Aiyyaa

The story is about a Marathi girl, Meenakshi Deshpande, falling in love with a Tamil artist, Surya Iyer. She is a librarian at a college and has five members in her family (including herself): a wheelchair-using grandmother who is blind and has gold teeth; her father, who smokes four cigarettes together; her mother, who is obsessed with Meenakshi's marriage; and her brother Nana, whose only love in life is dogs. To escape the craziness of her family, Meenakshi lives her life in dreams. In her dreams, the only thing she's doing is dancing and enacting her favourite actresses, Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, and Juhi Chawla. Her colleague Maina, nicknamed "Gaga Bai,"  is an eccentric woman who dresses up in weird ensembles inspired by pop star Lady Gaga.

Meenakshi's family is looking for a suitable groom, but Meenakshi, who does not believe in arranged marriages, is waiting for her prince and wants her dream wedding. That's when Surya enters. Surya is an art student, and the moment Meenakshi looks at him, she falls in love with his tanned skin and a mysterious fragrance emanating from him. By this time her family has found the 'right guy' Madhav for her and is rushing with her wedding.

The rest of the film involves Madhav running after Meenakshi and Meenakshi following Surya. Nana gets engaged to Maina under bizarre circumstances when Meenakshi goes missing on her engagement when she was following Surya and ends up in his incense sticks factory. Meenakshi learns that Surya's fragrance, that she got enthralled by, was because of his involvement in the factory. In the end, Meenakshi succeeds in winning over Surya's heart, and they get engaged in a traditional Maharashtrian ceremony.{{Cite web |last=Bollypedia |title=Storyline of Aiyyaa (2012) Movie Plot Trailer |url=http://www.bollypedia.in/movies/Aiyyaa/10803/Story |access-date=2023-02-07 |website=www.bollypedia.in}}

{{Cast listing|

• Prithviraj Sukumaran as Surya Iyer
• Rani Mukerji as Meenakshi Deshpande
• Jyoti Subhash as Meenakshi's Grandmother
• Nirmiti Sawant as Meenakshi's Mother (Aai)
• Anita Date-Kelkar as Maina
• Subodh Bhave as Madhav Rajadhyaksha
• Amey Wagh as Nana
• Satish Alekar as Meenakshi's father
• Kishori Ballal as Surya's mother
• Pakkada Pandi as Pakkada Pandi
• Devnendra Joshi as Babloo
• Madhura Deshpande as Kamala
• Esha Wadnekar as Anju
• Vineet Vatve as Purohit

}}

Pre-production started in August 2011 and the film went into shooting by the first week of October 2011. The shooting ended in April 2012, and the film was released on 12 October 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-south-prithviraj-rani-mukerji-together-in-hindi-film/20111017.htm |title=Malayalam actor Prithviraj to romance Rani Mukerji and the production budget of the film is 9 crore and marketing budget of the film is 7 crore a toal of 16 crore of investment |work=Rediff.com |access-date=20 October 2011}}

Aiyyaa was given a UA by the CBFC despite the sexual scenes.[http://www.beekays.com/movies/hindi/2012/aiyyaa// Aiyyaa (2012) – Information, Review, Rating, Trailers, Videos, Posters, Box Office and more – Beekays Movies]

The BBFC gave Aiyya a 12a for infrequent moderate sex and drug references.

{{Main|Aiyyaa (soundtrack)}}

The soundtrack featured six songs composed by Amit Trivedi and lyrics written by Amitabh Bhattacharya.{{cite web|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-tale-of-two-worlds/853610/3|title=A Tale of Two Worlds|work=The Indian Express|date=30 September 2011|access-date=20 October 2011}} The soundtrack received positive reviews on release. Shresht Poddar, of Score Magazine, gave the album 3 out of 5 stars saying, "Melody-wise, the album is just above average. Innovation-wise, it scores full marks from me. Amit Trivedi dares to be experimental when his contemporaries are staying safe by sticking to tried-and-tested methods."{{cite web|last=Poddar|first=Shresht|title=Music Review of Aiyyaa|url=http://www.highonscore.com/music-review-aiyyaa}}

The film was released worldwide on 12 October 2012. Aiyyaa received mixed to negative reviews. While Rani's was praised by critics, the plot was criticised. Bravos, a review aggregator website for Indian movies, assigned the film an average score of 38 (out of 100) based on 7. Madhureeta Mukherjee of Times of India gave it 2.5 stars. "Even with such a talented ensemble, this one turns into a cultural showpiece, and gets lost in translation."{{cite web|title=Aiyyaa Review|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/hindi/Aiyyaa/movie-review/16768189.cms|work=The Times of India}} "Aiyyaa is let down by its weak script," writes Prasanna D Zore of rediff.com.{{cite web|title=Review: Aiyyaa, what a letdown!|url=http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-aiyyaa-what-a-letdown/20121012.htm|publisher=Rediff|access-date=12 October 2012}}

Roshni Devi of Koimoi gave it 3 stars. "Watch Aiyyaa for a quirkily different film with very good performances but be warned that it drags."{{cite web|title=Aiyyaa Review|url=http://www.koimoi.com/reviews/aiyyaa-review/|publisher=koimoi.com|access-date=12 October 2012}} The social movie rating site MOZVO gave it 2.9 stars.{{cite web|title=Aiyyaa Review |url=http://mozvo.com/movie/aiyyaa-2012 |publisher=MOZVO |access-date=12 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419151028/http://mozvo.com/movie/aiyyaa-2012 |archive-date=19 April 2015 }} Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 3 stars.{{cite web|title=Aiyyaa|url=http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/criticreview/id/549597|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908232749/http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/criticreview/id/549597|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 September 2012|website=Bollywood Hungama|access-date=12 October 2012}} Kanika Sikka of DNA gave it 2.5 stars. "Aiyyaa is an average entertainer".{{cite web|title=Review: Aiyyaa is an average entertainer|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/review_review-aiyyaa-is-an-average-entertainer_1751709|publisher=DNA India|access-date=12 October 2012}}

Kerala Films gave 2 stars and wrote "Aiyya is let down by a confused script."{{cite web|title=Aiyyaa Hindi Review:script|url=http://www.keralafilms.tk/2012/10/aiyya-hindi-movie-review-prithvirajs.html|publisher=Kerala Films|access-date=13 October 2012}} Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times gave 2 stars and wrote "Whackiness can't carry a film."{{cite web|title=Anupam Chopra's Review: Aiyya |url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Reviews/Anupama-Chopra-s-review-Aiyyaa/Article1-943782.aspx |work=Hindustan Times |access-date=13 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013082755/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Reviews/Anupama-Chopra-s-review-Aiyyaa/Article1-943782.aspx |archive-date=13 October 2012 }} Reviewers on IMDb gave Aiyya a score of 4.4 out of 10.{{cite web|title=Aiyyaa|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2255934/?licb=0.3093838614251112|publisher=IMDb|access-date=12 October 2012}} Shilpa Jamkhandikar of India Masala gave 3 stars, praising the cast and the stories, saying "What it doesn't have is something that binds all of this together. Kundalkar makes a bizarre mash-up of several genres and ends up with a film that doesn't do too much justice to any one of them."{{cite web|title=Aiyyaa: Theatre of the absurd|url=http://blogs.reuters.com/indiamasala/2012/10/12/aiyyaa-theatre-of-the-absurd/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014073519/http://blogs.reuters.com/indiamasala/2012/10/12/aiyyaa-theatre-of-the-absurd/|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 October 2012|publisher=India Masala|access-date=12 October 2012}}

Raghavendra Singh of FilmFare praised the movie and says "It takes courage to present something never-done-before on the larger-than-life canvas of the big screen. And surprisingly debut director (at least in Hindi films) Sachin Kundalkar shows this trait with great effect in his film Aiyyaa. Hats off to an established star, Rani Mukerji, for showing such conviction in Kundalkar's experimental vision."{{cite web |title=Movie Review: Aiyyaa |url=http://www.filmfare.com/reviews/movie-review-aiyyaa-1457.html|first=Raghuvendra |last=Singh |date=12 October 2012 |publisher=FilmFare.com|access-date=12 October 2012}}

The songs "Aga Bai" and "Dreamum Wakupum" were chartbusters, both getting over 1 million views on YouTube in less than 1 week of being released. Both charted in the top 5 of the India's Airplay Top 100 and have been promoted strongly on TV and radio broadcasts.

Aiyyaa was released overseas in a very limited number of theatres (30 in the United Kingdom) and did poorly in overseas markets with its opening collecting around $125,500 overseas; it averaged $4,000 in each theatre over its opening weekend. It dropped 90% the following weekend.{{Cite web |url=http://www.boxofficeindia.com/overdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4989&nCat= |title=Boxofficeindia.com |access-date=17 October 2012 |archive-date=9 December 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121209032123/http://www.boxofficeindia.com/overdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4989&nCat= |url-status=dead }}

Aiyya had high expectations at the box office due to aggressive advertising and rave reviews from trailers and promos alike. They were expecting 80%–100% occupancy throughout the country on its opening day and that it would collect 15–200 million on the first weekend.{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}

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• {{Bollywood Hungama movie|aiyyaa}}
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Category:2010s Hindi-language films

Category:Indian romantic musical films

Category:2012 films

Category:Films scored by Amit Trivedi

Category:Viacom18 Studios films

Category:Films directed by Sachin Kundalkar

Category:2010s Indian films