NDTVMOVIES.COM: - TARA RUM PUM

TARA RUM PUM

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Angelina Idlani, Ali Haji, Javed Jaffrey, Victor Bannerjee

Director: Siddharth Anand

Producer: Aditya Chopra

Anupama Chopra, Consulting Editor, Films

This year's first Yash Raj Films product has hit the big screen. The Yash Raj brand has become so daunting that all other producers steer clear of a head-on battle. So there are no other releases this week. All decks have been cleared for Siddharth Anand's Tara Rum Pum.

Siddharth must have pitched this movie to studio head Aditya Chopra as Days of Thunder meets Life is Beautiful.

So the first half of Tara Rum Pum is all about race drivers and races. Saif Ali Khan plays RV, a speed demon, who becomes a superstar in one race, marries a beauteous and rich music student, has two adorable kids and moves into a dream house.

But of course it cannot last. So RV has an accident and loses his killer touch at the track.

The family is forced to move into a smaller house, the mother plays piano in restaurants and RV himself becomes a taxi driver. But the parents convince the kids that it's all part of a television reality show.

Their elaborate web of lies eventually falls apart. Finally, when his son's life is on the line, RV rediscovers his edge and metamorphoses into a speed demon again.

A film about poor people is a contradiction in terms. So poverty here means a large room with perfectly co-ordinated stained glass windows.

All the characters talk about being poor but they continue to dress in superbly trendy clothes. In one scene Rani Mukherjee is stuffing food for her hungry children into what suspiciously looks like a $1000 handbag.

To save money, the kids even stop eating lunch and the son fishes food out of a garbage can. On the other hand, Rani always looks like she has stepped out of a Elizabeth Arden Salon.

But for me none of this was a serious problem - after all if its reality you want, what are you doing at a Yash Raj film?

The trouble with Tara Rum Pum is that it lacks emotional reality. Siddharth creates some high octane racing scenes. The production values are superb - a lot of money has been spent on the New York locations and the Surily Goel designed costumes.

Despite the typical Yash Raj trappings, the characters don�t really come alive. There is a terrific moment in the climax when RV humiliated by his former boss decides to return to the race tracks. But these are few and far between.

Mostly, Tara Rum Pum feels oddly synthetic. A sense of d�j� vu hangs over the film - after all the same locations have been so thoroughly exploited in Kal Ho Na Ho and more recently in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna.

Finally, Tara Rum Pum is so obviously simplistic and formule that by the time the triumphant end came I was more exhausted than elated.