Right at the start, a blood red convertible Mercedes races merrily through Ladakh’s dusty terrain. This is what Tashan is about – The car swivels so does the radio nervously shuffle between AC/DC’s Highway to Hell and Mukesh’s rendition of Kabhi Kabhie.
Huge canvas, beautiful landscape and then the car loses it control, breaks thru and goes down a lake…. Very impressive till now and one would expect that it will be the most thrilling 2 and half hours in the recent times of mediocre bollywood films. But it was disappointing.
Debutant director Vijay Krishna Acharya is brilliant in a few scenes, has been supported by absolutely unbelievable stunts by Akshay Kumar and some truly exotic locales, but through the remaining parts of Tashan, it appears that Yash Raj Banner is experimenting with the Indian audience. They have done a quality job in the promos of this movie, so as in the initial scene. Rest onwards, the director uses a mixture of David Dhavan type, the B grade Hong Kong Movie type treatment – like the Bachan character from UP, so is the Raja Bhaiya, the Gudiya and the nautanki scene to introduce Akshay Kumar.
Jimmy (Saif Ali Khan) is a call centre executive, cool dude, quick to smell an opportunity to make a fast buck. The love of his life is Pooja (Kareena Kapoor), who works for Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor), an underworld don from Kanpur Our Bhaiyyaji’s passion is killing people with crazy objects and his desire to speak English fluently the American way. Jimmy is roped in to give the done tuitions in English. While teaching the don, Jimmy and Pooja fall in love and they plot to abscond with Bhaiyyaji’s money.
But Pooja double crosses the cool dude, disappears with the cash, leaving Jimmy behind to face the fire from Bhaiyyaji. The don calls on the small time bhai in Kanpur – Bachchan Pande (Akshay Kumar) from Kanpur. This new character is ordered to bring both Pooja and the money back. Pande wanted to make it big as a shooter in Mumbai. So he is excited. Jimmy is sent along with him. They find Pooja who has stashed away the money in different places all over India.
While the trio makes its way through different parts of the country collecting all the money, Jimmy and Pooja hatch another plan, where Pooja tries to get Pande to fall in love with her. She tries all her charms and tricks but does not succeed, till one night when Pande reveals the story of his childhood crush. That girl really happens to be our Pooja.
Now Pande actually falls in love with Pooja, and decides go alone to Bhaiyyaji and save Pooja and Jimmy. So begins the chases, fun and the predictable masala …..
The title song of Tashan, also referred as the romantic song (Dil Hara Re) picturised on Saif and Kareena – picturised in Greece and the Kareena’s Chalia song are very good indeed. There are other flaws in the screenplay and in the second half it appears like watching a B grade Hong Kong movie where the bullets fly here and there but none of the good guys get hurt.
The style and look of film is impressive. But more impressive were its promos which gives a totally different picture as if the full movie was based somewhere in Greece and it would be an out and out thriller – which it isn’t.
Anil Kapoor is a big disappointment here. Sadly at times, he is irritating. An actor of his caliber is wasted in such a stupid role. There is nothing great about the “new thin and lean look” of Kareena Kapoor. Saif Ali Khan appears fine and acts well. Akshay Kumar steals the show in Tashan.
CAST of Tashan:
Jeetender Kumar Makhwana “Jimmy” – Saif Ali Khan
Pooja Singh – Kareena Kapoor
Lakhan Singh urf Bhaiyyaji – Anil Kapoor
Bachchan Pandey – Akshay Kumar
Ibrahim Ali Khan
Sanjay Mishra
Manoj Pahwa
Yashpal Sharma
CREDITS
Directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya
Story – Vijay Krishna Acharya
Produced by Aditya Chopra, Yash Chopra
Executive producers – Sanjay Shivalkar, Aashish Singh
Cinematography – Ayananka Bose
Film Editing by Rameshwar S. Bhagat
Art Direction – Sukant Panigrahy
Tashan, movie review
CREDITS of Tashan:
Art Department – Storyboard Artist – Samar Shaikh
Visual Effects By Prime Focus
Lead Compositor – Vivek Gaur
Visual Effects Supervisor – Merzin Tavaria
Music Conductor & Orchestrator – Andrew T. Mackay
First Assistant Directors – Ali Abbas Zafar, Sanyukta Ray
Second Assistant Directors – Sherena Cherian, Sharma Himanshu
Third Assistant Director – Mansi A. Mhatre
Trainee Assistant Director – Vikhyaat Sareen Publicity Designer – Fayyaz Badruddin