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Tashan

Movie Tashan Director Vijay Krishna Acharya Producer Aditya Chopra Cast Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor

IndiaFM

Hindi movies have undergone a sea change in terms of content. From crude, been-there-seen-that, done-to-death kind of movies, to films with substance, the audiences� tastes have changed over the years. Even though we grew up on a staple diet of desi food, we've cultivated a taste for Italian, Chinese, Thai and Mexican cuisine. The experience with Tashan is like when you enter a posh restaurant and wait for a sumptuous meal only to be served vada-pav. Tashan takes you back to the 1970s Bollywood, when illogical situations and blood and gore were the main ingredients that made the janta break into taalis. Sorry, the formula doesn't work anymore! Seriously, what was debutante director Vijay Krishna Acharya thinking when he wrote this apology of a script? It's perfectly okay to revisit the classics and pay homage to the masala films of yore, but the new interpretation has to be contemporary, you need to change with the times. The one thing that you realise after watching Tashan is that no amount of gloss, glam and top-notch stars can ever substitute for a riveting script. Great stars, great styling, great songs and great visuals work as long as the script is great. So what's the verdict? If you genuinely miss the 'Kamine, main tera khoon pee jaaonga' and 'Bhagwan ke liye mujhe maaf kardo' kind of movies that dominated the �70s, pick up a DVD of those hits instead. Tashan is regressive cinema with a capital R. A call centre executive, Jimmy (Saif Ali Khan), is entrusted with the responsibility of teaching English to a gangster, Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor). But Bhaiyyaji's key help, Pooja (Kareena Kapoor), uses Jimmy to swindle Bhaiyyaji of Rs 25 crores. Obviously, Bhaiyyaji wants his money back and also Jimmy and Pooja's heads. He enlists Bachchan Pande (Akshay Kumar) to trace Pooja, after Jimmy surrenders himself to Bhaiyyaji. What happens next? Actually, Tashan starts off very well and the first hour unwinds at a feverish pace. Besides, there are interesting twists and turns in this hour. Akshay's entry in the movie is the turning point and the actor takes it to a new level. Alas, the joy is short-lived. The writer-director goes completely off the mark and loses focus. Instead of coming to the point right away, he makes you run in circles. It's like boarding a direct flight to London, but having stopovers in Ahmedabad, Dubai, Budapest, Munich, Berlin and Amsterdam. You're exasperated! What ails the film? Various factors. The film goes on and on and on. Unwanted scenes, the outdated love angle, the lengthy fight sequences (people showering Akshay and Saif with bullets, but, well, nothing happens), the confrontation between good and evil in the climax� you will actually pinch yourself to check if you are watching the same movie that you liked in the first hour. Or did the reels get changed in between? Another minus factor is Vishal-Shekhar's music. It seems like the composers have run out of tunes and what they offer is best suited for the music systems in their cars. With such impressive names on and off screen, the music directors should've ensured that they come up with tunes that remain etched in your memory� in this case, at least that could've been a redeeming aspect. But the music is awful. The picturisation of some songs is, however, quite good. Director Vijay Krishna Acharya seems to have taken the audience for granted. Cinematography is excellent. The locales are a visual treat. Dialogues are good at places. Tashan belongs to Akshay Kumar completely. No two opinions on that. Take Akshay out of the film and the movie is a big zero. He's the lifeline of the project and the elite and masses will love his performance. Kareena is fantastic. She looks gorgeous, acts well (her role is similar to the one she essayed in Fida), and, yes, she carries off the bikini with �lan. Saif is relegated to the backseat. What did he see in this role? He's hardly there in the second hour. Anil entertains at the start, but after a point, the Hindi-English bhasha gets on your nerves. Also, it's very difficult to decipher what he's speaking most of the time. On the whole, Tashan is one of the weakest films to come out of the Yash Raj banner. This film has gloss aplenty, but no soul. At the box-office, the film will join the ranks of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and Aaja Nachle. Overseas business will also be weak despite the popular cast.