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★★★
Directed by: #MilindSwamy, #MukeshAsopa
Written by: #RajeshAsopa
Starring: #MukeshAsopa, #JasDhanda
Aisha and Rahul is a beautifully directed romance film with a few key problems that hold it back. The directors Mukesh Asopa and Milind Swamy are clearly talented, keeping the viewer engaged in a film that is unfortunately filled with poor dialogue and questionable acting performances.
The story centres around a romance between Rahul (Mukesh Asopa) and Aisha (Jas Dhanda) and a struggle to blend with a vastly different culture after Rahul moves from India to Canada. The film often darts frantically between past memories and the present. While this can cause some confusion, the skilful direction creates confidence that a viewer is in capable hands and it is the intention of the film to be left in the dark. Instead of a sudden plot twist, the film fluidly moves back and forth in time to slowly reveal a painful truth which leads to many beautiful and powerful scenes. Moments where we see Aisha and Rahul together are enough to create a bond between an audience and the characters, however the character development is somewhat lacking throughout the film. This potential for development is restricted by a simplistic storyline and little focus on the characters themselves.
The cinematography is where the true strengths of this film lie. It is tasteful, skilful and wonderful throughout. The camera is not simply used as a means to film the characters, but a tool that effectively tells the story. In fact, the cinematography is often far more effective in telling the story and engaging an audience than the somewhat problematic dialogue.
The unique and interesting use of time in telling the story was also key to creating an engaging storyline from a simplistic idea. The jumps back and forth, especially earlier on in the film, can be unclear. However, instead of being confusing and disengaging it actually serves the gradual plot twist reveal to the end. Without this bold choice of playing with time, the storyline would become predictable, cliched and a bore.
As mentioned before, this film has clear problems that almost overshadow the captivating directing style. Firstly, the dialogue. It seemed to rarely serve a scene, instead clashing with the mature cinematography. At moments where scenes are able to transform you into a blissful trance that only skilled directors are able to do, unfortunate dialogue can be painful at times. Furthermore, the acting and delivery of the dialogue certainly doesn’t help. Of course, this is a low budget indie film and the acting is not expected to be Oscar-worthy. However, it must at the very least be believable. Unfortunately, in a significant amount of the film, it simply is not.
Overall, the film is worth watching if not just to view a couple of skilled directors at work. It is essentially an exercise in style, and often a beautiful one. However, poor writing, a simplistic storyline that allows for little development and poor acting affects what could be a touching, sweet romance. Pair the directors with an equally skilled writer, actors and actresses; there would be something truly magical created.
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