Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwariya Rai, Akshaye Khanna
A son of a rich business man, Manif, is out to discover the lands of India. Enjoying the rich scenery and breathtaking locals he stumbles on something more beautiful, a simple village girl named Mansi (Rai). They meet by chance, but it was love at first sight. An attraction builds up between them and Manif is in complete bliss with her. What is this? This is Taal.
Taal is an Indian movie (a "Bollywood" film) that combines the artistry and subtle backrounds of its locations to create a passionate love story extending from both these people. What really makes it work, is how these two charactors barely touch each other and this in result makes the audience hang on throughout the duration of this three hour film, because it makes you want to see these two making some sort of physical contact. This absence of touching makes you wanting to see it more. The film is surprisingly more seductive because there is so much sensual tension between these two charactors. This isn't nothing new in Indian cinema, but still you have to give some sort of credit for the film making you feel this way, as opposed to American movies where you're so used to people always kissing and having sex.
Mansi is a very shy woman and there a couple of moments in the film where her and Manif exchange some nice gestures between each other. A Coke bottle becomes a metaphor for their love for each other (and also a product placement from the company itself) when while at a wedding reception, he opens it up, drinks from it and tells another person to give to her along with these other drinks to see if she'll take his drink. She takes it and smiles at him. But in the middle of the story a complication occurs between her father and Manif's father. These two are very good friends. Mansi and her father come to Mumbai where the Manif's father is staying for a while. Her family gets treated like third-class individuals at the place, not by Manif, but by his family members. This leads to short but important altercation at the house and Mansi ends up leaving Manif.
After being insulted at his mansion, Manif feels sorry and wants forgiveness..but its too late, as Mansi has found someone else, a musicion/composer/producer etc named Kapu (Kapoor). She goes off with him and with his expert knowledge of the business he leads her to become an Indian pop star. She enjoying her success with her new found lover... but what fate lies for Manif?
As I mentioned before, this film is filled with luxorious locales and the cinematography is beautiful. There's always this slight orange-y glooming light in almost every scene and it looks really nice. The songs are above-average than most other Hindi films and are heartfelt with powerful beats and strong lyrics. That is not to say this film doesn't have its weaknesses. The relationship between Mansi and and Kapu seems really artificial and Mansi's rise to popstardom happens too quickly and too suddenly. And we never really do know just who Kapu is. A composer? A producer? You never really do know. His studio is filled with dancers, and composeres and what have you, but just who is he? I doubt logically that he can be a composer/producer and all that combined. Anil Kapoor's charactor was really underdeveloped when compared to Khanni's charactor and the amount of time they spent on him then Kapoor's charactor Kapu.
The ending is really bad, and there simply is no climax. It just ends like that. I mean you watch this film for three hours, enjoying the songs and backgrounds and you expect a half decent way to finish this film off, but all you get is a "emotional" monologue on part of Kapu and that's it. It just ends! Like that! It was too quick and rushed over. A little more depth and thinking would have helped.
Its not bad for a Hindi film, but still a lot more could have been accomplised. There was no plot to back up the awesome sceneries this movie presented. Despite the songs and acting, it all ends up to be the average Bollywood affair.
RATING: ***