| Reviewed
by Baradwaj
Rangan on August 22, 1999.
Plot: Industrialist
(Amrish Puri) lands up family in tow at a hill
station to close a deal. While there, his son (Akshaye
Khanna) romances a local singer's beautiful
daughter (Aishwarya Rai). The lovers are forced
to part when Puri leaves with his family, but
Rai lands up in Bombay looking for Khanna.
Circumstances cause their break-up, and she runs
into a self-made music mogul (Anil Kapoor), who
initially, and expertly, exploits her
singing/dancing talents professionally,
and then gets involved with her personally.
Meanwhile Khanna realizes what he's lost and
returns to Rai, leading to the inevitable love
triangle that must be resolved.
Review: 'Taal'
is easily Subhash Ghai's best film to date. In
the photography, choreography, acting, and music
departments, the film comes up aces. The entire
affair is very classy, but... very sedate. I
thought this was really curious, as I really
enjoyed the film, but it did not give me the
high that, say, 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' (easily one
of the high points of commercial Indian cinema)
did. If the latter was old wine in a brand new
bottle, 'Taal' is old wine in an old bottle with
just a brand new label. It doesn't disappoint,
but leaves you wishing something more had been
done.
The
music/choreography, though great, do not
electrify the way the sequences in 'Dil Se' did.
Even though this film overall is far superior to
'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam', not one sequence
registers as strongly as the latter film's first
half (Now THAT was a true musical, too
bad about the second half though), considering
that this is supposed to be a musical
extravaganza. Ash, though great in looks and
performance, strikes no sparks with either hero,
unlike Shah Rukh/Kajol in practically every film
of theirs. And the film itself is extremely
restrained.
Restraint
is all very good, especially from the director
who displayed Dilip Kumar's patriotism in
'Karma' by having him spray an India map around
Anupam Kher's villain (Dr. Dong? Dr. Dang?) with
bullets from his machine gun, but 'Taal' is a
bit too restrained for its own good. None of the
scenes do the 'twannng' on your heart. For such
a predictable story, the twannng-o-meter
registers pretty low. Maybe that's what he
wanted, avoiding the cliches, but then he should
have told a different story, for this story
itself is a hoary cliché. I mean, isn't there a
middle ground?
Enough
complaining, though. If you thought Ash was good
in 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam', she's mind-blowing
here. I mean, she's no Shabana, but easily the
most impressive commercial actress around.
There's a 30-second sequence during the 'ishq
bina' song involving a Coke bottle passing back
and forth between her and Akshaye (BTW, is that
just his hairstyle or really a receding
hairline?) that is so naturally done! Plus, she
looks ethereal (I still cannot get over how
wonderful she is in that 'ramta jogi' song) and
is a great dancer! Akshaye is good too. I
didn’t care for him in 'Border', but I thought
he was good in 'Aa Ab Laut Chalen', and he's
good here. Of course, due to his looks, he's
going to be given the softie-Rishi-Kapoor-type
roles, but... And just when you are worrying
that the film is getting nowhere real fast, Anil
Kapoor single-handedly revives the film's second
half with a brash, amusing performance. A R
Rahman's music is simply sensational throughout.
So I
guess, I'm being unfair when I say this could
have been so much more, when there are so many
films that are not half as decent. It's not
great, but definitely good.
|
Aishwarya
Rai
Anil
Kapoor
Akshaye
Khanna
and Aishwarya Rai
|