Lots of soul, lots of heart – that’s what Tahaan is
Kashmir has never been captured on celluloid so magnificently. What’s new in that, when Santosh Sivan is the cinematographer, you might ask. Sivan has this innate capacity to capture the character of the locations he shoots his or others films in. But you have to watch Tahaan to find out what I mean.
So many films have been shot in Kashmir over the years, from those Shammi Kapoor hits to their substandard clones to recent films like Yahan, Agni Pankh and Mission Kashmir. But mostly, it has been the picture postcard image of Kashmir that has come through in most of these films. You actually cannot blame any filmmaker for following that predictable path. If I or you were to land up at such a beautiful place, we too would go berserk doing the same. Tahaan too has lots of these picture postcard moments, but then, to capture that beauty almost as a character of the film itself is a different ball game altogether. And that is what Sivan has done. Beyond description actually, what he has done this time. Like I said, you have to watch it to understand what I am trying to say.
Tahaan is actually almost a magical tale – a fable as the opening credits say. The mood sets in as the opening credits roll, with an imaginative canvas of many hues unfolding in the backdrop. On the face of it, Tahaan is a very simple tale, sans the melodrama that it would have fallen prey to if Sivan had decided to go the mainstream way (which he did with Asoka, and we all know the outcome). It is about Tahaan (which means “Rahamdil” – one with a kind soul – as ironically a soldier in uniform in Kashmir says in the film), a little kid, whose sole struggle in life has been reduced to planning how to get his pet donkey Birbal back. And it unfolds just like a fable that our grandparents used to tell us when we were kids.
But it has layers and layers beneath its fable-like look, and that is where Sivan has scored as a filmmaker. The tragedy of Kashmir – the burnt houses of the fleeing Pandits, the brotherhood among communities in the state that continues at the subterranean level despite all the bitterness on the surface, the Sufi traditions that are being pushed to a corner in the prevailing times, the loss of innocence of the people, the hope for a better tomorrow, the sinister games of the militants such as how they even deploy children to carry out their acts (remember how sometime back in Afghanistan a kid had come up to soldiers to tell them that someone had tied explosives around his body and asked him to explode them after coming near them – thankfully he did not do that) – comes through in many hues in the film. And that is done without any lecturing or being preachy. All this are in the background, as the story unfolds, but you don’t miss their eloquence at all.
Yes, there are some points which are debatable. The Army, even when they are carrying out anti-insurgency raids, are shown as kindred souls, happy to exchange a few nice words with the kid. There may be a few like them, but we know that in reality, it is not at all so in the larger picture. And the film actually wastes that wonderful actor called Victor Banerjee. Before you start relishing him, he (I mean his character) is dead and gone. And Rahul Khanna as the young money lender is completely miscast. He may pass off as an urban Kashmiri, but his accent goes completely against the grain of the film. And the denouement left me dissatisfied a little bit, though it can be argued that in a fable, everything ends on a good note and that it was symbolic of how Kashmir and its soul has been muddied by the reckless violence over the years.
But these are minor follies, and there are positives galore. Camera work, like I said, is simply outstanding, probably among Sivan’s best till date, if not the best. Acting, again, is first-rate. Purav Bhandare as Tahaan is a revelation. After Mani Ratnam and Jahnu Barua, Sivan shows great sensitivity in handling a child artiste, bringing the best out of him. Makers of films like Tara Rum Pum Pum should watch this film and learn how real children look and behave. Sarika does not utter a single word in the film, but what a performance as Tahaan’s mother who is waiting for her husband to return who is among those 8,000 Kashmiris who have gone missing over the years! After Parzania, another performance by her that deserves a standing ovation. Anupam Kher excels, as he does when he gets an author-backed role. And Rahul Bose, as the idiotic assistant to Kher’s character simply steals the show though his is a side character. Taufique Qureshi’s background score backs up Sivan’s vision aptly. Sound design (Rajakrishnan) and editing (Shakti Hasija) are first rate.
Tahaan is a film with a strong soul. Remember the great Children of Heaven from Iranian master Majid Majidi. It is a film almost in that league. Small in scale, big in heart and soul. Sivan will find it difficult to surpass the standards he has set for himself with Tahaan.
Tags: Anupam Kher, Children of Heaven, Kashmir, Majid Majidi, Purav Bhandare, Rahul Bose, Santosh Sivan, Sarika, Tahaan, Victor Banerjee, World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Will read this once I watch the film. Not before.
booking tickets immediately for 7:30 pm show today in PVR hyderabad. cant wait……………
Eagerly waiting for the movie to release. Am sure Santosh Sivan will do due justice wearing a director’s caps.
I got a vague deja vu of Majid Majid’s “Children of Heaven” looking at the promos of Tahaan. I want to be proven wrong when I watch the film.
After a pathetically bad first half( except for Mithya and to some extent Jodha Akbar), we seem to be having a really good second half this year.
Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan and Rock On were all really good, and now A Wednesday and Tahaan seem to be must watch. Santosh Sivan is one of the best storytellers for sure, watch his Terrorist.
Rajkumar Gupta, Nishikant Kamath and Neeraj Pandey take a bow, we need more like you. One hopes they dont end up as one movie wonders like many others.
Any parallel with Iranian cinema is surely unintentional.
I am a Kashmiri and I find sensitivity shown in most of the Iranian Cinema quite identifiable with the Kashmiri sensitivity. But then the beauty of Majid Majidi kind of cinema is that whole lot of people can identify with it. But in case of Kashmir..sights, sounds and locales of these film have an added effect.