REVIEW: Ta Ra Rum Pum

ON TRACK: Be it Saif's live-in-the-present effervescence or Rani's till-death-do-

us-part devotion, Ta Ra Rum Pum tangos off to a high simply due to their chemistry

(Agencies photo)

Ta Ra Rum Pum (drama)

Cast : Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Javed Jaffrey

Direction : Siddharth Anand

Is it Cinderella Man? Is it Life is Beautiful? Or is it simply a fairy tale, told in Bollywood ishtyle ? Honestly, it's a mix of all three, heavily inspired by the Russell Crowe-Renee Zellweger film about James Braddock, a washed-out boxer who reclaimed his title — and his family's future — to become an inspirational figure in the 1930s.

And then again, you have dad Saif doing a Roberto Benigni ( Life is Beautiful ) to his bachchas by transforming their turn of fortunes (read garibi ke din ) into a reality show called 'Don't worry, be happy,' where the premium is on smiling, come what may.

Trust Bollywood to equate a Nazi concentration camp with a downmarket New York existence! But who's complaining. Not the archetypal family audience that has become the mainstay of the Indian multiplex boom.

For them, this film about a bindaas racer, his beauty-with-brains wife and their cute little cherubs could end up as perfect holiday fare, despite the trivialisation and the cloying story-line. Plot-wise, the film has all the cliched ploys that traditional cinema uses. Once the racer dad has an accident and develops race track phobia, the family undergoes all those thakela trials like joblessness, no food on the table, sacrifice and the final sickness, where death looms large unless the dollars pour in...

Yet, all this familiarity fails to breed contempt because there is Saif and there is Rani: two consummate actors who squeeze out the ordinariness from any role and make it extraordinary. As the young NRI couple who dare to dream the American dream, the two lend a spiritedness to their characters which somehow makes them the most lovable mom-dad/husband-wife duo in town. Be it Saif's live-in-the-present effervescence or Rani's till-death-do-us-part devotion, Ta Ra Rum Pum tangos off to a high simply due to their chemistry.

Quite, quite reminiscent of Hum Tum. Of course, the film lacks the originality of Salaam Namastey , where director Siddharth Anand scored with the sheer novelty of the no-holds-barred relationship between Saif and Preity. And Javed Jaffrey is truly the most under-estimated actor in Hindi films.

Yet ...Rum Pum is the right get a fix for the Great Indian Family.

SOURCE : THE TIMES OF INDIA