| Ta Ra Rum Pum | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Siddharth Anand |
| Produced by | Aditya Chopra |
| Screenplay by | Habib Faisal |
| Story by | Siddharth Anand |
| Starring | Saif Ali Khan Rani Mukherjee Ali Haji Angelina Idnani Javed Jaffrey |
| Music by | Vishal-Shekhar |
| Cinematography | Binod Pradhan |
| Editing by | Rameshwar S Bhagat Ritesh Soni |
| Distributed by | Yash Raj Films |
| Release date(s) | April 27, 2007 |
| Running time | 153 mins |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
Ta Ra Rum Pum (Hindi: ता रा रम पम is a 2007 film that stars Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji in the lead roles. This is the second time the lead pair worked together after the success of their last film, Hum Tum (2004). The film is directed by Siddharth Anand, who directed the 2005 film Salaam Namaste. The film was a semi-hit at the box office in India. The plot of this film can be compared loosely with that of Will Ferrell's Talladega Nights, as in this film the protagonist meets with an accident while racing and then makes a comeback destroying his nemesis race driver.
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Production began in May 2006 and the film was released on 27 April 2007.[1] The working title was Ta Ra Rum Pum Pum.[2] The film was shot almost entirely in the United States of America, with a few scenes shot in a studio in Mumbai. Portions were filmed in Rockingham, North Carolina at the Rockingham Speedway and at West Allis, Wisconsin at The Milwaukee Mile. Ali Haji had to go through three auditions and Angelina Idnani was called in for her fourth audition before they were finalized for the movie. The plot is combined with that of Tom Cruise's Days of Thunder and Will Ferrell's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby — as in this film, the protagonist meets with an accident while racing and than makes a comeback destroying his nemesis race driver — and Will Smith's The Pursuit of Happyness, where a father and son have to move out of their house, due to the loss of a job.
The cars used in racing scenes were provided by Andy Hillenburg, who purchased Rockingham Speedway months after its release and provided the stunt drivers, as many ARCA Re/Max Series drivers participated in the filming. (An ARCA Re/Max Series sticker can be found on the cars in the movie, and he trained stunt drivers, along with letting some film stars take turns driving.)[3]
Rajveer Singh (Saif Ali Khan) has an immense passion for stock car racing and dreams of making it big on the racecourse. After being discovered by his manager Harry (Jaaved Jaffrey), he meets Radhika Shekar Rai Banerjee (Rani Mukerji) and instantly falls for her. He joins Speeding Saddles, a failing race team, and transforms from Rajveer Singh to RV the race car driver. He wins his first race and keeps winning, making him quite wealthy.
What started as an innocent love blossoms into a serious relationship as months pass. Radhika is a great pianist, majoring in music at Columbia University, whereas Rajveer has no degree or any education background. His lack of education and planning earns the disapproval of Radhika's father, Subho Shekar Rai Banerjee (Victor Banerjee). Radhika leaves her father and marries RV. She forgets about her degree and takes on her job as a wealthy housewife: Radhika Shekar Rai Banerjee turns into Shona. Their family is complete with the birth of two beautiful children, Priya aka Princess (Angelina Idnani) and Ranveer aka Champ (Ali Haji). Luck follows RV and he is soon proclaimed the number one race car driver in the USA.
Tragedy strikes when RV is involved in a deliberate accident whilst racing and he is hospitalized for a few months. When he gets out, he heads straight to the track to race again but soon learns that he's scared of going fast because he doesn't want to crash and get hurt again. Every race he joins, he ends up in last place. His manager fires RV and finds someone else. RV tells Harry that he doesn't need him, he can find some other manager easily.
But it isn't that easy.
A year has gone by and neither RV nor Shona have jobs. They try their best to find jobs but no one will hire them because they don't have degrees. RV and Shona are unable to pay their loans and bills so everything they own in their house is sold. Princess and Champ worry that they're becoming poor; RV says they're actually on a reality show, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." With about $2,000 left, RV and family leave their big house and find a less expensive one.
They move into a one-bedroom apartment, and the children become worried again. RV and Shona tell them this is all part of the game and the kids believe them. They still go to their favorite school while their parents try to find jobs.
A few days later, Shona gets a job as a piano player and RV becomes a taxi driver.
One night when RV and Shona start arguing, Princess overhears them and learns that they actually are in trouble with money. She then plans to save up the money she and Champ use for lunch. The kids don't eat, and Champ gets starved. He takes food from the garbage without his sister knowing and eats it outside of school on a bench. He keeps eating from the garbage while Princess keeps saving up money. Princess makes Champ promise not to tell their parents, knowing they'll get mad.
RV gets a customer who needs to get to the airport soon. He takes this chance as to test his racing skills. RV starts off doing great until he gets flashback on his accident. He then learns that he could probably never race again because of being scared of getting hurt.
Champ gets a piece of glass inside his stomach from eating something. RV, Shona, and Princess run to the hospital where Princess tells her parents the plan she made Champ follow. The doctor tell RV and Shona that they need $65,000. The couple has no idea how they are going to get the money and only have two days to get it. RV decides to enter a race for his son's sake. He meets his old nemeses and he starts remembering the flashbacks. But that doesn't stop him. He wins, while apparently killing his nemesis by pushing him off the track. In the end the family is living a happy and fun life.
The music of the film has been conducted by the duo Vishal-Shekhar while Javed Akhtar has penned the lyrics. The film contains six songs.
| Song | Singer(s) | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| "Ta Ra Rum Pum" | Shaan, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Sneha Suresh & Shravan Suresh | 03:54 |
| "Hey Shona" | Shaan & Sunidhi Chauhan | 05:18 |
| "Nachle Ve" | Sonu Nigam & Sowmya Raoh | 04:05 |
| "Ta Ra Rum Pum" | Shreya Ghoshal | 05:29 |
| "Ab Toh Forever" | KK, Shreya Ghoshal & Vishal Dadlani | 05:00 |
| "Saiyaan Ve" | Vishal Dadlani | 04:54 |
Ta Ra Rum Pum opened to an average response, where collections were reported to be as low as 50%. However the film saw a good opening of 90-95% in the big cities such as Mumbai and Delhi, the smaller cinemas received an average response of 50-70%.[4] Though the film opened to an average response the next two days saw a huge jump in collections. The collections dropped on Monday by about 55-70%.[5] In its first week the film collected an impressive 4.37 crores in Mumbai,[6] and has done well at the multiplexes but not at the single screens.[7] The overall gross for the first week in India stands at Rs. 11,43,92,260[8] The release of Spider-Man 3 caused a drop in collections, but the film has continued to do well in Mumbai and Delhi.[9] The film became the 8th highest grossing film of 2007 so far with box office figures of Rs.34 crores.
The three main markets overseas: The UK, USA and Australia saw a similar opening. Ta Ra Rum Pum collected during the weekend and debuted at number nine on the UK film chart which was a good opening.[10] In the United States, the film collected $425,102 which was a fair opening for the film. In Australia the film collected $87,082.[11] Though the weekend figures are good, the collections are below expectations for a Yash Raj Film.[12][13] The film has been given an above-average status in the United States and was a hit in the United Kingdom.[14] In its sixth week, the film has collected 0.70 crores and has been declared a semi-hit in India.[15] Overseas the film has collected $1,527,252 in the United Kingdom.[16]
The title song of the film is a 4 minute animated endeavour with all the main characters of the movie and four other animated characters. This song, was remarkably executed by Walt Disney Studios as part of their three film deal with Yash Raj Films. The producers of the film, Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra were on talks to co-produce two other films, tentatively titled Roadside Romeo, starring Saif Ali Khan (Romeo) and real life girlfriend Kareena Kapoor (Laila), which released on 24 October 2008 and the other being named Koochie Koochie Hota Hai (An animated version of the 1998 blockbuster Kuch Kuch Hota Hai), starring all the four main leads of the film, Shahrukh Khan (Rahul), Kajol (Anjali), Rani Mukerji (Tina) and Salman Khan (Aman) and is to be directed and co-produced by Karan Johar and distributed by Yash Raj Films, both with the Holywood animation giants Walt Disney Studios. Roadside Romeo is to be directed by Jugal Hansraj, who has earlier worked with the Chopra's on films like Mohabbatein, Salaam Namaste, Aaja Nachle and has also done small cameos in films like Kal Ho Naa Ho for Dharma Productions. Hansraj has also written the screenplay and also voices a small part in the film himself. Teasers and promos of Roadside Romeo were first released with Aaja Nachle and were very well received by the Indian audience.
The film opened from above-average to very positive reviews.[17] Taran Adarsh of Indiafm.com gave the film a rating of 3.5 out of 5. The two lead actors got good feedback with Adarsh saying "Saif is extremely likable. He conveys the varied emotions with complete understanding. Rani enacts the role of the mother/wife proficiently".[18]
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