Tashan Movie Review: Fairly Entertaining

Yash Raj Film's much awaited Tashan is finally here. It is an entertaining film of course, but one which calls for a willing suspension of disbelief. It looks good, has some absolutely unbelievable stunts by Akshay Kumar and some truly exotic locales. Director Vijay Krishna Acharya seems to have done a fairly decent job with Tashan

The film's narrative is carried forward by the three main characters, Bachchan Pande (Akshay Kumar), Jimmy (Saif Ali Khan) and Pooja (Kareena Kapoor). The film is about their individual tashan, or passion. Jimmy is the call centre executive, a smart, cool dude, quick to smell an opportunity to make a fast buck. The love of his life is Pooja, who works for Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor), an underworld don from Kanpur His passion is reserved for killing people and speaking English. That's where our call centre executive comes in. Pooja and Jimmy plot to abscond with Bhaiyyaji's money. But Pooja pulls a fast one and disappears with the cash, leaving Jimmy behind to face the fire from Bhaiyyaji. The don calls on the services of Bachchan Pande from Kanpur. He wants both Pooja and the money back. Pande is a small-time don in Kanpur, hoping to make it big as a shooter in Mumbai. Jimmy is sent along with him. They find Pooja but she does not have the money with her. She has stashed it away in different places, one of which is an old haveli in Rajasthan.

As the trio makes its way through the country collecting all the money, Jimmy and Pooja hatch another plan, one where Pooja tries to get Pande to fall in love with her. She tries all her wiles and tricks but does not succeed, till one nigh when Pande reveals the story of his childhood crush. That girl happens to be our Pooja. The lovers are united but Jimmy is under the illusion that it is all an act on Pooja's part. Meanwhile, Pande decides to save both Pooja and Jimmy and decides to go alone to Bhaiyyaji with the cash. But Jimmy, has substituted the money in the bags for stones and so now Pande faces Bhaiyyaji's ire. But on hearing Pooja's story, Jimmy has a change of heart and the two go out to rescue Bachchan. It's an all out war with the trio pitted against the don and his army. Of course, it all ends well in the end with our protagonists taking their revenge on Bhaiyyaji.

A word about the actors here. All three of them, Saif, Kareena and Akshay share a very good chemistry and their scenes together have that element of ease. All three also turn in a very good performance as well. Saif fits into the role of the city slicker, call centre executive, with ease. His straight-faced humour works very well indeed. It's Kareena and Akshay who take away the honours though. Akshay specially, gives an uninhibited performance as Bachchan Pande. His stunts are a little unbelieveable, though executed very well. His character in film has the ability to clamber onto walls, and jump from all kinds off heights unscathed. He does the UP bhaiyya bit quite well. So much has already been written about Kareena's look in the film, her crash diets etc. Needless to say, the effect shows on screen. She looks quite gorgeous in places and brings out the shades in her character quite well. Anil Kapoor, who has been cast as the villain, Bhaiyyaji, however, does not seem have the kind of impact that one was expecting. His character had a lot more scope and could have been funnier, one felt, or even more menacing. It was neither. Yashpal Sharma in a cameo as a police officer does a competent job.

The music of film, specially the title song sounds very good indeed, as also the romantic song (Dil Hara Re) picturised on Saif and Kareena. Contrary to expectations, there are no special sparks flying between the two, though their comfort level is visible. The idea of taking the film forward through three narratives is interesting. It has been tried before with disastrous results by Yash Raj in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom as well. But it works better here. The writers of the film, manage to leave room for a few small surprises which they spring on the audience. However, the one episode that seems a little too glib is the one where Kareena's character reveals that she is Akshay's childhood crush in the film. That bit seems a little too pat. There are other loopholes in the screenplay as well and, like one said, one has to willingly suspend one's sense of disbelief if one is to enjoy the film.

The style and look of film is impressive. Acharya gets that right. In fact, he gets most things right with Tashan, which at the end of the day is nothing more than a stylized revenge drama, with a little bit of romance, long-lost lovers and a funny villain thrown in. Acharya has tossed in all the ingredients into the fire but the resulting broth is not as pungent as one would have expected.