Movie review- TALAASH

Movies are generally divided into genres based on the basic theme of the story- A romantic; a comedy; a thriller; story based on the supernatural and paranormal behavior; action; horror, and so on. Most often, when we go to watch a movie, we know beforehand what genre the film belongs to. Talaash is a film that ideally must be watched without the knowledge of its genre. But because we live in a society where people are so well-connected through the electronic media and social networking sites, that it is impossible to be oblivious of the genre of the film, if not the actual mystery, unless one maroons himself from the world keeping his eyes and ears shut till he watches the movie. I, owing to a few of my good friends on FB, could get an idea about the genre of Talaash, and hence I could not enjoy the movie as much as I would have otherwise enjoyed it. But in the theatre too there were some very extremely helpful gentlemen in our vicinity who kept mumbling future course of the movie and I felt during the interval to bring some action into the whole affair by smacking a few on those gentlemen’s faces. But I refrained eventually considering my frail frame.

Now writing a review of a film without discussing even the genre, let alone the mystery, is a huge ask. I obviously will not be able to say much about the story itself, but Talaash is THE ‘long-awaited-once-in-a-blue-moon-good-movie’ kind of a flick. The story is extremely gripping, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of the time. This is a movie where you hate that the interval happened, and you actually don’t feel like going out for popcorn and coke lest you should miss a few frames of the second half. Aamir Khan is a police officer who is investigating a mysterious and seemingly accidental death of a film star. He is also burdened by the guilt of his only son’s accidental death that he thinks he could have prevented if he were a bit more careful. During the course of the investigations, Aamir meets Kareena Kapoor, a prostitute, who helps him to crack the case because the meager clues leading to the death of the film star go through the city’s brothels. Needless to say, the ‘accidental’ death of the film star is actually not an accident in totality, and the ‘mystery’ in the film is the reason of this ‘accident’. I can say no more about the story itself without spilling the beans.  

The performances are all power-packed. Aamir, as usual, has done full justice to his role as a police officer dedicated towards his duty, and grief-stricken from his son’s death. He looks handsome in his curved-down moustache and cropped hair, but his hair dye is as blatant as it could get. Every time I see an actor trying to look younger by coloring his hair, I remember Naseeruddin Shah, who looks stunning in his silver hair these days. But I guess the story demanded that Aamir had jet-black hair. Even then, the make-up artists could have done a much better job. I have never liked Kareena before, except in Jab we met, but last night I was stunned by the way she looked, and the way she performed her role.  Simply superb. She looked very beautiful; a bit gaudy, but that is understood coz after all she plays a prostitute. An important character in the film is Timur, named after the famous lame king, a shady character who is afflicted by polio, and carries out odd jobs for the touts in the red-light area. Timur has been played by Nawaazuddin Siddiqui, of the ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ fame. He is a promising actor and I’m sure he will mark a solid mark in the Hindi film industry. Rani Mukerji plays Aamir’s wife, also grief-stricken for the same reason as Aamir himself, and is sans make-up for most of the film, looking plain and simple making you forget how beautiful she looks with the make-up on. She has done full justice to her role too.

Kudos to Reema Kagti for crisp direction. The story, written by Reema and Zoya deserves accolades. It is truly a ‘different’ story, a term that the Bollywood wallahs so much love to use.

Of the tracks, I liked ‘muskaanein jhooti hain’, and ‘jee le zara’. And the music is really good.

  My rating: 4 on 5