TASHAN- a not so ‘generic’ review
Tashan made me go back to the single screen. The Yash Raj vs. Multiplexes standoff meant that I had to have my Friday dose at a suburban single screen, a world away from comfy cushioned seats, PYTs and combo packs. That Tashan, of all films, had to go unreleased at the multiplexes for a whole week is a curious coincidence indeed. Not because this film is poor, which it undoubtedly is…but because no film to my mind has presented such a strong case-study for the shift in Bollywood films and its audience from the days of single screens to the age of multiplexes.
Tashan begins with a red Mercedes convertible heading down a highway as AC/DC’s Highway To Hell plays over the car stereo. The song abruptly cuts and, as the car swerves off-road, we listen to Mukesh’s Kabhi Kabhie. We are later revealed that Saif’s ‘Jimmy Cliff’ and Akshay’s ‘Bachchan Pande’ fight over radio stations, alternating back and forth between AC/DC and Mukesh…between Jimmy and Bachchan. That is the primary conceit of Tashan- a narrative that seeks less to tell anything per se, but yet does. So when Anil Kapoor’s Bhaiyyaji, a desi Don desperately wanting to learn English, reenacts Amitabh’s iconic “Aaj Khush Toh Bahut Hoge Tum” scene from Deewar in broken English…we laugh. But what this scene proves more than anything else is the utter failure of masala Bollywood in an upward garb, in this case- English.
Bhaiyyaji is your traditional 70s villain who loves to chew tobacco and subject his enemies to electric shocks. 70s are no longer considered cool, as we are informed by remakes and spoofs. Bhaiyyaji naturally has to reinvent himself to cater to the new audience- and the ability to speak English is the first requisite towards that end. How apt then that he enlists the services of a call-centre yuppie to train him in the Queen’s language- which incidentally falls short when it comes to expressing love as Bachchan Pande realizes.
It is interesting to note that in Bachchan and Bhaiyyaji, Tashan has two characters rooted firmly in the 70s- both hail from the Hindi heartland; one quotes Bachchan, the other is ‘named’ Bachchan! Jimmy is the aberration, and Kareena’s Pooja…we’ll get to that later. While Bhaiyyaji wants to cleanse himself of his Kanpur roots, Bachchan meanwhile is the proud heir to the Ganga Kinaare Wala. This is why Bhaiyyaji’s updated rendition of the aforementioned Amitabh scene falls flat while Bachchan succeeds at invoking Gabbar Singh and Mogambo playing a Ravana in a Ram Leela. The one that embodies Bachchan lives on, and the one that tries to reinvent himself as the ‘new’ Bachchan for the ‘new’ age fails.
Tashan wants us to go back to the 70s, a decade that it looks back at with fondness. Pooja plays an important role here. Jimmy is enticed by the ‘very different, very Hindustani’ Pooja, different from the ‘similar’ kinda girls he dates; and Jimmy is repulsed by her when she reveals herself as a modern chic schemer. But Pooja is inherently that girl from the 70s, Bachchan’s sweetheart, who when she recounts her teenage days talks less about herself and more of what those days stood for- street vendors, gola-wallahs, roadside romeos who whistled as girls drove by in cycles and most especially two cinemas- Imperial and Alankar, the former screened Jeetendra flicks while the latter Amitabh ones.
Hilariously then, Bachchan and Pooja’s romantic interlude is sung against the backdrop of Alankar cinema while thumbing their nose to a wannabe Spielberg by forcing in a Bhojpuri number in a flick about holy widows ‘guaranteed to win an Oscar’.
The answer to every question, as Bhaiyyaji notes, lies by Ganga Kinaare. Why then did Yash Raj feel the need to go all Matrix in the action and more importantly, why did they not promote this film as a single-screen entertainer all along…is really the confounding question?
Dutt looks bloated here! 
Thanks Qalandar!!It is just a matter of 2-3 hours in a day, which I am easily able to make out.This ...
Jem was a much superior film than DON IMO! 
Thanks Akshay! 
Thanks folks. Hopefully things will work out for all. 
Excellent stuff on the Joker and Ledger's performance... 
"Jesse: did you ever post a review of the music of Sakkarakatti? I might have missed it…"
No Q, I never ...
Thanks rockstar, this is along the lines of what I was expecting from this movie.
Re: "Singh is king tries to ...
*** rating
another review on the predictable line.
good thing is that reviews are better than those of Tashan.
this should be enough.
Comment by Rocky on 5 May 2008:
Brilliant Review and agree with most except the opening line that the film is poor.
I thought that it became a good entertainer once Bachchan Pandey showed up.
Comment by Qalandar on 5 May 2008:
Superb review — although I got the sense that it was a bit “abbreviated”, or more accurately, omitted the verbal virtuosity I’ve come to associate with your reviews in addition to the insight, perhaps because you’re under water at the moment…
Comment by satyam on 5 May 2008:
Superb piece Abzee. I think that with both JBJ and now Tashan (though I like JBJ and dislike Tashan barring the Akshay parts) Yashraj essentially took up smaller, more local subjects and turned them into big budget ‘blockbusters’. Each film would have been more effective as a small budget ‘local’. I will say though that Shaad Ali handles these tensions far better than Acharya. Shaad’s only failing as I see it is the relatively uninspiring ‘material’ in a structurally very interesting first half. But also perhaps ignoring the Bachchan signature and the iconic ‘demands’ completely in terms of Abhishek’s characterization. The latter is of course only a problem in a commercial sense. Tashan though I found to be simply a poorly done film though this uneasy mix with the Matrix action is perhaps truer of the India it represents in terms of the small town ’scene’ than any nostalgic picture would be, I say ‘nostalgic’ because much as we criticize (and rightly so) the multiplex-oriented Bollywood economy for forgetting the Kanpurs (the very fact that a Kanpur should only be a ’small center’ and ’smaller’ than it was thirty years ago is telling!) of India we should also remind ourselves that the “gola-walah” today is perhaps as familiar with the Matrix as with Yashraj! I myself do this all the time but I think that we are sometimes guilty of idealizing small town India as the site of ‘authentic Indianness’.
Comment by rks on 5 May 2008:
All my friends have trashed it to extremes, so I am still dithering to catch this movie. But Some (this, and Qs) of the reviews have increased my curiosity.
Comment by satyam on 5 May 2008:
“although I got the sense that it was a bit “abbreviated”, perhaps because you’re under water at the moment…”
Perhaps “abbreviated” was also Abzee’s experience of the film!
Comment by Qalandar on 5 May 2008:
Re: “While Bhaiyyaji wants to cleanse himself of his Kanpur roots, Bachchan meanwhile is the proud heir to the Ganga Kinaare Wala. This is why Bhaiyyaji’s updated rendition of the aforementioned Amitabh scene falls flat while Bachchan succeeds at invoking Gabbar Singh and Mogambo playing a Ravana in a Ram Leela. The one that embodies Bachchan lives on, and the one that tries to reinvent himself as the ‘new’ Bachchan for the ‘new’ age fails.”
Brilliantly put…note Acharya’s cleverness here too, because circa 1989-1990, Anil Kapoor was (self?) promoted in the media as Amitabh’s biggest challenger (I’m sure those old enough remember the “Hum wars”)…
Comment by Rocky on 5 May 2008:
Re.-although I got the sense that it was a bit “abbreviated”
This is exactly what I thought. I was enjoying the comparison, the specific scene description, and the writing Tashan of Abzee so much that i wanted more and it seemed to end abruptly.
Yeh Tashan Mange More!!!
Comment by Rocky on 5 May 2008:
Rediff has Acharya giving background info on some of the Tashan Scenes.
Comment by henry on 5 May 2008:
Re: “While Bhaiyyaji wants to cleanse himself of his Kanpur roots, Bachchan meanwhile is the proud heir to the Ganga Kinaare Wala. This is why Bhaiyyaji’s updated rendition of the aforementioned Amitabh scene falls flat while Bachchan succeeds at invoking Gabbar Singh and Mogambo playing a Ravana in a Ram Leela. The one that embodies Bachchan lives on, and the one that tries to reinvent himself as the ‘new’ Bachchan for the ‘new’ age fails.”
No matter how clever, I don’t think the Indian audience is interested in this kind of meta humour. It’s way too ‘insidey’.
Comment by satyam on 5 May 2008:
True Henry though to be fair even in the US this kind of ‘meta-film’ never draws more than a limited audience. The exceptions are rare. But one of the problems with this kind of cinema both with Tashan and in the US is that for the basic narrative is often not compelling enough and what one is left with is just the commentary! Which makes for a very interesting attempt but something less than a film. Shaad Ali had the same problem in the first half of JBJ though the latter was fine (but ironically not as interesting structurally!).
Comment by Tuenkens on 5 May 2008:
Nice review, abzee. BTW, the “Highway to Hell” in this movie is not by AC/DC. In fact, anything but AC/DC. I have never heard this version, so don’t know about it. Also, wonder why? Did they not get the rights for the read thing? I doubt.
Comment by akshay shah on 5 May 2008:
“The one that embodies Bachchan lives on, and the one that tries to reinvent himself as the ‘new’ Bachchan for the ‘new’ age fails.”–;) YOU KNOW IT:D!LOL
Comment by sandy on 6 May 2008:
Superb stuff! First No Smoking and now Tashan, I think abzee’s biggest strength as a reviewer is his ability to provide fresh perspectives to any film. And this exercise is especially useful when you’re talking about something that has been so hastily cast away.
Comment by henry on 7 May 2008:
IMO Johnny Gaddaar had some terrific meta moments but it also had a superb narrative. Unfortunately that film flopped too though for entirely different reasons.