ISHQIYA... you might be perturbed about what it really means; is it even proper Hindustani? But once the film starts, there's nothing else you can think about, it is a journey you just have to take.
There is a mesmerising Krishna (Vidya Balan), who has you awed by her rustic beauty. Even as she merely sashays around her village house, she leaves the men breathless... Before you know what she is all about, you are confronted with Khalujaan (Naseeruddin Shah) and Baban (Arshad Warsi) and their complete twisted escape from Mushtaq (Salman Shahid)...
Kudos to debutante director Abhishek Chaubey for wrapping up the story with such classic overtures and absolutely delectable cinematography. Even if his characters spell everything dirty, uncouth and even dangerous, he manages to get them all together to tell a tale we all wait with bated breath to hear, surprisingly with a faint smile on our lips.
While guns and blood plaster the screen, you find yourself falling in love... just as the director had promised. So effortlessly does he manage to have his audience mesmerised, that we come out of the theatre feeling every letter that makes ISHQIYA, not realising who you have actually fallen for... whether it is the hopelessly romantic Khalujaan or his antithesis, his nephew Baban.... or the mysterious, forgotten widow Krishna...
The ease with which they cascade across the barns or the class with which they fall in love... there's nothing more breathtaking than this film onscreen today - ISHQIYA.
