Nothing more than the music

Name : Nee Jathagaa Nenundali
Cast : Sachiin Joshi and Nazia Hussain
Direction : Jaya Ravindra
Genre : Romantic drama
Rating : **
Like : Music and treatment of the tale
UnLike : Acting by the lead pair

In the midst of sprinkled stardust and celebrations, a new star is born but alongside is also the display of emotional instability. Hidden behind all the glamour are calloused and hurting emotions. The fall and rise of two artists in love but contrasted by emotions, fate and their respective approaches to life, the film is about how one comes to terms with life and the other does not.

To the uninitiated, this is just another love story of an alcoholic singer who has fallen prey to liquor. It is about his downstream course. To the informed it is that musical magic that swept Bollywood and gave us awesome experience and showcased the amazing talent of Mohit Suri, Mithoon, Ankit Tiwari, Jeet Ganguly and the stardom of Aditya Roy Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor.

Life, love and success can be difficult to handle. No matter how much one contributes to self-destruction, a chanced comment or a designedly wicked statement from the schadenfreude could trigger off that explosive fatal moment.

Surely our cinema, our lifestyle, our emotional showcasing has moved away from the 1970s. ‘Aashiqui 2’ is thematically a part reiteration of the clash between two musicians made memorable in ‘Abhimaan’. The altered sensitivities notwithstanding the boxoffice acceptance of ‘Aashiqui 2’ is a clear thumbs-up for the tale of failure, fractured egos and skewed emotions especially in the context of the world of glamour. Director Jaya Ravindra makes a very faithful remake of the original product. Arguably music was the main stay of the Hindi hit. The filmmaker decides to not labour in that area and gets the music from the original. One very vital factor of the film is thus taken care of. He could not have asked for better. He does not. The screen chemistry of the lead pair in a film of this kind is very pivotal. Here it is completely awry. The lead pair fail and fail miserably to translate the crucial emotional facet of the film. With the pivotal succour going amiss the film turns morbid and drags its feet to the inevitable conclusion.

Sachiin Joshi plays Raghav Jayaram the alcoholic singer who knows that his sharp decline from showbiz is inevitable. In the course of one of his drinking binges he runs into Gayatri Nandan (Nazia Hussain) a singer at a local bar in Goa and not only sees unmatched talent in her but also falls in love with her. Soon he starts promoting her to uncle Shravan (Rao Ramesh) and Gayatri becomes the sensation he hopes and predicts she will be. However, his alcoholism creates huge social and emotional problems leading to fissures in the relationship.

Sachiin looks more dazed than drunk. Also physically looks too well fed for the role. Sometimes gifted actors overcome their physical gait with the power of their performance until the likes of Shabana and Aamir decided to physically get attuned to the demands of the role. Here, however, the disparity is not just visible but glaring in inadequacy. Nazia Hussain goes blank whenever she is required to emote. The one thing that can be said in her favour is that she dresses well, has good screen presence and if she learns a bit of acting, has a reasonable future ahead.

What the film lacks is a spirit. What it needs from the audience is as the lyrics would suggest: Spandinche hridayaalu.