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

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.

Let me tell you whether you like or hate Tashan, the fact is that this is a movie unlike you have ever seen in India or anywhere else. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on what you went into the theater expecting.

Also the point of this post is not as much as to review the movie but more to explain what Tashan was supposed to be. After that it's your call to decide if it's a good, average or pathetic movie. This was a movie which I watched for free on very first day of its release courtesy the firm I am having my summer internship with. So in absence of all the reviews that were supposed to come out the very next day, my experience and feelings while watching this were quite unbiased .Since then a lot has been said about the movie. It has been called amongst the 'worst movies ever","idiotic and silly","formulaic" and even been given nicknames like "aditya chopra ki aag".

OK I understand the movie is no classic but it certainly is not as bad as being said. I am a sort of person who hated movies like Dhoom 2 and Dus. The reason being that these pretended be cool and stylish but actually were just plain annoying and dumb ,and the hate is so strong that even this post will be reeking of the same.

Tashan is a movie which actually shouts out loud that look how silly I am. It is very honest in what it wants to be and what it's supposed to be .Take it or leave it. It is not at all meant to be serious, believable or intellectual cinema. It is meant to be a sort of a spoof and homage to the masala potboiler Hindi cinema of 70s and 80s. If you have seen Quentin Tarantino and Roberto Rodriguez directed Grindhouse then you will understand what I am talking about. This is the reason why everything in the movie is deliberately over the top –situations, characters, dialogs, action, dance sequences (e.g. dil dance mare) and everything else. The whole mood of the film can be summed up in one song -Dil dance mare which has been outrageously choreographed and actually in a good way with lyrics which are really very innovative.

The reason why this movie is attracting so much hate is because it tries to mock the same audience and critics who think Dhoom 2, Dus, Krrish, Race etc are good movies. Todays multiplex going audience who think of themselves as 'intellectuals' feel almost insulted of the fact that they have been presented with a movie which has supposedly been phased out of their theaters ( i.e. rickshawallahs type b grade cinema of 80s). These audience can bear a song like 'zara zara touch me' but cringe at 'dil dance mare'. But that is what I like about Tashan- a no holds barred, unpretentious and unapologetic bollywood ishtyle masala fare. It's the same old tale of revenge and love that has been told umpteen numbers of times but jazzed up for the 21st century.

While action sequences in Dhoom 2 kept annoying me and dialogs put me to sleep, the dialogs and conversations in Tashan are actually quite interesting with that completely gone crazy mix of Hindi and English. Tashan is no more or less silly compared to Dhoom 2 and Dus but actually has much better performances. Akshay Kumar is brilliant as Bachhan Pandey and Anil Kapoor is good in first half.

That being said it's not a very good homage and the film falters badly in second half with unnecessary subplots and stretched out action sequences which reach a level of craziness that is almost surreal. Also the storyline fails to hold your interest after a while.

If you are ready to suspend your sense of belief for a couple of hours, sick of current crop of 'multiplex' movies and actually understand that its all meant to be hyper realistic you may will find some redeeming qualities. I will rate it 2.5/5. Not good but still better than other pseudo cool and insult to intelligence movies like Dhoom 2 and Dus. Don't waste your precious bucks in a theater for this, rent a DVD and find out yourself how good or bad this movie is.

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.