Biswajeet Bora's directorial debut, Aisa Yeh Jahaan, brings to the silver screen a conversation that we, as a society, have been in desperate need of for a while. Starring Dr Palash Sen and Ira Dubey, Aisa Yeh Jahaan focuses on the human mind, body and soul, and their growing detachment from nature. Props to Bora for attempting a novel theme and Aisa Yeh Jahaan has other merits too, such as being India's first carbon neutral film, but good execution of a good idea is not one of them. A mangled storyline that fails to come full circle only makes the film harder to process. Excessive preaching and too many subplots make it hard to follow the story. As much as you want to like Aisa Yeh Jahaan, it's difficult to make sense of it in parts. Aisa Yeh Jahaan has its heart in the right place put falters on several technical aspects too. Except for a handful of picturesque shots of the breathtaking Assamese landscape, the camera work is atrocious, as is the editing. However, the music partially manages to save the film. The star of the film is clearly Kymsleen Kholie. Kholie emotes through the toughest of scenes with admirable ease and has a strong screen presence for her age. Despite strong performances, Aisa Yeh Jahaan fails to engage due to its shaky storyline and scattered plot. It is a half-baked attempt to create something beautiful.

This film, which calls itself ‘India’s first carbon neutral film’, and which wants to talk up ecology and conservation, and the joys of going-back-to-nature, has a nice premise. But its execution is amateurish.  But to stuff in so many superfluous songs, and clichéd characters and situations, does a disservice both to the film and the idea behind it. Fresh-faced Kymsleen Kholie’s Pakhi is the best part of ‘Aisa Yeh Jahaan’, but you can’t help feeling uneasy when you see an entire feature film revolve around a child who is a `labourer’, so to speak, even though the film begins with a disclaimer, stating its position against ‘child labour’. It is crying out to be done, sure, but better.

Managing to find warmth in the fast-paced life of Mumbai is often a cumbersome feat. But, Aisa Yeh Jahaan presents you with the story of a young Assamese couple who overcome the perils of Mumbai's metropolitan culture and revives love, familial bond and companionship that was fast eroding from their lives. As the story shifts between its central characters Rajib and Ananya, they are depicted as young parents who are reeling under the staple pressures of raising a child in a big city and paying multiple loans to in order to support themselves too. Rajib has on his platter the pressing needs of his overambitious wife, whose materialistic demands are difficult for him to fulfill. Director Biswajeet Bora's characters are largely uni-dimensional, restricting themselves to just being black and white. The film's narrative is inclined towards the beauty of India's villages and small towns, but takes up a cliched method of slamming big cities like Mumbai to establish this dichotomy. Thus, Bora's judgment of the small-town-versus-big-city view lacks balance and that comes through in the film. Both Palash and Ira play their characters to the tee, with utmost earnestness. The child artistes Prisha Dabas and Kymsleen Kholie play their parts wonderfully too. However, Bora's plot is weakly brewed, often sloppily written and mostly lacks impact. The film will touch you surely, but the overall effect doesn't suffice as anything much to write home about.