who is forever into matchmaking ,but without ever achieving any results........Who cares anyway.........life powered by money is good ,there are lots of parties ,vacations to attend ,polo matches to watch and cheer, shopping malls to visit and run expensive bills , handsome hunks are around to escort you .........above all ,time to play around with.........Her fave project is to fix the marriage of a small town cousin of hers to some rich guy ........here too she fails ,and a small complication develops as the girl ,after other guys have rejected her for precisely her small-townness , falls for the guy Sonam is angling for..........oh poor little Sonam No problems however ,Sonam's father proclaims that this guy will also reject the girl on the same grounds of smalltownness.........and so he does !!!Who cares anyway , Sonam gets to wear fancy clothes , act like a fashion model ,play beach-volleyball in skimpy clothes .........and we get to watch all that........One nice point though .......the parents are non-interfering in the whole movie........a welcome change from other movies where where fighting against the parents' opposition about the marriage takes up half the time ........i was tired and sick of this ( seen too much of it in real life again )...........rest of the movie is all okay.......

Aisha, which just came out last summer, is Bollywood's version of a modern Emma. Set in the high society of Delhi, it follows Aisha in her misguided matchmaking attempts. Like Emma and Cher, Aisha is a spoiled rich girl who means well but is really clueless. This one follows the book a little more closely than Clueless did and includes more characters, like the John Knightleys and Jane Fairfax (Aarti). Here, the Miss Taylor character is Aisha's aunt. This version's Knightley (Arjun) is still her childhood friend and brother-in-law's brother, but younger this time. Emma dislikes Aarti, his colleague from America, but she doesn't realize it's because she's jealous. Dhruv (Frank Churchill) is her new uncle's son and they flirt for a little bit but she's just not that into him so he goes for Aarti instead. There is an Elton character, but he's not a pompous jerk at all, just a bit dorky.I thought this version borrowed too many elements from Clueless rather than Emma. Maybe that's inevitable in a modern setting, but I'm not sure. Aisha has a best friend, Pinky, who's only equivalent is Dionne. She disapproves of Pinky's love interest (I won't give away who it is!), like Cher did to Dionne. Like Cher, Aisha loves to shop till she drops. The Harriet Smith character, Shefali, comes from out of town and Aisha gives her a makeover….sounds pretty familiar! Emma never gave Harriet any sort of makeover. She liked Harriet because she was very pretty and sweet already. I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into it.For anyone hesitant about seeing this film because they don't like Bollywood, I just want to say- don't let that stop you. This movie is very, very Westernized. At least half the dialogue is in English, possibly a bit more. There are some "musical" scenes but the music is Western-style, not the typical Bollywood singing. The characters don't break into song either- rather the music highlights what's going on on screen. These characters behave very much like rich Westerners would (I've read criticisms that it was trying too hard to be American, even) and there are even a couple kissing scenes.I thought this was a good movie, but not great. The production values were obviously very high- everything looked great. Unfortunately, I think that was part of the problem- they focused too much on style over substance. The script needed a bit of work. The whole Jane/Frank story was handled very poorly in particular. Still, it was a fun movie, even though, like Clueless, it's not going to go down as one of my favorites.

The film follows the narrative of Jane Austen's Emma, so no surprises there. But the Delhi feel and the performances by the co-stars of the film make it a highly enjoyable experience.I loved the Delhi-ness of the dialogues and the characterisations. The Performances to watch out for are those by Cyrus Sahukar, Amrita Puri and Anand Tiwari - all author-backed roles and performed brilliantly. The film has great styling and great production design but those are the added pluses. The comedy element of the film is maintained throughout. The tone never gets melodramatic or over the top.It remains light and breezy throughout. The music by Amit Trivedi is awesome. It's altogether a sweet and light romantic comedy /chick-flick to be enjoyed with your gang of girls.

Lets be clear that style is more important than substance in this film. Its almost a paid promo for Sonam and the brands she endorses.. L'Oreal / Dior / Elle / Louis Vuitton getting as much footage as some of the characters. What keeps it together are some good punch lines and very good performances from Abhay Deol (who basically carries the film on his shoulders), Ira Dubey (plays her part to perfection) and Amrita Puri (who puts heart into the girl from Bahadurgarh). They manage to hold it reasonably together till the first half but then it starts to fall apart. Key reason is that we never understand why the characters behave the way they do because character development is sacrificed at the altar of fast paced storytelling. And promoting Sonam, making sure she is always the centre of attention. And its all very predictable. For more on this movie & other reviews visit apurvbollywood at blogspot