A few questions to this statement by the Shiv Sena chief Jitendra Janawale:

The scene in question is totally against Maharashtra’s Hindu culture. No sooner the posters were put up all over the city, we got lots of complaints from people, esp. from the concerned parents of school children, stating that the said posters were in bad taste. We have anyways issued a strong warning to the filmmakers through the media. We want all the backless posters that have been put all over the city to be removed as soon as possible. Failing which, we shall protest against the film when it releases.” “How are such obscene posters being allowed by the authorities.everal women and children pass by the posters. What effect will it have on them.”

1. What is Maharashtra’s Hindu Culture?
2. Is abuse of minors part of “Maharashtra’s Hindu Culture”? If not, shouldn’t you concentrate more on solving this problem rather than carrying out such gimmicks for publicity?
3. How do you define nudity?
4. You say “we got lots of complaints from people, esp. from the concerned parents of school children”. Do you keep records of these for us to see?
5. Can you please do something constructive?

I spent a good amount of money and decided to see Tashan. A grave error in judgement. And one that was compounded by the fact that I decided to ignore the various reviews available to me. To all those experts, I apologise for ignoring their knowledgeable opinion. I should have known better. I am still, for the record, assuming Tashan means style. And that’s all this movie has.

Having said that, however, the movie isn’t entirely a disaster. The songs were good. The locations great. The acting okay. Anil Kapoor rocked as Bhaiyyaji, Akshay Kumar was great as Bachchan Pandey, Kareena Kapoor was visible in size zero and Saif Ali Khan kept doing something to his moustache that was rather distracting. It grew and shrunk at will although the time in the movie had moved ahead by barely a night. Must have a really fertile face!

I won’t get into the story details. That’s been done better by those who have more understanding of why it works and why it doesn’t.

My thoughts on the movie are that it isn’t all bad. It is good for more than 75% of the duration. The director really loses the plot (ironic, eh?) in the last 30 minutes or so. Actually, a little earlier when it turns out that Kareena Kapoor is indeed Akshay Kumar’s childhood sweetheart. It is as formulaic as it can get and a throwback to all the crap we were subjected to through the late 1980s and early 1990s as the lost-and-found formula was on its last legs. For reasons best known to himself, the director decided to revive this. And with catastrophic results to put it mildly.

There are definitely some good things about the movie as I listed above. But the highlight for me is the characterisation of Anil Kapoor and Akshay Kumar. These two prove that they are indeed stalwarts and the best around. Despite their best efforts, however, the movie cannot retain a grain of reality in the end. I mean, pray tell why there is a flying speedboat at the end? Wait, don’t answer. I don’t care.

My suggestion would be to watch the movie for these two actors and then catch a couple of songs. Otherwise, make full use of the air-conditioning in this heat and catch some shuteye!