A 'Big' headache!!!

Grade: D

Aao Wish Karein

Indian Release Date: 13/11/09
CBFC Classification: U
Running Length: 2 Hours 16 Minutes

Cast: Aftab Shivdasani, Aamna Shariff, Johny Lever, Rati Agnihotri, Tiku Talsania, Yatin Karyekar, Rohan Shah
Director: Glenn Baretto
Screenplay: Aftab Shivdasani
Cinematography: Keshav Prakash
Music: Ankur Tewari

Bollywood can always be called dependable, dependable in a manner that you can always count on it to blatantly rip off a plot from an international movie without giving it any credit & then manage to kill all the charm & logic which made the original story such a joy in the first place. The Mumbai Mantra guys who have just setup their production house should be ashamed of themselves at the rate at which they are churning out inferior rip-offs of Hollywood flicks, be it ‘Acid Factory’ “inspired” from ‘Unknown’ (2006) or ‘Aao Wish Karein’ picking more than a few plot elements from ‘Big’ (1988) & anyone who begs to differ should really get their heads examined pronto.

Just like Tom Hank’s ‘Big’ the plot of Aao Wish Karein involves a thirteen year old boy Mickey who yearns to be “Big” & makes a wish only to wake up the next morning all grown up as a thirty year old who in this case looks & acts like a retarded Aftab Shivdasani. The difference is that in Big it was a weird machine which had a mechanical magician named Zoltar that granted the wish while Aao Wish Karein has a wishing well with a live magician called Hitchcock (Johny Lever) being the guiding light. Both movies have the now grown-up kid taking his best friend’s help to find a job which again incidentally happens to be in similar companies in both movies (a toy developer in Big & a video game developer in ‘Aao Wish Karein’), which only leaves the love interest to be covered in the story. After ‘Aloo Chaat’ the object of Aftab Shivdasani’s affection happens to be Aamna Shariff again & all she has to really do is look pretty & walk the picturesque town in slow-motion plastered with makeup. Just like Elizabeth Perkins in Big Aamna Shariff too doesn’t understand the enigma behind the grown-up kid’s innocence & falls for him head over heels. Now will the fairy tale life Mickey’s been handed last long enough for him to fully enjoy it?

You might be wondering why I am comparing ‘Aao Wish Karein’ with ‘Big’ & normally I wouldn’t but ‘Aao Wish Karein’ just doesn’t have the strength to stand on it’s own feet, everything about it has been picked, hacked, ripped-off, “inspired” from somewhere else. Even if it was too much to ask for an ounce of originality in this ‘dead-on-arrival’ production at least they could have made a worthy adaptation but the movie falls flat miserably on that front too. The point of being a kid & the kid in a grown-up is treated with such immaturity that makes you wonder if anyone involved with the movie was ever a twelve/thirteen year old. The plot even when picked up wholeheartedly from Big still manages to create new plot holes of it’s own & due credit should be given to the writers for that, so what if they couldn’t create an original tale, at least they could make new blunders of their own.

The thing which made ‘Big’ tower over similarly themed movies during the 80’s & later was Tom Hank’s sublime performance. It was the right mixture of innocence, buffoonery, curiosity coupled with just the right hint of awkwardness all delivered with a straight face. None of those qualities are channeled adequately in Aftab Shivdasani’s performance. The way he plays it, the kid comes off more as an imbecile than anything else & seems much younger than a thirteen year old judging by his I.Q. & E.Q. levels. Though he has an easy going presence, his portrayal just doesn’t ring true. Johny Lever is supremely irritating as a character with which dresses like a poor man’s Capt. Jack Sparrow & talks like the Riddler while the performances of the rest of the cast are immensely forgettable.

So what’s good about the movie? Hmmm that’s going to tax my brains…..well the locales are picturesque, though nothing great some of Ankur Tewari’s songs are worth listening to once, Aamna Shariff is easy on the eyes & Aftab’s goofiness may make you smile once or twice. Hmmm….not a lot to recommend & why would I, when you can easily pick up a copy of ‘Big’ instead of this charmless tale?        

Final Verdict: Be careful what you wish for.....

Grade: D

 

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