Taarzan: Fun fare

Dhawan G | August 06, 2004 20:26 IST


A car that changes its shape, drives in any way, becomes a motorboat and navigates underwater, can fall apart and pull itself back together, and can never be damaged.

To top it all, it has Ajay Devgan's ghost, who is hungry for revenge, as its driver.

This Rs 2 crore Dilip Chhabria-designed wonder car is the real hero of Taarzan – The Wonder Car.

It gets its name Taarzan from its designer in the film, Devgan, who hangs a Tarzan figurine (which looks like the animated Disney film released in 1999) in the car.

The story is simple. Vatsal Seth, an orphan, is a nerd who works as a mechanic in Amrish Puri's garage, loves his grandmother (Farida Jalal) and goes to college every day. His father (Devgan) is bumped off in the first reel by five villains.


The film spends a few more reels on Vatsal's romance with London-returned Ayesha Takia. He discovers his father's car in a scrapyard and spends another reel putting it together.

This is when the film really takes off and we have some fun watching the wonder car bash up bullies and then kill the five baddies one by one in the second half.

The good news first. The car looks great, and does exactly what it is supposed to do -- churn out good, clean, kiddish, violent fun.

The bad news. The villains are from the 1970s and 1980s, hamming to the hilt, with the most idiotic lines.

The structure is similar to Rakesh Roshan's Koi... Mil Gaya. But instead of an alien, we have a car.

What's missing is that Vatsal, despite his earnestness, is no Hrithik Roshan. So, it's a waiting game until the car makes its appearance. His story, which is quite weak, is woven around the antics of the car. If Vatsal's tale is removed, the story would still be about an avenging soul in a car killing the bad guys.

Ayesha Takia is likeable. But if she wants to show off her legs, she should stop wearing stockings.

Devgan is barely seen on screen. His presence is felt more via the car. The filmmakers did not cash in on the actor's presence, and made sure there is no disappointment.

The music is okay. But the hit number O Sajan is wrongly placed and slows the pace of the film.

The Abbas-Mustan film will actually delight kids more than adults.

It's funny, Hollywood's king of horror Stephen King would never have seen his horror fest Christine becoming a family film, where the car -- instead of scaring the audience -- entertains them.

TAARZAN - THE WONDER CARI (2004)

Release Date: August 6, 2004
Dir: Abbas-Mustan Burmawala
Producer: Gordhan Tanwani
Cast: Vastsal Sheth, Ayesha Takia, Amrish Puri, Gulshan Grover and Rajpal Yadav

RS RATING: 5/10

Background:
Abbas and Mustan Burmawala are known to be makers of thrillers after films like Khiladi, Badshah, Baazigar, Ajnabee, Humraaz etc to their credit. This film too has its share of thrills and spills. The very idea of a wonder car is a not a very new idea for Indian cinema. And with the aid of car modifier Dilio Chhabria and some special effects… here’s a Deep Purple coloured Toyota MR2 remodelled into a mean machine and called Taarzan – The Wonder Car.

Synopsis:
Raj (Vatsal Sheth) is a bright young man working in a garage owned by Kartar Singh (Amrish Puri in a great role). Priya (Ayesha Takia) is a young vivacious girl from London who is on a visit to India and as expected falls in love with the likeable Raj who is unpretentious and adorable.

In the meantime the mechanical genius that he is, Raj picks up a dead and done car from the junkyard and transforms it into a great mean machine. The car can do anything, anywhere. It can go on both land and water and with its amphibian abilities is something that has only been seen in James Bond movies before. (Oh, have we let out that inspiration as well?).

Anyway, both, Raj and Priya, are in love with Tarzan and love traveling in it. They have a few adventures on the way which make the film a little interesting.

Critique:
If one recollects, Amitabh Bachchan had a car in Manmohan Desai’s film Akayla, which also listened to his bidding. The idea for the film has some of its origins there. Vatsal Sheth who was first seen in the teeny bopper serial Just Mohabbat and Ayesha Takia, seen in a few music videos do likable debuts. They are quite bubbly and enthusiastic and need to make some right choices in the future. The film has been a great launch for them, even though Taarzan takes away the honours.

However there are no stars in the film, barring a special cameo by an actor who did one in another film earlier this year… However the cameo is a turning point. Hope spoiler didn’t tell you that the actor is Ajay Devgan. But then, the hero of the film is the car… as one dialogue in the film says, ‘yeh car nahin haahaankaar hai’ (This is not a car… it is a disaster). Hopefully one cannot say that for the film as well, though the kids are likely to like the film more, due to the comedy element in the film which is a patent of the Burmawala brothers.

Gulshan Grover as a cop is very good in a scene where he catches Vatsal and gets him to the cophouse.

Himesh Reshammiya’s music is average. Abbas Mustan’s knack of story-telling holds the story together. And that’s about it. However, the film is not something that you would want to watch a second time.

The action of the film is again the turning point, as it holds the film together as well, in the absence of strong background music as well. It will not be long before more such films are made, with some emphasis on storytelling.

Conclusion:
Watch the film for the car and its supernatural powers.

Never mind if it reminds you of many films like Manmohan Desai’s Akayla, Stephen King’s Christine among others. The car has a spirit inside it. Find out more when you see the film. That’s the only thing you would want to know now about the film.

Reviewed by: Qamar Zaman

*** Who minds? Mind to KARAYA par diya hai!!Hindi film dekhne ke waaste!