Did you ever get a movie with the same title, expecting another? I once thought I was ordering Kalyug (1981), but instead got Kalyug (2005). Such was the case for me with Aaina. I think I intended to get the 1977 Aaina:
Aaina is a 1977 Indian Bollywood film starring Rajesh Khanna , Mumtaz in the lead roles and A. K. Hangal, Nirupa Roy, Lalita Pawar, Kamal Hassan and Madan Puri in support roles. The music is given by Naushad. The film is directed by famous director K. Balachander. He had filmed the same story before: the Tamil film Arangetram(1973) with Kamal Hassan. It’s about a Brahmin girl becoming a sex worker to support her mother and siblings. (source)
That sounds pretty great, but instead I got the 1993 version of Aaina. For a full synopsis of the film go HERE, but I can tell you it’s basically a story of two sisters, one evil (Amrita Singh), one sweet (Juhi Chawla). The sisters fight over a fancy businessman, or as they frequently say in Bollywood, a rich industrialist, played by Jackie Shroff. It turns out that Reema (Juhi) has long been a fan of Ravi Saxena (Jackie) who is not only a fancy business man, but has also published some things she’s read. She runs into him in a book store. Can you find the pictures of Madonna and Michael Jackson in this photo?
Alas, Ravi falls for the evil self absorbed sister, Roma, instead of the sister who has long pined for him. The evil head case sister, Roma (Amrita Singh), eventually looses Ravi’s love since she’s more focused on being a top fashion model and ignores the realationship. Ravi marries the nice sister instead, but then Roma decides she wants him back and tries to manipulate him with various crazy antics, like pretending to kill herself. Pagli!
Singh does a great job acting like a psycho and won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for her efforts. Eventually her many manipulations pay off and she wins back Ravi, but Reema is on to her sister’s evil plotting and finally grows a spine and confronts her.
The sisters have a dance off at a lavish party over Ravi!
There’s even a tight slap to the face!
The song Aaina Hai Mera Chehra with real life sisters and playback singers, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle picturized on Amrita Singh and Juhi Chawla, pretending to sing, and pretending to be sisters. If you don’t want to spend time watching the entire film, this item number sort of summarizes it: behen vs. behen for the pyar of a man.
And real life sisters out there, please don’t fight over a man! Have you seen either of the Aaina films? Which one did you like more?
Bollywood Food Club 
