Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Ta Ra Rum Pum Pum Dum DUMB!

Last night, I had the 'pleasant' experience of watching Ta Ra Rum Pum. Well, to be real honest, it's a decent watch.. for someone who has never watched English movies, who doesn't know what the American life is all about, and also for someone who has no intentions of saving.
I might be highly sarcastic and rude here, but that is NOT coincidental or unintentional.
In short, the movie is about a degree-less racer, who falls in love with a degree-less pianist, and at the same time, becomes the no:1 racer in New York (or wait! is it the entire US of A? You never know!). Anyway, they get married without her pa's permission, but live happily and have two kids. They have a great car, a beautiful house in Manhattan and she wears a huge diamond ring, which have all been purchased on loans.But their happiness is short-lived as the racer meets with an accident and can't get back to form because of the trauma that he faced during and after the accident. They go broke and have to move into a single room apartment. But they don't want their children to be sad. They therefore lie to their children that all this is part of a reality show. The 'greatest' racer and the 'greatest' pianist now have to drive a taxi and play in hotels and restaurants to make money so that their children can go to school. The children who come to know of the hardships their parents are going through forsake their lunch to save money. But the boy can't stand the hunger, due to which he eats food thrown into the waste bin. He accidentally swallows a glass piece because of which he is admitted in the hospital and needs to be operated immediately. A sudden need for money causes the racer to go back to his ex-boss who humiliates him. All this causes our hero to suddenly gather courage and fight back only to win the race and his life back. WOWWWW!!!
The movie attempts to portray family values. It tells you the story of a youngster who loses all that he has because of a sudden tragic turn in his life. It shows how the family sticks together through thick and thin. It shows the importance of saving. But most importantly, it shows you the importance of saying the truth. Because if you don't say the truth, your wife will beat you up and tell your kids the truth (to whom both you and your wife have been lying).. and also claim that you will now commit murders also because you lied once..What the hell??
There are so many aspects of the movie that make it lose its authenticity. The bankrupt father takes his family to celebrate in a toy shop in the middle of the night. The mother wears designer clothes and shoes even while her kids are eating out of the waste bin. She stuffs food into her designer bag because she can't afford the food otherwise. And after all this, she has the nerve to fight with her husband just because he lied to get some money that they desperately needed. Man, her tolerance levels are amazing.
Poor comedy by Jaaved Jaaferi adds so much life to the movie. And the heroine's pathetic hairstyle. Guess they spent the money that they were supposed to spend on mirrors on the permits to vacate the streets of New York for the song scenes. Not to mention the same old streets that we have seen in Kal Ho Na Ho and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. The racing scenes are ok; but it's disappointing that they still have to have scenes where the hero is sitting on the steering wheel of a fake car and there is some artificial scenery going on behind. Reality bites? I guess the producer got bitten more than enough that he decided not to include reality at all in his movie.
It's one of those movies that is definitely not a reflection of real life. This is an argument that I have with my friend all the time. He always states that movies are a reflection of real life. And I always say that reflections don't give you 100% of the actual light. In this case, this is not even close to reflection. It's like a black hole that absorbs all the light possible. Complete emptiness!
I couldn't wait for the movie to end, honestly. Someone mentioned to me that the movie was a tearjerker. The only thing it jerked out of me was pure irritation and frustration.. since I was waiting for the tears all through the movie.
Altogether, a below average movie. They tried to make it colorful and sweet and nice. But at the end of it all, you wonder whether you learnt anything from it, except for, how not to make a movie!

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