Tashan

Summer season is here when the choices in the cinemas are limited to what's the hottest movie of the week, given 99.9% of the screens dedicated to screening it. OK, so I may exaggerate on the percentage, but you get my drift. Besides stuff from Hollywood, Bollywood too have their own share of highly anticipated blockbusters, and from some of the trailers shown, I'm hyped to watch them too. Tashan was billed as one of THE most highly anticipated for 2008, but I was quite surprised at the lower than low turnout at the cinemas. When I watched Jodha Akbar, it was a full house, but it wasn't for Tashan.

After watching it, I knew why. It was entertaining, but it was fundamentally weak. Just like it's literal English title, which means "Style", Tashan is all style, but little substance. Not that it doesn't have the usual star power, but scenes felt forced, and some bordered on a tad ridiculous, even for Bollywood standards I must say. Which is quite surprising given that Tashan is directed and written by Vijay Krishna Acharya, who wrote Dhoom and Dhoom 2, both of which I enjoyed tremendously.

In his rookie directorial outing with Tashan, while you can't fault his direction, you'd probably scratch your head over the plot, which was clunky at best. It tried to force too many things into the story, though credit be given where it allowed you some avenue to question character motivation, but that came a little too late, and only toward the finale, which left you guessing for just a moment before it latched into full blown action mimicking many a Thai action movie, with Hong Kong's wirework and Hollywood's ludicrous firearms and gunplay with zero recoil. And in a bid to include everything including the kitchen sink, you have an assortment of vehicles appearing, and the one that took the cake, in a Dhoom 2 homage, was the jetski boat in the middle of nowhere.

At best, Tashan can be enjoyed as unintentional comedy, and this is attributed to how the cast hammed up with their characters. Saif Ali Khan plays Jimmy Cliff, a call center executive who gives English tuition, only as a platform for fishing out new girlfriend material. His playboy ways gets junked aside when he meets with Pooja Singh (Kareena Kapoor), who's not exactly who she seems, the meek and sweet natured hottie. She engages Jimmy's services for her boss, mobster Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor), who probably gets most of the laughs as he speaks broken English and phrases must like how an ah-beng does it. And to complete the quartet, Akshay Kumar plays Bachchan Pandey, an illiterate gangster for hire who got engaged by Bhaiyyaji to hunt down Jimmy and Pooja when they escape with money stolen from Bahiyyaji's business.

So begins a road trip of sorts, with friends who turned enemies, and enemies whom you know will become friends as the road trip wears on. Jimmy Cliff is probably the most implausible of all, because he goes from zero to hero, executing moves that would shame Rambo, in absolutely no time, which is quite out of character. Kareena Kapoor amps up the sex factor as she uses her charms to guile both men, and has plenty of opportunity to do so given the much touted bikini scenes, and other costumes that boast of plunging necklines or hemlines way above the knee. Every character has a backstory created, and I thought Akshay Kumar's Bachchan Pandey was probably the best, the most touching and the most fun of the lot, even though his character seemed a lot like a non-green Incredible Hulk with his gravity-defying leaps and power packing punches. His wounds also heal automatically, which impressively puts Wolverine to shame. And the best part is his theme song, which is damn alpha-male and played in ra-ra mode each time he takes on adversaries.

But sad to say, that's the only tune that is memorable, something that cheers "Bachchan- Pandey-Bachchan-Pandey". For most Bollywood movies I watch, I will usually be able to, despite the obvious language gaps, emerge from screenings humming a tune or two. I wasn't able to do that after Tashan, because the songs unfortunately just weren't catchy at all. Usually the song/dance routine works well into the storyline without any necessity to bring the characters out of the current scene or location. That I enjoy, versus plucking them out and plonking them into extreme settings high atop a mountain, or atop jagged rocks on the beach front.

Tashan probably didn't take itself too seriously, but coming from Vijay Krishna Acharya's story, you probably wanted something a little more decent rather than the ridiculous, and for continuity to be a little more careful as well. Billed as a blockbuster, now I can start to understand why the crowds have already shunned this one. Despite Akshay Kumr stealing the show, Tashan could have been better on the whole.

After an intriguing opening twenty minutes, 'Tashan' stops making any sense. Saif Ali Khan has a weak role and does little with it. Akshay Kumar rise above the script and remains watchable. Anil Kapoor is disastrously bad. He mumbles his lines and his Hindi-English dialog simply annoys. The makers clearly forget about the script. They seem to have spent all their time on the look of the film. Yes, it IS stylish and the visuals are nice, but the film simply doesn't work. The songs are mediocre but well shot. A few numbers could have been cut. A disappointment.

Overall 3/10

Loose your sensibility at home. 'Tashan' will never make any sense. The main ingredient: 'The Tashan the Ishtyle' is what matters the most, and that's what impresses the most about the movie. The threadbare story line need not be mentioned, it just won't be questioned by its audience. The things that would be questioned would be that whether the characters were stylish and whether the movie had the looks. Well, these questions are already been put to rest by me.

All the four characters were stylish in there own sense, but none were stylish and credible than Akshay's 'Bachchan Pandey'. His is the character that brings the movie to life after the lifeless early exchanges of the other three protagonists Anil's Hinglish 'Bhaiyyaji', Saif's English guru 'Jimmy Cliff' and Kareena's hot and smart 'Pooja Singh'. Akshay's 'Desi' goon character's quirky presence and Kareena's hot looks are the ones that keep the movie from falling flat. Apart from them Saif and Anil do not have any screen presence to hold on to there weekly written characters. The very Ishtyle songs fail to impress other than the title track. Much of the movie is forgettable other than the few post intermission exchanges between Kareena and Akshay. The wacky look and behavior will impress the urban young Indians, but seems doubtful to have any takers in the interiors of India. And finally the exhausting 'kungfu hustle' and 'kill bill' wannabe type climax sequence just creates a new height of self indulgence in Bollywood, something that may only look pale in front of southern super star action movies.

This has been the Yashraj formula for catering its urban audience, a thin storyline filled with stylized action like 'Dhoom'and its sequel. But 'Tashan' has its own wacky Ishtyle which may just cheer you on a certain dull day.

I just saw Tashan.Why do you guys who says this movie is bad? This movie is cool.

Some d**b f*** critics compared it with Ramgopal Varma Ki Aag.Either they have not seen Aag or Tashan.I saw both of them.Aag is the worst movie I have ever seen.It was a complete disaster in every department.Cult classic Sholay did not receive such a punishment.

As in the case of Tashan, it is 1 billion times better than Aag.It is not for intellectuals or for people looking for a solid script.The truth is the script is as old as the hills.But the movie is not boring.Not even for a nano second.The credit goes to the four main actors(Akshay,Anil,Saif and Kareena delivered superb performances.),the dialogues,the songs(Tashan Mein and Dil Dance Maare rocks), the choreography, the sets, the background music the action scenes and the pace of the movie.The action scenes could have been better. Also the henchmen of Anil Kapoor were ridiculous.

The movie would not have been half as entertaining without Akshay.You will love his character.A wannabe shooter with a heart of gold.He is the soul of the movie.

A perfect weekend movie.Just sit back and enjoy.

NB: Maybe I should also say that you have to be an Akshay Kumar fan in order to enjoy the movie.I am one.For the past 14 years

I totally disagree with the ratings and think that its not justified. though the movie had its good and bad parts overall the movie is in fact very good. On the negative side the action scenes were totally unrealistic, totally clichéd where our main leads are showered with bullets but escape without a scratch while bad guys and pathetic side actors fall like a bunch of leaves in autumn. But on the positive side the acting was really great especially by Akshay Kumar, Kareena looked smoking hot, Saif, though not a significant role, did good justice to his part and last but not the least Anil Kapoor who was brilliant with his bihari hinglish. The music is top notch with lots of catchy songs. I really think the positives far outweigh the negatives of this movie. If you really want to watch a movie which is funny, stylish and added to that some amazing music and cinematography then you cannot miss this movie.