Tashan…..

The most awaited movie of the year….

I do not say it, a survey says this.

So what’s the fate of it today on the D-day?

The story:

It is about Bhaiyaji (Anil Kapoor), Akshay Khanna (Bachchan Pande), Saif Ali Khan (Guruji) and Pooja (Kareena Kapoor). Saif Ali Khan is call center employee and trainer. Kareena requests him to teach English to he boss, bhaiyaji. Bhaiyaji is learns “tod-fod” english from Guruji. In the process guruji falls in love with Pooja.

One day Saif comes to know that Kareena is being tortured by Anil Kapoor  and is stuck with him due to 5 crore loan on her father from Bhaijayee. They both make plans to steal 25 crore of him and run away. They successful do the operation and return to Saif’s home. Saif goes for a visit to office and gets stuck there. When he comes back, he finds Kareena missing with money.

Bhaiyajee hires Bachchan Pande i.e. Akshay Kumar, who is from his town Kaanpur, to find these two people and get his money back.

What happens after that is a roller coster ride called…. TASHAN!

The promos, promotional material did not excite people much…. first impression is last impression. The first look of the movie was Kareen on bike with Saif and that has generated huge curiosity due to Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Breakup. The publicity was low key. So it did not give any clue to audience about what to expect. Akshay Kumar with jeans and long shirt with Gamachcha on his head was quiet interesting to see.. Kareena and Saif in urban atires, Anil Kapoor in some weird dress up. It was all confusing but was interesting.

The movie is like that. It is a mash up i.e. “Bhel” of rural and urban masala with southern style tadaka. Some may like it, Some may hate it.

The story is a thin plot and is like Manmohan Desai style. The narrative is unique where each characters tells the story and takes the movie forward. The low point is screenplay. The movie has up and down graph of excitement and engagement which is tiresome and boring at some points. That is troublesome. The dialogs could have been better with so much witty star cast. Anil’s hindi-english blabbering was not necessary for full time. I mean, once you learn English, you don’t use it always. Using that mix language was not at all required for full time.

The biggest hitch is Songs. Those are not very long lasting and some are bad. All songs sound same with rustic rural flavors and urban mix to it. However those does not move the story forward except the “Dil Dance Mare Re”. If those are removed or only small part of song is used, then it can be helpful to the movie. Vishal-Shekhar disappoints this time.

The first half is fast and furious and ends in straight 70 mins. But the 2nd half lingers and goes round and round. Direction from debutante director Vijay Krishna Acharya is promising but it has full south Indian movie touch. What let’s him down is the screenplay.

Cinematography is excellent. Locations are beautiful.

On performance side, Akshay is excellent, Anil is entertaining, Saif is ok (it is not his problem, he has been wasted). Kareens is mind blowing. She looks Billion Dollars (million will be less for her). She acts good. She does the given job with full justice. And yes…. she is in bikini…. and all other outfits are also not much bigger than bikini. So there is lots to watch for Kareena fans.

There are not many other characters and whatever are there are ok.

This was supposed to be comeback of Akki in action film genre. There are only 2 action sequences in the movie both are after interval. Akshay shines there. However, while trying to maintain the rustic and raw feel, the director has lost a chance to deliver a sleek action movie product. So though the scenes are good, they are not extraordinary. This is a chance wasted by the banner and the director.

To sum it up, I think Aditya Chopra is trying to develop some Urban/Rural Mix formula from Bunty aur Bubly. A formula which will apease to all kinds of audiences (Om Shanti Om?). He is not yet getting success in it. So this movie goes over the top, weird and boring at many places. After all making movies without a story is not very easy art.

BR Rating: 2 (1 star for the movie, 0.5 for Kareena, 0.5 for Akshay)
BR Verdict: Average
BR Recommends: You must watch this movie if you like south Indian masala movies or 70s failed headless formula movies. If you like good movies, you can stick to Shaurya.