It used to be chemistry between the actors for the success of a film, now it seems the chemistry is between the director and the actor. We are talking about Harry Baweja and Ajay Devgan who have given number of hits together. Ajay changed his look in the blockbuster QAYAMAT with the long hairdo as a prisoner. In MAIN AISA HI HOON, he is playing a gent with a much younger brain. Also a one of its kind of a role where Ajay will not be seen smoking on screen. Surely, a character worth seeing. Earlier, Salman Khan played a similar character of an adult with a brain of a child in CHANDRAMUKHI with Sridevi, which did not fare too well at the box office.
MAIN AISA HI HOON is a story about Indraneel Thakur, or Neel (Ajay Devgan) as he's fondly known by the townspeople is a grown-up man with the brain of a seven-year-old child. Heart-breakingly innocent, kind and with a generosity of spirit that few can rival, Neel is the darling of the small town he lives in. Life, for him, is a fable and the world a fairy-tale setting where no wrong or no evil can ever penetrate. The nucleus of his world is his seven-year-old daughter, Gungun, whom he loves beyond explanation. Friends, the owner of the books & coffee shop he works in and his landlady form the rest of his world.
Gungun's mother, Maya Trivedi (Esha Deol) had entered Neel's life like a mysterious breeze and left just as inexplicably, after giving birth to the child. And for the seven years after that, Neel and Gungun just had each other to live for. Their world was happy, albeit not picture-perfect. But none of their troubles were so large that they couldn't be surmounted by Neel's simple and fabulously sensible approach.
In this idyllic world, on the eve of Gungun's seventh birthday entered a storm - in the form of Maya's father - Dayanath Trivedi (Anupam Kher). The old man who's just learned about the presence of Gungun had flown down from London to claim his granddaughter. The first meeting between Neel and Trivedi doesn't go too well, and Trivedi slaps a lawsuit on Neel - for custody of the little child.
Neel can feel his world shattering around him and his decision to search for the best lawyer in town lands him at the office of Neeti Khanna (Sushmita Sen). Recently divorced, embittered, terribly ambitious, with a son whom she inadvertently de-priorities to the point of neglect, Neeti is a far cry from the role model for Neel's case. At first terribly resistant to take up Neel's case, she finally is broken down by Neel's sincerity and his unflinching love for his little daughter. To her great surprise, Neeti finds herself learning many lessons from Neel, and decides to take up his case.
Fighting a powerful NRI with all the clout and money and the consequent power wasn't the only stumble in Neeti's path. Trivedi had the advantage of being in the right - Neel was a mentally handicapped person with the ominous responsibility of bringing up a little girl. While Trivedi had every material arsenal that would help him bring up the child - including wealth and a sharp intellectual mind - as against Neel's seven-year-old brain. The courtroom battle to convince the judge otherwise forms the crux of the story.
Apart from its moot message - love is all you need - the film deals with several other issues. Maya's drifting, confused and lost state of mind - constantly seeking love and acceptance is a mirror of a large section of the youth, deprived of parental attention. Neeti's hardened exterior, her disillusionment with life as a single mother and her inability to give any attention to her child who suffers due to her single-minded ambition finds its reflection in many urban lives… And in Trivedi, one can see the quintessential success story - at the cost of his estranged daughter.
Viewing the complex world with the simplicity of Neel's mind, this is a beautiful tale of a father and daughter - and all the lives they touch. This is a story about love.
One will have to wait until 6th of May when the movie releases to see whether or not the powerful Dayanath Trivedi with all the clout and movey, wins his granddaughter from the loving father Neel.