Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." Sonam Kapoor's Aisha, loosely based Austen's Emma, only stuck to the last bit opulence. Which, without context and the statement that Austen made, was basically just another karan johar movie.
Clueless. That's what Sonam Kapoor's Aisha is. In more ways than one. And as Aisha turned 10 august 6, we dedicate this week's Wahiyat wednesday to this Sonam Kapoor-starrer. The bollywood movie audience has always had a strange fascination with opulence. We love watching stories of the rich for two primary reasons - one, we can laugh at them because they seem nothing like us. They must be stupid because, despite all the money and the flashy cars and couture clothes, they get dragged into petty problems, which we wouldn't if we had that kind of money, because we are better. And deeper down, reason two, we hate ourselves that we don't have that life and crave it so much. The karan Johars and the Sooraj Barjatyas of the world have built a fortune selling us this heady concoction for decades. And we've lapped it up. Aisha is no different.
Highbury in Austen's Emma is a fictional village. Aisha speeds her yellow Beetle through the streets of Delhi. Wait, why sell us a dream and then root it at all? Let it be as absurd and fantastical as Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya, with bridges and gondolas, where the sun never shines and the moon turns everything blue. Not Aisha.
click and follow Indiaherald WhatsApp channel