Tashan ki tashan
So the unthinkable has happened - due to non-agreement between YashRaj Films and a united front of multiplexes (yes, I know, it's weird) - India's multiplex's didn't release Tashan today, the proverbial Friday. And how bizarre - us NRI-log have now watched a major Indian release way before our desi counterparts.
Time was when I saw Taal in 1999 in a musty, one room cinema the size of a toilet in Lutwyche, populated by local Indians dressed up as if attending a wedding, since it was one of the few occasions for them to see and be seen. And Taal came months after its Indian release, hired out by a distributor hanging on to some form of new desperation.
Today Tashan was showing at The Regent (even as it gets ignored at AdLabs and Inox in Mumbai), was a full house for both the 5:30 and 8:30 shows, and were full of new Indian faces I didn't recognise, wearing casual jeans and shirts. (The fact that none of them turned off their mobile phones, littered the cinema, and constantly cut queues, is another story. ) And all of them were new imports - for both educational and professional purposes. I hesitate to call them NRIs - you only earn that after you've collapsed into tears upon listening to AR Rahman in your home stereo, and gravitating towards tabla music playing around Queen Street Mall. Yet - they almost wanted to seem slotted that way - almost as if being NRI were somehow superior to being desi. Who the hell knows.
Anyway - preface over, here's the actual review, since I know those in India who haven't seen the movie, and want to know if its paisa vasool - or even if there's a hint of the ol' Khiladi-Anari chemistry from AK and SK. My personal theory - if there was, it was chalked out by the script.
But you decide:
**NOTE: This review is written ad hoc as first thoughts, and may be revamped in the future. Original version appears in Bollywhat (check out 'tabula rasa').
Tashan - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
GOOD
- Anil Kapoor's English. I want that man to read Shakespeare to me before I go to bed every night.
- Some zinger one-liners. ("toh kya, AISE hai?" And the translated Deewar monologue. And "bilkul George Bush ki tarah").
- Akshay Kumar's Bachchan Pande characterisation. Esply his entry as a Ravan who stops the play.
- Some of the movie's road trip aspects.
- A good tight first half.
- The Sanskrit chant in the climax (it sounds familiar, I want to know what it is).
- Surprisingly, the Dil Dance Maare picturisation.
- The very interesting film discourse about language, Eng vs Hindi, illustrations of demographics of those that use them and those that don't, and what one type thinks of the other.
BAD
- Unconvincing action - way too OTT.
- Unconvincing in terms of character motivation too. We have no way of believing that Kareena can shoot well, or that AK can run up buildings and accost a whole gang of goondas, and dodge bullets till kingdom come.
- An unravelling climax, where there is no crescendo - the action plateaus at a high pitch, which makes it unwatchable. It's suddenly 70s villain climax, without the tongue in cheek.
- A ridiculous backstory to Bachchan Pande, and the ridiculous unlikelihood of Bebo as Gudiya. And the coincidental realisation. Again, way too serious 70s cinema. Came into the story waaayyyy too late.
- An unresolved/unnecessary plot point of Saif as police informer, whose purpose dies with the officer. His motivations aren't enforced in the script after that.
UGLY:
- Kareena in Chaliya. Surprisingly she wasn't as skinny in the other parts - Chaliya seems to have been a nugget of time of super-skinniness. Ribs. I could see her ribs. There's nothing sexy about poking ribs.
(Interestingly, the house full audience which hooted every time Anil opened his mouth, and whistled at Akki's entrance, remained strangely silent throughout that song).
- A halting, skipping script post-interval, which only gets highlighted when the characters are being themselves.
- An overblown budget on action that does not get justified.
So? Worth the DVD? Hmm. Yeah. But if someone could rip just the 1st half for me, I'll be happy.
Time was when I saw Taal in 1999 in a musty, one room cinema the size of a toilet in Lutwyche, populated by local Indians dressed up as if attending a wedding, since it was one of the few occasions for them to see and be seen. And Taal came months after its Indian release, hired out by a distributor hanging on to some form of new desperation.
Today Tashan was showing at The Regent (even as it gets ignored at AdLabs and Inox in Mumbai), was a full house for both the 5:30 and 8:30 shows, and were full of new Indian faces I didn't recognise, wearing casual jeans and shirts. (The fact that none of them turned off their mobile phones, littered the cinema, and constantly cut queues, is another story. ) And all of them were new imports - for both educational and professional purposes. I hesitate to call them NRIs - you only earn that after you've collapsed into tears upon listening to AR Rahman in your home stereo, and gravitating towards tabla music playing around Queen Street Mall. Yet - they almost wanted to seem slotted that way - almost as if being NRI were somehow superior to being desi. Who the hell knows.
Anyway - preface over, here's the actual review, since I know those in India who haven't seen the movie, and want to know if its paisa vasool - or even if there's a hint of the ol' Khiladi-Anari chemistry from AK and SK. My personal theory - if there was, it was chalked out by the script.
But you decide:
**NOTE: This review is written ad hoc as first thoughts, and may be revamped in the future. Original version appears in Bollywhat (check out 'tabula rasa').
Tashan - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
GOOD
- Anil Kapoor's English. I want that man to read Shakespeare to me before I go to bed every night.
- Some zinger one-liners. ("toh kya, AISE hai?" And the translated Deewar monologue. And "bilkul George Bush ki tarah").
- Akshay Kumar's Bachchan Pande characterisation. Esply his entry as a Ravan who stops the play.
- Some of the movie's road trip aspects.
- A good tight first half.
- The Sanskrit chant in the climax (it sounds familiar, I want to know what it is).
- Surprisingly, the Dil Dance Maare picturisation.
- The very interesting film discourse about language, Eng vs Hindi, illustrations of demographics of those that use them and those that don't, and what one type thinks of the other.
BAD
- Unconvincing action - way too OTT.
- Unconvincing in terms of character motivation too. We have no way of believing that Kareena can shoot well, or that AK can run up buildings and accost a whole gang of goondas, and dodge bullets till kingdom come.
- An unravelling climax, where there is no crescendo - the action plateaus at a high pitch, which makes it unwatchable. It's suddenly 70s villain climax, without the tongue in cheek.
- A ridiculous backstory to Bachchan Pande, and the ridiculous unlikelihood of Bebo as Gudiya. And the coincidental realisation. Again, way too serious 70s cinema. Came into the story waaayyyy too late.
- An unresolved/unnecessary plot point of Saif as police informer, whose purpose dies with the officer. His motivations aren't enforced in the script after that.
UGLY:
- Kareena in Chaliya. Surprisingly she wasn't as skinny in the other parts - Chaliya seems to have been a nugget of time of super-skinniness. Ribs. I could see her ribs. There's nothing sexy about poking ribs.
(Interestingly, the house full audience which hooted every time Anil opened his mouth, and whistled at Akki's entrance, remained strangely silent throughout that song).
- A halting, skipping script post-interval, which only gets highlighted when the characters are being themselves.
- An overblown budget on action that does not get justified.
So? Worth the DVD? Hmm. Yeah. But if someone could rip just the 1st half for me, I'll be happy.
posted by Sreedhevi Iyer | 12:17 am
1 Comments:
Hi! there,
I really like what you wrote in "Tashan - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly."
Have quoted it in on my blog "The Variable".
The article is "Tashan - The ‘pharmoola’"
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