Tashan (film)

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Tashan
Movie poster for Tashan.
Directed by	Vijay Krishna Acharya
Produced by	Aditya Chopra Yash Chopra
Starring	Akshay Kumar Saif Ali Khan Kareena Kapoor Anil Kapoor
Music by	Vishal-Shekhar
Cinematography	Ayananka Bose
Distributed by	Yash Raj Films
Release date(s)	April 25, 2008
Running time	131 min
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Tashan (English: Style) is an Indian Bollywood film starring Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Anil Kapoor in the lead roles. Produced by Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra under Yash Raj Films, the film, which released on April 25, 2008, marks the directorial debut of Vijay Krishna Acharya who wrote the screenplay and dialogues for films like Dhoom (2004) and Dhoom 2 (2006).

[edit] Production

Pre-production work on the film began in late 2006 with Akshay Kumar being signed first, and Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor next.^[1] In early 2007, Anil Kapoor was signed on to play a negative role in the film.^[2] This film marked the return of Kumar and Kareena Kapoor to the Yash Raj banner after the former's Yeh Dillagi (1994) and Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), and the latter's Mujhse Dosti Karoge! (2002). Anil Kapoor also made a comeback to the Yash Raj banner after 16 years. His last film with the banner was Lamhe (1992).

Apart from the major star cast, Khan's son, Ibrahim, also made his acting debut, where he played the younger version of his father's character.^[3][4] Sources later indicated that all the actors would be seen sporting new looks designed by designer Aki Narula, with Kareena Kapoor in a very glamorous role and reportedly donning a bikini.^[5][6]

In June 2007, the cast began filming in Kerala, and later continued shooting in Laddakh and Rajasthan.^[7][8][9] Pictures of Khan and Kareena Kapoor were taken in September 2007 while shooting for the film in the Fort area of Mumbai.^[10] Some portions of the film were later shot in the city of Haridwar on the banks of the river Ganges and Greece.^[11][12]

The first promo was shown on November 30, 2007 with the release of Anil Mehta's Aaja Nachle.^[13] In a poll conducted by indiaFM, Tashan ranked first on the list of "Most Awaited Movies of 2008".^[14] To promote the film, Yash Raj Films built communities on social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut and YouTube.^[15]

[edit] Synopsis

In the beginning, we see Jimmy Cliff (Saif Ali Khan), a call center executive who also teaches English, as the narrator. Pooja Singh (Kareena Kapoor) shows up outside his class and says she needs private tutoring. Without any hesitation, Jimmy quickly agrees as he has already fallen in love with her; he later finds out that Pooja's boss Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor) is the one that has to be tutored. As their love grows, Pooja reveals that she is only working for Bhaiyyaji to pay her debts and then go to Haridwar for her father's funeral. They decide to steal Bhaiyyaji's money and run away. The couple succeed in their mission, and Jimmy asks Pooja to guard the money while he goes to the call center.

As featured in the film: Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan (l-r) in their respective roles

At the call centre, Jimmy learns that Bhaiyyaji is a maverick gangster who enjoys killing people and goes home to warn Pooja. Unexpectedly, Pooja has run away with all the money. Bhaiyyaji hires Bachchan Pande (Akshay Kumar), a gangster to catch Jimmy. After getting caught, Jimmy and Bachchan head towards Haridwar to find Pooja and recover Bhaiyyaji's money. When they reach there, Pooja sees them and runs away. Unable to find Pooja there, Jimmy and Bachchan set off to find her again. While on the road, the duo get into a silly fight about the radio station and get in an accident, where their car falls into the water.

Along with Jimmy and Bachchan, Pooja comes out of the water too. She tells them that she has hid the money in several different places. Jimmy and Pooja decide to run away with the money with the help of Bachchan. The duo decide that Pooja should seduce Bachchan just like how she did to Jimmy. While on their journey to recover the money, Pooja and Bachchan find out that they are each other's childhood love, and they both fall in love. After recovering all of the money, Bachchan decides to leave with it, not knowing that Jimmy has replaced the money with stones.

When Pooja realizes what he has done, she tells Jimmy the truth about Bhaiyyaji killing her father. To save Bachchan, Pooja and Jimmy head to Bhaiyyaji's lair with the money. When they get there, Jimmy pretends to betray Pooja and slaps Bachchan. He tells Bhaiyyaji to give him his gun so that he could kill Bachchan. After getting the gun, Jimmy instead points it to Bhaiyyaji and takes him as hostage. He heads towards a car with Pooja and Bachchan following him. Surrounded by lots of men with guns, Bhaiyyaji manages to jump out of the car and everybody begins shooting at them. After a lengthy fight scene, Bhaiyyaji is killed by Pooja stabbing him with a knife. In the end, Jimmy opens up his own call centre, where only girls work, and Bachchan and Pooja get married.

[edit] Cast

• Akshay Kumar as Bachchan Pande
• Saif Ali Khan as Jeetender Kumar Makhwana (Jimmy Cliff)
• Kareena Kapoor as Pooja Singh
• Anil Kapoor as Lakhan Singh Ballebaaz (Bhaiyyaji)
• Sanjay Mishra as
• Manoj Pahwa as
• Yashpal Sharma as ACP K.S. Hooda

[edit] Crew

• Producer: Yash Raj Films
• Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
• Story: Vijay Krishna Acharya
• Cinematography: Ayananka Bose
• Lyrics: Piyush Mishra, Vishal Dadlani, Anvita Dutt Guptan & Kausar Munir
• Music: Vishal-Shekhar
• Choreography: Vaibhavi Merchant
• Editing: Rameshwar S. Bhagat
• Sound Design: Ali Merchant
• Production Design: Fayyaz Badruddin (YRF - Design Cell)
• Executive Producers: Aashish Singh & Sanjay Shivalkar
• Art Director: Sukant Panigrahy
• Costume Design: Aki Narula

[edit] Response

[edit] Box Office

Before the release of the film, Tashan received an advanced booking, which ranged from 25-35% tickets sold for the weekend at the major centres.^[16] On the day of its release, the film opened to a 75-80% response but well short of the expected bumper opening due to the multiplex revenue sharing problem, which didn't allow the film to be released in major multiplexes across India.^[17][18] Due to this, the film lost a major chunk of its revenue and collected a total of 18 crores after its first week.^[19][20] Although the following week, an agreement was made between Yash Raj Films and the multiplexes, which allowed the film to be screened from May 3, 2008 onwards at multiplexes across the country,^[21] the film managed to add only another 7 crores to its collections and was declared a flop.^[22]

Meanwhile, the film opened to below average response overseas.^[23] During its first week, the film collected £ 181,838 [approx. Rs. 1.45 crores] on 46 screens and debuted at number 13 in the U.K charts.^[24] In the U.S, the film debuted at number 24 and collected $ 301,226 [approx. Rs. 1.20 crores] on 75 screens whilst in Australia, Tashan debuted at number 17 and collected a total of $ 148,087 [approx. Rs. 59.44 lacs] on 13 screens.^[24] During its second week in the overseas market, the film experienced a heavy fall and was declared a flop.^[25]

[edit] Reviews

Tashan opened to mixed reviews, which ranged from average to negative. Most of the critics criticized the film's lacklustre script penned by director Vijay Krishna Acharya. Critic Taran Adarsh from indiaFM gave the film a 1.5 out of 5 rating and concluded that it was "...one of the weakest films to come out of the Yash Raj banner."^[26] Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN described the film as "...a road movie...that is going in all the wrong directions."^[27] On the other hand, Sanjay Ram, who gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5, wrote, "The film, though with many slips, is thoroughly engaging and entertaining. The vibrancy and spunk keeps it alive and loaded."^[28] Film critic Maitland McDonagh from TV Guide, a frequent reviewer of Bollywood movies, described the film as "a delirious crime romp [that] borrows pop-savvy attitude from Quentin Tarantino, stylized gun play from Sergio Leone and stylized hand-to-hand combat moves from Hong Kong action films. The result is a nutty, ridiculously entertaining neo-noir pastiche with lavish musical numbers."^[29]

The reviews regarding the performances of the lead actors varied, with most of the critics agreeing that Akshay Kumar was the main highlight of the film followed by Kareena Kapoor. Taran Adarsh noted, "Tashan belongs to Akshay Kumar completely. No two opinions on that. Take Akshay out of this film and the movie is a big zero. He's the lifeline of this project...[whilst] Kareena Kapoor is fantastic. She looks gorgeous, acts very well...and yes, she carries off the bikini with élan."^[26] Sonia Chopra from Sify concluded, "It is Akshay and Kareena who sizzle in the film and have the best parts."^[30] On the other hand, Anil Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan's performances met with mixed reactions. Sonia Chopra further explained "Anil plays the baddie to the hilt...[and] Saif...gives a strictly lukewarm performance."^[30]

[edit] Music

Tashan
Studio album by Vishal-Shekhar
Released	March 28, 2008 (India)
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	YRF Music
Producer	Aditya Chopra & Yash Chopra
Vishal-Shekhar chronology
Om Shanti Om (2007) Tashan (2008) Bhoothnath (2008)

Released on March 28, 2008 by Yash Raj Films, Tashan's soundtrack was composed by Vishal-Shekhar whilst lyrics were penned by four different lyricists: Piyush Mishra, Anvita Dutt Guptan, Vishal Dadlani and Kausar Munir. Joginder Tuteja from indiaFM gave the film's soundtrack 4 out of 5 stars and noted, "Songs in Tashan excite, get on to you quickly and make you put them on a repeat mode. There is not a single dull moment in this entire album, which has its tallest highpoints in 'Dil Dance Maare', 'Dil Haara' and 'Falak Tak'.^[31]

The soundtrack of the film debuted at number 3, where it stayed the following week.^[32][33] On the week of the film's release, the album moved up to number 1.^[34] However, due to the film's failure at the box office, the album couldn't sustain its position over the next several weeks.^[35][36]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Tashan at the Internet Movie Database
• Tashan at Rotten Tomatoes
• Tashan at Metacritic
• Tashan at Box Office Mojo
• Tashan at Allmovie

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