Review : Taal

This film proves it. Subhash Ghai’s direction is going down the drain. Senility or old-age or both ? I mean, I used to like Ghai films (Pardes was interesting), but the showman is losing his shine. This is a film full of improbabilities, one improbability slathered upon another, until you are choked by this thick miasma of foolishness. Yes, I understand that in Hindi films, dancers are expected to materialise out of thin air, music and the sounds of the tabla reverberate out of the valley the hero is dancing in, and entire neighborhoods are at leisure to gossip over the tiniest detail of the heroine’s day-to-day life. But, let’s do this in moderation please. In Taal, an overt break from reality hits me smack dab in the eye.Manasi (Aishwarya), a gorgeous dancing damsel, spends her leisure time (and she apparently has lots of it) dancing in the beautiful valleys and plains of her village Chamba, in Himachal Pradesh, where she lives with her folk-singer father Tarabhai (Alok Nath). During one of her impromptu dances, she is secretly watched by Manav (Akshaye), who is visiting the hill-station with his rich family. Manav and Manasi fall in love of course, but then are forced into separation by Manav’s decision to leave Chamba sans Manasi. They promise each other ever lasting love and marriage, and then separate.

 

After some time, Manasi reaches Manav’s house in the big city, where she and her father are ill-treated because she is poor, and Manav’s foreign-returned aunt doesn’t like that. More trouble brews, and Manasi and Manav break-up. Now Manasi meets Vikrant Kapur (Anil Kapoor), music director and music stealer extraordinaire. He also has a music company. Eyeing Manasi, Vikrant promises her the stars and makes her one too -a dancing and singing star that is. He also proceeds to fall in love with her. Does Manasi love him too ? Or does she secretly pine for Manav ? ….

The film is about 3 hours long, with 12 songs; that averages to about a song every 15 minutes. And these are l-o-n-g songs, so you approximately have 10 minutes of inane dialogue, before a 5 minute long song pops up. All these songs in a plot so thin, a child could snap it in two. Added to that, all dances in this film , (and there are lots of them too) have awkward choreography, not smooth and definitely not graceful. Pretty painful to watch. Also, both Aish and Akshaye need hair care, she needs some anti-friz treatment, and he needs to grow some hair !

Just about average is the highest rating I can give this film. I found an amusing review of this film by Roger Ebert. Taal is being screened at his “Overlooked films festival”. Overlooked, indeed! Me, I looked too much.