Film Review: TASHAN (Cinema Paradiso)

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Vijay Krishna Acharya’s directorial debut doesn’t quite succeed, but the tongue-in-cheek film isn’t as brain-dead as it seems. More Jhoom Barabar Jhoom than Dhoom:2, you might want to give this ambitious meta-movie a chance if you didn’t mind JBJ too much

Tashan’s got balls. I never thought I’d actually be sitting and writing this in a review, but I am- and not without reason. It’s a brave (albeit, foolhardy) film because it apparently doesn’t want to please everyone, or actually anyone. You either accept it for what it is, or totally junk it.

Or maybe it’s just plain stupid. Maybe it does try to please, tries too hard- and falls quite flat on its attractive face. Whatever may be the case, I am going with the former (and probably lot less agreed with) discourse on the film. Maybe it’s because after being subjected to weeks of mostly pure torture at the cinemas, I have actually managed to come out half alive out of a film.

Maybe it’s because reactions to this film remind me of the ones that greeted another strangely similar film from the ‘prestigious’ Yash Raj banner last year- yes, Tashan is already being talked of as the Jhoom Barabar Jhoom of this year- ‘all style, no substance’. Or maybe it’s because I’ve gone soft, or because I’ve run out of polite expletives, or because I’m fed up of being cynical. This is my review, and I’m gonna say what I want to- take it, or junk it.

No, it is not a very good film- please, I mean well, and thus what I say must not be misconstrued to mean that Tashan should pull you into theatres and into buying tickets for obscene amounts of money. I don’t think too much of the film, but I can’t say I didn’t like its spirit and attitude- its Tashan, if you please. This is refreshingly unpretentious filmmaking from Vijay Krishna Acharya- eccentric, outrageous and zanily over-the-top. And that is why despite acknowledging that the film ultimately works only because of its pure-dynamite cast, what I admire is the fact that this film makes no bones of what it’s really about- which is The Ishtyle, The Goodluck, and The Pharmoola (as its posters brazenly declare)- though then again, the film isn’t exactly formulaic in a conventional sense.

Need I mention that the film’s unabashedly bizarre story is also as thin as its leading lady? Not that the story really matters, and hence all I’m telling you is that yes, Kareena Kapoor did sport a two-piece bikini (hush-hush!), and no, she didn’t tragically die of malnutrition in the end.

Tashan begins with quite a bang, with stylish graphic novel-like credits and a riveting, racily shot opening sequence involving a red Mercedes convertible fashionably skidding across the sands of Ladakh, set to a soundtrack that crazily alternates between Highway to Hell and Kabhie Kabhie. That quite cleverly manages to set the tone for the rest of the film- go-for-broke, giddy, even bumpy, but never quite boring, captured wonderfully in bright Technicolor hues by cinematographer Ayananka Bose.

Why I enjoyed Tashan is not because Acharya succeeds at fulfilling his mad, almost impossible ambition of making a spectacle without a script- he doesn’t, and just as well- but sometimes it’s fun to see a filmmaker dare to make something so whimsically indulgent, so what if all the (over)confidence is actually quite misplaced. That’s what endeared Tashan to me personally, the fact that Acharya tries to take a bite at a hugely audacious idea, even if he doesn’t really manage to chew it ultimately.

But even if the film is a let-down in terms of writing, which is mostly clumsy and inconsistent, lacking any real wit or inventiveness, the cast does manage to keep things somewhat upbeat throughout the film’s moderate length- well, almost. Akshay Kumar is the undoubtedly single-most popularly appealing factor in the film, and it’s no surprise he steals the show and walks away with loudest applause, drawing louder hoots and whistles than even his ‘size-zero’ co-star. The comic timing- even if over familiar by now- is good as gold, and Kumar makes the most of his immensely likeable character. Anil Kapoor manages to get guffaws at first, that with his superb ‘Inglish’ rendition of Deewar’s cult dialogue, but his increasingly bizarre (mis)use of the Queen’s language means that the laughs get fewer with time and his speech more and more incomprehensible. Nevertheless, Kapoor pulls of the loud role and accompanying gaudy costume like only he can, with his trademark ‘jhakaas’ flamboyance. Saif Ali Khan plays the cool dude for the umpteenth time, but yet is surprisingly engaging in a film that really relegates him to the backseat, while his now-emaciated current girlfriend Kareena Kapoor has the least to do here, ranging from being effectively enticing to completely bland, her often over-the-top dialogue delivery making it seem that she forgot she was no longer playing Jab We Met’s Geet.

Vishal and Shekhar’s music fails to really work, a failed fusion of elements as eclectic and diverse as Sufi, rock and Bhojpuri music, but comes off as pretty bouncy set against some energetic picturisation. However, it still stands quite unwanted in a film that clearly doesn’t need any songs. Or, then again, perhaps it is kind-of apt that Tashan has songs, despite their constantly interrupting presence in the film.

For it isn’t hard to see Tashan is, after all, a new-age but unapologetically true-blue Bollywood film. There’s the sometimes almost Rajnikanth-like action, (pretty well orchestrated by Peter Hein, set to a background score that’s mostly terribly screechy) and lots of it indeed- with bullets flying everywhere but never hitting the lead characters (except once, to give vent to some romance, but that wound is soon forgotten) and wild stunts that are eye-popping not so much in scale as they are in exuberance and exaggeration. But more importantly, underneath the entire seemingly jazzy and badass exterior lies a very Indian heart and a tale of love, revenge and good over evil. And therein for me, lies Tashan’s appeal- in its sheer honesty, one that isn’t ashamed to show us what it really is, in The End.

P.S: Though movie critics are often accused of having no BO acumen by trade analysts who pretend to predict a movie’s fate with all First Day First Show reports in hand (not even tough for a Paanchvi Pass, what say?), I make a small prediction if my own here. Methinks Tashan is going to be a flop- contrary to being crowd pleasing, as it seems, it actually alienates much of it’s audience, including the ‘family-audience’ and the ‘intelligent, multiplex’ types who would find the film absurd, completely missing the point of the film- besides the IPL, now more ‘exciting’ with all the ’slapping tamasha’, reducing viewers. If the film does manage to do do decent business despite all this, Akshay Kumar would be the only reason, and that would definitely and truly prove and cement his position as a major BO puller.