Aashayein Movie Reviews
3.0
Nikhat Kazmi | Times of India
The film may have been lying in limbo for over two years now, but this does not detract from the quality of this small and sensitive film that takes a look at terminal illness in a totally non-filmy fashion. Okay, the theme may be depressing: the big bad C-word and the attendant fears that go with it. But Kukunoor chooses to look at it from the other side of midnight.... From a vantage point where fear and despair are replaced by a life-sustaining desire to wrench out all the beautyRead full review3.0
Sarita Tanwar | Mid-Day
Sometimes, the most effective communication is achieved through the simplest of narratives. When most directors say their film is different, you know it is a spin. But Nagesh Kukunoor has been rather consistent. From Hyderabad Blues, Iqbal, Teen Deewarein to Rockford and Dor (Bombay To Bangkok and 8X10 Tasveer have been the stray exceptions), he's often taken inspiration from his own experiences and that's what makes his films look realRead full review3.0
Anupama Chopra | NDTV Movies
Melodramas about terminally ill protagonists must inevitably hark back to Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Nagesh Kukunoor’s long-in-the-cans Aashayein does just that. The film has a scene in which the hero watches Anand in the company of a cancer patient in a hospice. But there is one palpable difference. In the 1971 Rajesh Khanna starrer, the protagonist teaches the world around him a thing or two about life and its many wonders before his premature death.Read full review2.5
Aseem Chhabra | rediff.com
Nagesh Kukunoor's two-year old film Aashayein opens with a fantastic tracking shot -- as the camera smoothly steps inside an old house and from there into a dilapidated, but busy courtyard. It moves fast as we see many television monitors showing cricket matches and people huddled around the screens. The camera finally rests on one face, just another person in the courtyard who happens to be a compulsive gambler -- Rahul Sharma (played by John Abraham.Read full review2.0
Nishtha Bhatnagar | NewsX
We obviously don’t expect a candy floss romance from Nagesh Kukunoor. The maverick filmmaker lives upto the reputation of his past body of work and gives us a film about life, death and the time in between. Aashayein is a film about a terminally ill man who discovers life only in the last few days that he has left of it. The film sensitively deals with cancer and life inside a facility that houses terminally ill patients and how the most of life can be madeRead full review1.5
Mayank Shekhar | Hindustan Times
"Hum log bhi zaadatar aam logon ke jaise hi dikhte hain (We mostly look like common people too)," explains a poor, old prostitute (Farida Jalal), almost looking into the camera. You heart's supposed to melt at that profound appeal from her community. Apparently. This reasonably healthy woman, diagnosed with AIDS, is a social pariah even among the terminally ill. Fellows around switch chairs at her presence. A perfectly educated, "M.Com, MBA" (Girish Karnad) believes her touch could spread the deadly disease.Read full review1.5
Rajeev Masand | ibnlive.com
There are many reasons why Aashayein is a difficult film to sit through, but chief among them is its misplaced sense of self-importance. John Abraham lumbers through his scenes as chain-smoking gambler Rahul, who abandons his live-in girlfriend and takes off to a remote home for the terminally ill when he's diagnosed with lung cancer. There he smokes some more, befriends the assorted co-patients, and ultimately redeems himselfRead full review1.5
Taran Adarsh | bollywoodhungama.com
Practically every new-age film-maker wants to attempt a real story on celluloid. Stories which are straight out of life/newspapers/news channels. These stories, generally, strike a chord with the ticket buying audience if narrated convincingly and most importantly, narrated within commercial parameters. Nagesh Kukunoor has been a frontrunner as far as choosing and narrating real stories are concerned.Read full review1.0
Blessy Chettiar | DNA India
Aashayein begins with a promising track shot taking the audience from an old house to a den of bookies in an old and dilapidated courtyard. The opening shot is so fantastic that it raises your aashayein, only for the film to dash them soon after. The story of a compulsive gambler (we hardly see the obsession with gambling), Aashayein is a confused hotchpotch of many messages, none of them hard enough to hit you. Our protagonist Rahul SharmaRead full reviewNR
Komal Nahta | Koimoi
AASHAYEIN is depressing stuff. Besides the audience, it will also leave the makers and distributors gloomy.Read full review
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3.5
I “Hope” this film gets recognition!
movielover4, 9 years agoSuper hit movie. I loved everything about this movie. -
2.0
Aashayein
kailashmisra, 9 years agoThis is one time watch. You can watch this movie to pass your time.