Taarzan

Director: Abbas-Mustan
Starring: Vatsal Sethand and Ayesha Takia (Introducing)
Music: Himesh Reshammiya

The boy said, 'Just Mohabbat' and the girl replied 'Nahi Nahi Abhi Nahi' on the small screen and now they both meet on big silver screen to hang around in the latest designed car by none other than Dileep Chhabria aka DC. The film is 'Taarzan', yet another by director duo Abbas-Mustan.

Taarzan' produced by Gordhan Tanwani is a direct take-off on technical extravaganza movies of Hollywood; the only difference is that the story has the machine as a hero and all other actors play just side liners.

The cute boy in question is Vatsal Seth of the small screen who captured many hearts with his performance in hit TV serial 'Just Mohabbat'. And, the beautiful girl is Ayesha Takia who featured in the video album of 'Nahi Nahi Abhi Nahi' remix.

The chemistry between the young pair is quite visible on the screen. They both gel with each other very well. The boy has the sparks of a star and in the first few reels; it does look like that another star is in offing.

But as the film progresses machine takes over from the performers and what is left is an illogical film that too in 21st century. Imagine that a ghost takes revenge after being abandoned for nearly 12 years.

The film could have been a seasonal bonanza for kids but present day's kids take more interest in Spiderman than machines. 'Taarzan' has fallen prey to an absurd story idea, which has its inspiration from so many Ramsay movies where a man cheated by a group of people and killed comes back and takes revenge from his enemies one by one.

'Taarzan' features Vatsal Seth as Raj. A young, good looking, simple and sober college going lad who works part time in Kartar Singh (Amrish Puri)'s garage to earn for himself and his so caring grandmother (Farida Jalal).

Seniors tease him for his simple looks and spectacles. Things change for him once the most beautiful girl of the campus Priya (Ayesha Takia) starts taking interest in him. Not knowing what to do in this situation, Raj approaches his grandmother who eventually tells him that the girl is in love with him.

One day on the way to home, Raj sees an old and abandoned car at a junkyard, which is actually his late father's dream car. Raj's father was a mechanical engineer who dared design a car, which will be an envy for car manufacturers.

Raj now takes on his father's left job and transforms this model from junkyard into a wonderful designer car that is named 'Taarzan'. But, before he could enjoy his new find status in campus, some odd things start happening.

Top businessmen of the town are killed one by one and on every occasion 'Taarzan' is found on the spot. Raj does not have any knowledge about this and when the police questions him, he has no answer.

It is only when Priya's father (Pankaj Dhir) arrives from London that the history starts unfolding in front of Raj. But, it is too late. His life is in danger and he is on the verge of losing Priya's love.

Will he get his love back? Who will save Raj from his enemies? How come that 'Taarzan' is present at the scene of every crime in town? Who is behind this? This and many more questions are answered.

in the climax of the film but the vertex of the climax falls flat as most of the people sitting in the cinema hall reach their own conclusion about the killer and they are not wrong in the end.

Abbas-Mustan are among those few directors of Bollywood who draw initials at the box office on their own. The above average openings of 'Taarzan' prove this. Had the film been a good one, the collection would have seen a steep climb Sunday onwards, but that is not the case in this film.

Post films like 'Humraaz' and 'Ajnabee', this director duo has lost its magical touch which once made actors like Shah Rukh Khan super star overnight in 'Baazigar'.

In their latest Abbas-Mustan do not look convincing from the very first word. Abbas-Mustan have a reputation of making good suspense thriller but there is no suspense in 'Taarzan' and the thrill element if there is any, is devoid of attraction.

For most of the time, the car occupies the screen and that makes things look more mechanized. It is not that the cast selection is wrong, but the fault lies with the script and direction.

Vatsal Seth could have been the discovery of the year but only if he was given the task of the hero in the film. Here he is just a spectator. His involvement in the story line is minimal.

It would have been a great thing to watch if he were shown as a wonder kid who runs his designer car with his pocket size remote. However, it is a ghost who drives the car most of the time. Come on, who will watch this nonsense on big screen, there are many soap operas on TV showing all this.

Abbas-Mustan not only fail to use simplicity, but they also fail to present a beautiful face like Ayesha in its glory. She has been reduced to show her legs and bare back in the film.

She looks quite pretty and had she got a better role, she would have set the screen on fire. There is a band of bad men from Shakti Kapoor to Sadashiv Amrapurkar to Pankaj Dhir, besides others. The only people who could leave some impact are Gulshan Grover playing an honest cop and Rajpal Yadav as a police constable.

There are lots of special effects that are used mainly to make the designer car work like a bond car. Dileep Chhabria who has been assigned the task to design the new version for James Bond's car in the next film has done his job well.

'Taarzan' looks impressive but too many gimmicks associated to it make it a matter of laughter. The music is run of the mill kind. Himesh Reshammiya has once again failed to give any hit number.

Other technical aspects are okay but they make no difference once the soul of the film is lost in mechanical gadgetry. On the whole, the film has too many flaws to make it look like a convincing thriller. The distributors and exhibitors will have to bear heavy losses on it.

Overall a weak film that will find it difficult to sustain at the box office. Producer should have planned film's publicity more thoughtfully.

and should have included Ajay Devgan too in that. Yes, Ajay is doing a very special role, and you can watch the film to find out that. However, you need to be his devoted fan.