Ta Ra Rum Pum

As I was preparing to leave my house to watch this movie yesterday, one of my friend's strongly opposed my plans. Her exact words were, "nahiiiiiiiiiiii .... don't!!!!!!!!!! .... i've seen it ... it totally sucks!!!!!!!! ... spend ur money elsewhere ..." I explained to her that it was the only movie I cud watch wid my family and that another frnd had told me it was "cute & a one time watch" so it cudn't be that bad... She finally submitted and said "so when r u leavin for the gawdawful saccarine fest called tararumpum ..." (for the uninitiated, saccharine means 'sweetener' and pertains to the word 'Shona' which finds wholesome use in the movie).

However, she also proceeded to give some more 'vishesh tippani' on the film... "that movie totally pissed me off ... redundancy at its best ... i think rani does only those kinda movies ... in which she is like the fulcrum for the whole house ... n the heroes r just spineless morons ..."

After this kind of an appetizer for the movie, my expectations were zero... Maybe that's why I quite liked it... :-)

Ta Ra Rum Pum is another movie from the Yash Raj Films (YRF) camp that attempts to do something different with the Hindi film, to get across a larger message for society with a story devoid of "bad guys" and maintaining enough value for the entire family to watch. Director Siddharth Anand's second movie (after Salaam Namaste) has proved to be something that all people, from adults, to the youth & the kids should be able to relate to... The story & situations of the movie are something almost everyone who has watched the ad will know... A successful racer, who loses it all in a race accident... and the tale of how he & his family brave the circumstances & succeed....

A carefree man who stumbles upon an early success in life ... This is Saif's character called Raj Veer Singh (RV) in the movie... He is uneducated, is a highly successful racer and loves to splurge... Rani's character (Radhika) is the opposite ... She plans everything, is pursuing her degree & is penny-wise even though her father seems to be a millionaire... They hook up, get married and have kids... RV becomes hugely successful and the audience waits for the "crash" which everyone seems to have seen in the trailers...

Yes, the crash changes everything for RV... After a gap of 1 year where he recovers from injuries, RV gets back to racing, but seems to have lost the "killer instinct" with which he raced before... After a series of losses, he is kicked out by the team... On the street, with no income, RV & family find it tough to cope with the lifestyle they have become used to... The loans for the house and the cars are unpaid and the family is forced to shift into a low class society, with no assets to speak of... And RV still doesn't have a job...

The rest of the story deals with how the family learns to cope up with poverty... RV becomes a New York cabbie, Radhika plays the piano at restaurants & clubs, and the kids save their lunch money so they can contribute to the school fees... have tears in your eyes? Well, so did I...

But after all, TRRP is a Hindi movie, and a happy ending is inevitable... In the end, RV teams up with his pal from race-days, Javed Jaffery, and gets back to the track to earn enough money for his son to have an operation... Obviously, he wins the race... And success returns to the family...

Like a grade school fairy tale, the filmmakers give us a "moral" at the end... not to spend beyond your means, live wisely, plan your future... Gosh, that was like a "message issued in the interest of the public"

However, there were ridiculous sides to the movie as well... For starters, Who the f~#k calls their kids "Princess" & "Champ", even if they're only nicknames ??? (I found out their actual names, Priya & Ranveer, on another review, n I swear I didn't hear them in the movie ...) And why was the first half so cramped up with songs??? And how the hell did they manage to find four animated bears (named Ta, Ra, Pa & Ma ...) to sing n dance with on the kid's birthday (I just cant make myself use their so-called names) and that too at a Disney store, which was magically open for them late at night, without any burgler alarms or the sort...

Hehehe, between these inanities, I still quite liked the movie...

Coming up next, hopefully, will be a bit on YRF and how they've contributed to Indian cinema...