Tashan - The ‘pharmoola’

This piece does exactly what “Tashan” is… great stars, great styling, great songs and great visuals work as long as the script is great, the script is bits n piece from here n there with snippets of (some sort of) originality…..

A blood red Mercedes convertible racily advances through Ladakh's dusty terrain, the car radio nervously shuffles between AC/DC's Highway to Hell and Mukesh's rendition of Kabhi Kabhie.

A crazy fusion of everything desi and phoren -- style, soul and lingo. Welcome to debutant director Vijay Krishna Acharya's land of the English-challenged fashionably quirky, where Tashan is your passport to every conceivable absurdity and You-got-to-be-kidding brand of illogical twists step on your toes at every opportunity.

Then again, both the soundtrack and its promos, never really made any bones to hide that. Like, who expects meaningful cinema from a movie which parades its leading actors in outrageous blonde wigs, flashy attires; and on top of it, makes them do a power-packed jig, in the middle of nowhere, along with hundred other colourful extras?

And so Tashan is *exactly* what it looks like -- a silly spectacle which goes all out to entertain. Right from its sleek black & white graphic novel-inspired opening credits to fire-breathing gun-pipes charged at the villain or cycle-rickshaw chases in the dingy lanes of Kanpur, everything is ostensibly over-the-top.

Any other actor in Anil Kapoor's place would have hammed like mad in a role that spells g-a-u-d-y. Kapoor, however, conveys the English-obsessed temperament of his character with such utter seriousness, you really don't want to argue. Also, the man plays evil with equal relish.

First Impression is Last Impression, Anil Kapoor rocks…

Tashan is a good piece of entertainment. It does not boast of sensibility but its entertainment spelt with a big "E" and Anil Kapoor steals the thunder. Tashan works because of Anil Kapoor. He shows why he is such a great actor. I do not think anyone could do justice to the role of Bhayyaji other than Anil Kapoor.

Leave your brains out and watch Tashan, its a total entertainment and I could see that in the movie hall. Everytime "Bhayyaji-Anil Kapoor" came on the scene, the people were glued to the screen and sitting upstraight. Anil Kapoor makes Tashan watchable. He just shows the difference between Men and boys. Akshay and Saif just dont match him in his histronics.

Akshay Kumar, is of course, a complete thespian by now, and he lifts every scene that he’s in. His Ravan entry is phenomenal in comic scale, and kudos to the writers for his character. It’s Pande’s (and Bhaiyyaji’s to a certain extent ) mythological references in the movie that remind us of the constant parallels that 70s action movies were trying to emulate. Good guy versus bad guy, guru and shishya, damsel in distress. His take on the dehati is the perfect foil to Saif’s ‘cool dude’ Indian trying to be American, and gives some of the most thought-provoking nuggets about the value and pre-conceptions attached to English in India, and the prejudices that might invoke.

Tashan is a spoof… or is it?

That’s the question most of us kept asking after we walked out of the cinema hall. It is quite evident that the film was drawing upon a lot of Hindi movies.

There are some really funny moments too – like the part, which is very evidently a take-off on Don. The ACP tells Saif that he’s the only one in the police department who knows Saif is on their side… and gets killed in the very next frame.

But somehow, unlike Om Shanti Om, Tashan fails to strike the chord and instead goes off on a tangent. For instance, the film follows the ‘pharmoola’ of a con girl taking a guy for a ride and falling for him and then by introducing the childhood sweetheart track, falls for the very thing its spoofing.

Then again Javed Jaferi and Feroz Khan would toss and turn even in their grave at the way Tashan has used them.

India's multiplex's didn't release Tashan today, the proverbial Friday. And how bizarre - us NRI-log have now watched a major Indian release way before our desi counterparts.

Read Tashan ki tashan at Studio of Thoughts where you can find the The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly about the film….. it’s quite well done.

Ebrahim (Saif's son) makes his debut in Tashan, the kid is really cute and has lots of panache.

Here you can read the movie review by Taran Adarsh on indiafm.com

Chak De and Me

Popular Cricket vs Obscure Hockey……

Abhishek….. arrogant vice captain for the Indian cricket team…… telling Preeti, weather u win or lose, you’ll still be my wife….. not that you’ll be the highest scorer and have India going crazy over you………

She proved him and lots of others all wrong…….

All thru school I had to grapple with Karate vs Taekwon Do.
Oh! You do karate? The word “Taekwon Do” never registered in people’s heads.

Can u break a table? If you are Taekwon Do champ, break this wall. Can you to a twirling kick in the air? Black Belt, can you fight with 6 boys simultaneously?

My reaction to such pompous asses….. Go take a hike…. You don’t effect us… we have even greater heights to achieve…….

“Humla samne wali team ke dimag par karo, field mein goal apne aap ho jayega.”
~ Something which was a constant my coach drilled into my head….. Never lose “eye-contact” during a match.

The result was

Boys vs. girls match
~ There weren’t any girls in our club when I started practicing at some 6-7 years of age…. I use to practice with boys my age. It gave me the advantage which stood me in great strength over the years. I was beaten up but then was tended to with utmost care too.

~ We use to have an event called “Group Sparring”. Any 5 member of a team competed with any 5 members of another team… Height no bar, weight no bar… Gender was no bar till I had entered this competition

Yes, I have made history by fighting a guy in a championship…… obviously I won….. It was difficult….. but it wasn’t sheer strength that won me that match. It was strategy with strength that helped me win.

Ache player ki kismet achi hi hoti hai…..
Black belt at 10 years 11 months….

That's Abhimanyu and me

Extremely hard practice sessions…..
This is what one of the sessions did to me but still took part in the championship and came back with a silver medal.

Australian Coach: which one of them is didi?????

~ LOLZ….

Arya Menon who played Gul in the movie was someone who embodied “The Chandra’s” syndrome. Our clan comprised of Abhimanyu, Tushar, Nivritti, Chetan and me. The Mehras were also closely linked as they are my Bua’s daughters: Akshita and Amrita. That makes 7 of us.

It was so essential to win… it was expected of you all the time.

Tushar and I sharing a fun moment in Goa

Injury in matches….

This particular match was crazy where I saw blood pouring from my nose……… a rivulet was more like it ;-)

Losing….
It’s not that you never lose….. I lost many matches in the beginning of my career to a girl called bindiya….. she was my cross… my albatross….. it just hung on my head. But then you have to come out of it. It’s like being a phoenix… rising from the ashes…..

Something this movie makes you live thru……

Winning Moments….

There were so many… I now wish I had more pictures and had archived stuff…..

Fun Time after matches…

Party time in Goa

Shreya and I
I

Fashion Show

Sattar(70) Minute, sattar min hai tumhare paas. Shayad yeh.. tumhare zindagi ke sab se… khaas sattar minute. Aaj tum aacha khelo ya bura khelo, yeh sattar minute tumhe zindagi bhar yaad rahegi. Tho kaise khelna hai.. aaj mein tumhe nahin bataunga.. Bas itna kahunga, ki jao aur yeh sattar minute jee bhar kar khelna.. kyunki iske baad aane wali zindagi chahe kuch sahi ho ya na ho.. chahe kuch rahe ya na rahe.. haro ya jeeto..lekin yeh sattar minute.. tumse koi nahin cheen saktha, Kyunki mein jaantha hu ki aagar yeh sattar minute is team ka har player apne zindagi ki sabse badiya hockey khel gaya.. tho yeh satar min khuda bhi tumse vapas nahin maang saktha. (This is one of the best scenes from Chak De India. Just before the Hockey Final)

The coach gave each girl the strength to believe in herself and do something really cool for themselves. Everyone had a personal battle to fight…… but they did it with a certain “togetherness”…. Everyone contributed to each other…..

Komal passed the ball to Preeti, who gave the penalty shoot out to Komal. Bindiya came around… Balbir was able to control her temper…. They were doing what a team does…. Play Hockey and nothing else…..

This is something only a coach can do… take all the pressure off the player… all the player has to worry about is playing his/her game.
Having a good coach/ manager makes the difference between a match won or lost.
I lost a cherished match against a seeded player in an inter-school only because of this.
Round 1: I was winning cause I was playing better. Half time – our coach gave her a tip….. I couldn’t make out till the end of the match what happened……

Interviews with the press after winning…..

Coach: you were all brilliant during selection but now you are all equal and as far as I know, you know nothing about hockey.
~ prove ureself all over again…. Unlearn n relearn to actually learn n advance.
The transition from school champ to noone in LSR was difficult in the 1^st year, where each one was a champ in their own space. I had to do it again.


Thank you Rana maam. You are the best. She was just amazing.

Shah rukh khan’s wanton eyes when he sees the field after being appointed the coach…..

~ Whenever I go back to the Talkatora stadium (where most of our championships use to be held) I can feel a tug at my heart.

Throughout the movie, every instance had me going back to 20 years of Taekwon Do…. The tenets of Taekwon Do have been ingrained in us from the very start....

Explanation of Tenets

1. Courtesy (Ye Ui)
Taekwon-Do students should attempt to be polite to one another and to respect others. Students should address instructors as Sir and to bow to the instructors before and after classes. Turning up early or on time for classes is also an aspect of courtesy.

2. Integrity (Yom Chi)
One who has integrity is able to define what is right or wrong and have the conscience, if wrong, to feel guilt. Taekwon-Do students should strive to be honest and to live by moral principles.

Shah Rukh ~ "team banane ke liye takat nahi, niyat chahiye"

3. Perseverance (In Nae)
Perseverance means having patience. One of the most important secrets of becoming a leader in Taekwon-Do is to overcome every difficulty by perseverance. Confucius said," One who is impatient in trivial matters can seldom achieve success in matters of great importance."

4. Self-Control (Guk Gi)
Without self-control, a Taekwon-Do student is just like any fighter in the street. Loss of self-control is disastrous both in sparring and personal affairs. "The term of stronger is the person who wins over oneself rather than someone else", Lao Tzu.

Balbir controls herself in one of the critical matches to save the team from loosing a player…..

5. Indomitable Spirit (Baekjul Boolgool)
A true student of Taekwon-Do will never give up, not even when faced with insurmountable odds. The most difficult goals can be achieved with indomitable spirit.