Will 'Tashan' Work Today?

           

 

My last memories of watching a movie in Pinky Cinema in Andheri East (before it transformed from a run-down theatre to a slick albeit single screen revamp and eventually a MTNL office and a place for classrooms of TIME) go back to May 2008. In a sudden burst of enthusiasm, we- I, my sister and my mother- headed off in the hottest part of the usual Bombay afternoon in a baked autorickshaw to catch the much-awaited movie of the season- ‘Tashan’. Disregarding the brickbats hurled by critics and audiences, we nevertheless gave it a try, waiting in the hot sun after buying our afternoon show tickets from a battered window. After waiting next to a stall full of dog-eared copies of acclaimed books (To Kill A Mockingbird, The Pelican Brief) and colourful books with lyrics of popular Hindi songs, we went inside the theatre with lumps of chewing gum beneath our frigid seats and watched a Yash Raj films with a crowd of hooting people. But as the 2 and half hour duration ended, I was one of the few who were smiling.

To put it shortly, I was one of the few people who like Vijay Krishna Acharya’s debut film- a wild, wacky and almost nonsensical film which was unanimously voted by critics and viewers simultaneously as one hell of a disappointment. I was one of the few who gave the film a sort of cult status, even after it failed at the box office and became known, in some circles, as ‘Aditya Chopra Ki Aag’. Later, people took back their statements and agreed that yeah, Kareena Kapoor looked stunning in the bikini. And yes, Akshay Kumar was pure badass. But they all agreed that it was a film best avoided.

Let us set the clocks back at the last year itself. Despite all the achievements that some of the year’s best directors- Shoojit Sircar, Anurag Kashyap and Sujoy Ghosh- managed to accomplish, people still chat on about how mindless monstrosities like ‘Rowdy Rathore’, ‘Son Of Sardaar’ and ‘Dabanng 2’ made more than 100 crores at the box-office. And they are equally keen on watching how ‘Chennai Express’ or Salman Khan’s next venture ‘Mental’ fares at the box office.

So, if Aditya Chopra decided to re-release ‘Tashan’ in today’s 100 crore-obsessed times, will it work?

To begin with, let me defend the film itself. Acharya’s film was never supposed to be taken seriously. If audiences were honestly thinking that ‘Tashan’ will be a realistic movie, then they are really going for the wrong movie. In many ways, ‘Tashan’ seems to be a far, far better film than, say, ‘Rowdy Rathore’, ‘Son Of Sardaar’ and even the messy sequel called ‘Dabanng 2’ which spoiled all the fun that the first indulgent film brought to us.

What ‘Tashan’ had, more than these films, was a sort of balance between expensive production values and mainstream entertainment values. It starred a solid cast of performers, all of whom are A-grade actors. It had a great and even hugely under-rated soundtrack (the title song remains to be a heady pleasure). It had some spunky action modelled on kung-fu films, ‘Kill Bill’, ‘The Matrix’ and even Tamil movies. And it was shot on exotic locations- from Greece to Rajasthan, and from Ladakh’s dryness to Kerala’s backwaters. Everything is in favour of it becoming a blockbuster.

If there is a flaw, then it has to be in the plot and the writing. Acharya’s visual process is energetic, stunning and whimsical- bringing a Terry Gilliam-like daftness to the proceedings. However, unlike Gilliam’s films, what ‘Tashan’ sorely lacked was a proper plot. Even with all the tomfoolery, one feels inevitably that Acharya could have done more. Acharya, a talented dialogue writer, is best known for his blazing work in ‘Pyaar Ke Side Effects’ and ‘Guru’. And there are many notable places in ‘Tashan’ where his deftness with dialogue shows- the earthy, rustic tone that he brings to Akshay Kumar’s one-liners which is equally snappy and hilarious, or the confidence that oozes in Kareena Kapoor’s lines. But the same cannot be said for Anil Kapoor’s Hinglish mutterings- which need to be properly understood, and then subtitled. What could have been the film’s real comic punch is totally wasted and Kapoor’s caricature-like performance further ruins things.

And this is just the dialogue. Other than that, the movie is too random- it is also a bit too long, instead of being crisp. After one Robert Rodriguez-like action set-piece in a Rajasthani fort, which has one relentless moment of fast and furious gunfire, the film suddenly slackens down and becomes more interested in an elaborate yet far-fetched flashback. There is a pouty girl on a bicycle and a moustachioed adolescent guy who steals electricity by tampering with wires and love instantly happens. Obviously, it all looks visually good, even to the point of being mesmerizing. But such elegance has little to do with an out-and-out action comedy.

Yet. Yet. The truth remains that Acharya’s film, for all its rambling duration, is still way, way ahead of most of the Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn starrers in recent times. There are wonderful bits- like the brief and breezy Saif-Kareena angle, the sweet and lightly handled Akshay- Kareeena chemistry with both visuals (Ayananka Bose does a fab job) and well-crafted dialogue to match. There are also devilishly clever moments- the opening scene- with a car swerving to the alternate tunes of ‘Kabhie Kabhie’ and ‘Highway To Hell’- rivals anything that Tarantino has done with its self-referential joke underlining the culture clash superbly. And there are laugh-out loud silly moments- Anil Kapoor’s snarling villain bashes up a person with a cricket bat saying that he is a mix of Tendulkar and Lara. And there are many more, throw in randomly which are much more memorable than the foul humour that most of the action-comedy genre throws at us.

But will it work in today’s context? From what it seems, it is all a matter of marketing. Today’s producers and distributors spend millions on marketing their films and outings. Marketing is not just about generating ticket sales. It is more about creating an aura around the film. And this is how the marketers of ‘Dabanng’ and ‘Golmaal’ franchises have made the films best-sellers.

A film is marketed and promoted for the content that it would offer to people. ‘Dev. D’ was marketed as a visually path-breaking and urban adaptation of a classic done in an experimental way and that was how it was. ‘Dabanng’ and, for that matter, the ridiculously successful ‘Bodyguard’ were promoted as full-fledged action films and that was what they were.

So, maybe, Aditya Chopra needs to work out a suitable marketing strategy. He may choose to market the film’s funny bits and its star value so as to draw more crowds to the film, to create enough of a buzz. It is perhaps tragic that only the soundtrack of ‘Tashan’ made it to the promos and trailers.

Anurag Kashyap once said that if there was something that he could change about his misunderstood ‘No Smoking’, it was the way it was marketed. This is something that should be done to ‘Tashan’ as well. Because for all its flaws, this is still a film that deserves at least the big bucks that more mediocre films have notched up.