People who are unfortunate may face catastrophic events in their life. These events occur when you least expect them to. The least possible place where you can encounter a catastrophic event is at the cinemas watching a movie. But my dear friends, nothing is impossible in this world. That has been proven by Yash Raj Films’ latest offering, Tashan. The film proves to be one catastrophic movie going experience. Those who watch it may never be the same again after the closing reels roll. The film was supposed to be one of the biggest and most anticipated movies of the year. Well it definitely is one of the biggest alright- the biggest blunder that is. The movie feels even worse because of the star cast and production house associated with it. You just cannot believe these people would be involved in this movie. That is why Tashan tastes even bitterer after you have gotten a taste of it. This movie is a failure in every sense of the word!
Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor) is a don who has a desire to learn how to speak English fluently. So he sends his personal assistant, Pooja (Kareena Kapoor) to find him a teacher. She finds Jimmy (Saif Ali Khan), a call center executive by day and a flirty English teacher by night. He falls in love with Pooja and, therefore, agrees to teach Bhaiyyaji English. As Jimmy starts teaching Bhaiyyaji, a relationship begins to brew between him and Pooja. Then one fine day, Pooja, along with Jimmy, decides to repay her debt to Bhaiyyaji by swindling him of his money and paying him back with it. But Jimmy is in for a fix as Pooja leaves with all the money and he is all alone to face the wrath of Bhaiyyaji. He surrenders himself and Bhaiyyaji calls upon Bachchan Pande (Akshay Kumar), a wannabe gangster, to find Pooja and his money. He sends Jimmy along with him since he knows about her whereabouts. That pretty much sums up most of the first half. The second half basically shows what happens after they find Pooja.
The story is simple and basic, just as it was expected to be. But what was not expected to be was how badly things play out. I can understand a film with a thin script as long as it has entertaining moments to make up for it. Unfortunately for Tashan, there are no moments like this to speak of. A film with a weak script and no entertainment is absolutely hopeless. The first half seems pretty pointless, while the second half drags like there’s no tomorrow! The film is very poorly edited. The second half becomes too long with the unnecessary romantic angle and the flashbacks that form it. There is absolutely no flow in the film at all. It’s like the film is stuck in cement because there is no movement in the narrative. They are just stuck in one situation for too long of a period of time. This causes the film to get slow and boring. Another issue is the fact that they were trying to pack too many things into one movie. You go from a comedy scene, to an action scene, and then to a romantic scene. It just does not work! I know masala movies have a little bit of everything, and that is fine, if you can pull it off. Tashan fails in this because it seems like everything here is being forced to make one massive entertainer. It just makes things worse as it bogs down the film big time.
This is Vijay Krishna Acharya‘s first directorial venture and it shows. He focuses too much on the ‘tashan’ of the film that he forgot about everything else. This is a fault with many new directors. They feel that if they can make their film look glitzy with big stars, then their film will be a success. That is not the case if you do not do your job in making sure in focusing in the other important areas. He just was not able to execute the film properly. Let’s just call it a rookie mistake and hope that he learns from it.
The cinematography of the film is solid. The locales of all over India, as well as Greece, look beautiful. The action sequences are pretty well shot. Speaking of the action sequences, there are only two to speak of. The first one is pretty good and makes you marginally satisfied that you finally get to see what you paid for-action! The second one during the climax starts off well, but then gets overbearing as it continues and starts getting predictable and tedious. One wishes there was so much more and better action in a film like this. That definitely would have helped in the entertainment department.
Vishal-Shekar‘s music for the film is, for a lack of a better word, cool. But it just feels like some of them just were not needed. ‘Falak Tak’ is probably the best, tune wise, while ‘Dil Dance Maare’ has the best picturization only because of its zaniness. But perhaps the best thing about the music was the fact that ‘Tashan Mein’ was used as background music because it made it sounds even cooler. Also, Bachchan Pande’s theme song is great and totally suits the character.
If there is one saving grace in the movie, then it is, without a doubt, Akshay Kumar. He breathes life into the character and the film when he makes his entrance. He delivers some good dialogues and his comic timing is as good as ever. He gives it his all and walks away with a noteworthy performance. The best thing is that we finally get to see him come back to action. Unfortunately for him and his fans, this movie does not do justice to him and his talents. But if there is one person who will walk away unscathed from this movie, that is the one and only Khiladi.
Saif Ali Khan looks lost and confused as to why he is part of this movie. I felt the same way as I was watching this movie. This role does absolutely nothing for him and this is the last thing he needed, especially because he is at an all time career high these days. He was a big disappointment, only because we expect so much from him. Saif can pull off these roles in his sleep, no doubt, but not when the role is so inconsequential and half baked like this. Another huge disappointment is the fact that they could not capitalize on the Akshay-Saif jodi. They were a huge hit in the past and were supposed to make a big comeback with this. But they barely have any interaction in the film and that is a big letdown.
Kareena Kapoor looks the hottest she has ever looked. The only problem is she has gone back to making those scary faces again. Kareena has made a living of playing over the top roles and this is right up her alley, but even she goes beyond the limits. It’s a good thing she transformed her looks, or else it would be unbearable to deal with her in this enterprise. She does get brownie points for slipping into a bikini because that’s the only time where you will actually sit up and pay attention in the movie. For those wondering about the chemistry of “Saifeena,” I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but there isn’t any.
Anil Kapoor is able to bring out a chuckle or two with his little Hinglish skit. It’s just that he does it the ENTIRE movie, and that causes his Hindi to start sounding like English and his English to start sounding like Hindi, so you really don’t know what the hell he is saying. It helps that he has great screen presence and was able to conjure up a decent performance. It’s good to see him experiment with his looks and roles. But his whole learning English bit was absolutely unnecessary. The last thing we needed was a FOB don.
Tashan was meant to be an over the top film, I understand this. I have no problems with that because over the top films are fine in my opinion, as long as they provide solid entertainment. But Tashan is way too over the top even for an over the top film. Not to mention, it does not really entertain you. That is what is going to spell Tashan‘s fate as a big failure. Yash Raj Films has long been considered the number one production house, but they are in a huge funk since last year. It’s time for them to come up with a new game plan if they want to keep their title as number one. As for Tashan, watch it at your own risk because I surely do not want you to go through a catastrophic event in your life.
