5. Tashan
Tashan was a movie which the critics claimed was all style and no substance. However, I think many of these critics were striking a pose because the movie is not nearly as bad as they make out. It was unfortunate that what is essentially a fairly decent road movie bombed at the box office so badly. This was partly due to the reports from the critics – but also for business reasons. The movie did have some finer points – Kareena Kapoor with blonde hair in vinyl, for example – something that other Bollywood actresses might wish to explore in the future! The A-list cast of Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor all put in solid performances – Akshay was outstanding – and whilst the plot is a little straightforward for a Bollywood movie – boy meets girl; boy&girl steal money from mafia boss and then go on the run – it rockets along at a fair old pace, with a few interesting twists and turns – and the direction has more than a few hints of Tarantino and Rodriguez to keep it interesting. The real reason the movie did badly at the box office was a revenue dispute between Yash Raj and the major multiplexes which crippled the day 1 screening that is so vital to modern cinema. Yash Raj was all over the place at the beginning of the year. I hope the accounting troll at Yash Raj who made this blunder has been forced to walk. Grab this on DVD, buy some popcorn and have a good night’s entertainment with your girl. You won’t regret it.
With an overall investment of 80cr in production and distribution, the box office revenue of 35cr suggests that Tashan will not recover its cost by about 10 cr assuming the usual pattern of non-box office revenues being about equal to box office. That makes it a bit of a flop.
