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iView Author:

Mihir Vivekanand Patki

(Mumbai, India)

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mvpatki [at] gmail [dot] com

An aam aadmi’s view of Tashan

Tashan attempts to take you back into time. The classic cinema of the 70s and 80s. Baap ke khoon ka badla, loads of melodrama, bagfuls of bang bang. So much that even the theatres where you can catch Tashan might take you back in time considering this flick is being screened only at the good old single screens.

Imagine you are served a delicious looking 7 course meal. You sink your teeth into the first bite and realize theres no salt in the food. This is exactly how you would feel while watching tashan. After an impressive credit title sequence and a promising beginning suddenly you realize that the plot is going nowhere. Or rather going the old traditional predictable way. Anil Kapoor’s attempt at English appeared funny to me at first but later I found myself struggling to understand what he was mouthing. But he’s done justice to the role of “Bhayyaji”. Watch him act a spoof scene in his typical “Garge Bush” and “Prince Charlie” style English and you will be laughing your heart out. Kareena reiterates her role in Fida(atleast in the first half) while Saif is relegated to the backseat thanks to Mr. Bacchhan Pande. Oh yes, Akshay Kumar playing Pande virtually carries the entire film on his shoulders. Minus him, people would have left the film midway during the interval. Watch him answer his phone saying “Ram Ram” while hes playing the character of “Ravana”. The ease, the diction, the ishtyle, everythings just perfect. The ganga kinare wala chora steals the show all the way.

Somewhere in the fight sequences, bullet shooting and chases, there is an essence of the Clint Eastwood starrer “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”. The desert scenes will definitely remind you of the classic blockbuster. I expected a better score from Vishal and Shekhar considering their solid track record. Not that the songs fall short of expectation by miles but they could have been better especially “Falak tak”, which came at such a wrong time that people actually went out of the theatre to puff cigarettes and discuss how bad the film is. The “Dil dance mare” track stands out for its originality and lyrics. Ayananka Bose’s camera work is superb and perfect to the T. What the film lacks is its soul. Its script and screenplay which is so loosely bound that the film tends to seem overlong. It’s difficult to believe that the man at the helm of this project is Vijay Krishna Acharya who had scripted the superb Guru and Dhoom 2.

And did I mention that you will witness umpteen double-crosses? There are so many events that suddenly make you feel that the movie will pick up pace from now on but you are disappointed. The characters seem to have been killed n number of times (either by grenades, flamethrowers or swords) but all of them return with the background song “Tashan Main Tashan Main”. Saif rides a water scooter in a factory while Akki drives a sportscar and Anil tries to escape in a cycle-rickshaw. How resourceful is it to have all these modes of transport at the villian’s adda!

All I can say is catch the film once atleast. For Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor(and her whistle evoking bikini which she carries off with panache) and the track “Dil Dance Maare”, which has been playing on my ipod ever since afternoon. And yes, watch Tashan for a sneak peak at Singh is King, Bachna Ae Haseeno and Roadside Romeo.