The formula. The bad cinema

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Film: Tashan
Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Anil Kapoor
Rating: * 1/2

At the outset, Tashan has everything going for it. The setting could easily have been for a blockbuster hit - an attractive star-cast, stylish filming and a plot replete with comedy, revenge and action. The film’s opening sequence is refreshing and immediately sets the tone. You wait with bated breath. And then bad cinema takes over.

The illogicalities of Tashan definitely rest on a filmmaker’s favourite explanation for a bad script – you are supposed to keep your brains back at home for this one. But as Tashan unfolds, you realise the makers probably expected every viewer to have the IQ of an imbecile and fathom every hard-to-digest explanation the film offers. 

The story, then, is about Jimmy (Saif Ali Khan), a call centre exec who doubles up as an English teacher. He is asked to tutor Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor), an offer he takes up only so that he can spend some time with Bhaiyyaji’s pretty-looking employee Pooja (Kareena Kapoor).

Unknown to Jimmy, Bhaiyyaji is an underworld don. Pooja fools him into believing that she loves him and makes him steal Rs 25 crore from Bhaiyyaji, before running away with the loot herself. The onus, then, is on Jimmy to bring back Pooja, and he has to do this with an obnoxious wannabe gangster Bachchan Pandey (Akshay Kumar). 

After a long time, you get to see the typical Bollywood villain (an ingredient absolutely lost in Hindi cinema lately), who is funny yet menacing, without explanations given for being a bad guy. He has a den where he carries out his nefarious activities ala the Mogambos and the Shaakaals, guarded by hordes of henchmen, the heroes obviously kick the a***s of in an implausible unbeleivable climax.

If only the makers, the formidable Yash Raj and writer/director Vijay Krishna Acharya had worked on a little-something called script and ignored the trappings of a convenient screenplay, Tashan would have probably hit the mark.

What you have instead are inane sequences, redundant scenes and characters who do not serve any purpose to the story. The intention, of course, was to bring back the cinema of the 70s, sexed up with a Hollywoodish style of making and enough entertainment to make the viewer forget the irregularities of the drama. 

Tashan, however, pushes it a little too much. In one scene, Bachchan Pandey points his gun at Jimmy and Jimmy tells Pandey that he cannot kill him. Why? As the hero of the film, he wouldn’t kill anybody, of course.

Obviously, while writing that scene, Mr Acharya completely forgot an earlier scene where the same Pandey shoots down an army of policemen (or were they black cats?)!!

Pooja is working with Pandey because she wants to take revenge, but those intentions aren’t revealed till the very end. You wonder why she waited all that time to get what she wanted.

Jimmy getting embroiled in the plot seems completely unwanted and his track loses control as the movie progresses. Less spoken about the complete letdown of a stupidly clichéd climax, the better.

First-time director, Vijay Krishna Acharya with all his stylish approach, fails big time in storytelling. Anil Kapoor, though sincere in his villainy, tends to get on your nerves with his broken English after a point. Saif’s is probably the worst written role in the film, and what should have been the most lovable character is relegated to a side role in the second half.

Whatever little opportunity he gets though, like in the climax where he imitates Bhaiyyaji, he’s excellent. Akshay Kumar breathes life in the film with his mere presence and Kareena Kapoor dazzles in her sexy siren act.

The film is probably one of the best in terms of visual appeal (Cinematography: Ayananka Bose), and the action (Peter Hain) and background score (Ranjit Barot) work well together. But what ails the film easily outnumber its plus points.

Except for Chak De India, a Yash Raj outing has not been the best experience for a cinemagoer lately. Tashan, too, follows in the footsteps of the banner’s last year duds Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Laaga Chunari Main Daag and Aaja Nachle. 

It’s time they pull their socks up. 

g_aniruddha@dnaindia.net