Her talent spells dynamite on screen. One of the top selling points of Kedarh Shinde's 'Toh Baat Pakki!', is the presence of Tabu. The actress, one of the most talented of her generation, hasn't been seen in a Hindi film for quite a while. It is because of her that one has a few expectations from the movie. The movie lives up to a few of them and fails miserably on certain other counts. It is indeed heartening to note that there are many filmmakers today who would like to emulate the likes of Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee and make small, wholesome films.

Shinde makes the same kind of attempt here with 'Toh Baat Pakki!'. While the film's premise is extremely interesting, it somehow does not pan out in the way one expects. The underlying humour in the story does not come out strongly and it turns out to be a tepid affair. The Tabu factor is able to lift the film, to a great extent.

The film's story is about Rajeshwari (Tabu), who lives with her husband Vinay (Ayub Khan) and her unmarried sister Nisha (Yuvika Choudhary). Rajeshwari's agenda in life is to find a suitable boy for her sister within the Saxena community… but there is a mandatory prerequisite. The groom must be willing to marry her sister without asking for any dowry.

She chances upon a promising candidate in Rahul (Sharman Joshi), an engineering student and manages to entice him to move into their house as a paying guest. She also manages to engineer a romance between the young couple and… a marriage is fixed.

But just then, she chances upon an even better prospect in Yuvraj (Vatsal Seth), who is also a Saxena boy, and one who already has a good job. Rajeshwari now changes her mind and tries to set up Nisha and Yuvraj. So far, so good.

From this point onwards, though, the film starts losing its grip. The problem is that this is just the point from where the story should have taken off. But there is absolutely no ingenuity in the plot and the subsequent sequences fall flat.

Shinde excels in the first part, where the writing is excellent. But once the second prospective groom enters the picture, the writing loses its bite. The resultant humour too is forced.

The performances are quite good, within the circumstances. Both Tabu and Sharman are great actors and they excel in the first half, as they are also helped by some good writing. The dialogues in this section also have some punch.

But in the second half, both the star actors are forced to rely on their histrionic ability with little help coming from the dialogues or the screenplay. But to their credit, both Tabu and Sharman match each other point for point and are a treat to watch.

Vatsal Seth does a good job as the rival suitor for Nisha's hand. Yuvika is reduced to being a pretty face in the movie, but she fits her character well. Ayub Khan does not have much to do, but he is an actor who has a very pleasant screen presence and adds to the wholesome feel of the movie. As for the rest of the cast, Himani Shivpuri, Suhasini Mulay and Sharat Saxena put in competent performances.

'Toh Baat Pakki!' does not have great music, despite Pritam being the composer for the film's music. Except for a couple of numbers, this is a rather tame outing for the music composer. The film's greatest flaw lies in its inability to exploit its brilliant premise. But what Shinde does manage to do is create a very wholesome atmosphere and keep it rooted to middleclass values.

It's the little details that he works in, which enhance the film's value and makes it true to its ethos. But on a final note, the film fails to be as absorbing as its premise promises, despite its old world charm. Toh Baat… Jachhi?