Spoilerwarning
I was told that “Ta Ra Rum Pum” is somehow compareable to “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. I haven’t seen “Chitty Chitty” but I know that it is a very famous American family-movie about a funny magic car. Additionally I was well informed that “Tara Rum Pum” is supposed to be the Yash-Raj-Bollywood-Blockbuster of the year, starring Rani and Saif.
So, bravely I went to a PVR-Multiplex in Delhi to see it without subtitle (And – to my surprise - I had only very barely problems with understanding the dialogues).
My (yoga-washed) brain created colourful images of a flying and speaking car and a funny-family-Song-and-Dance-Scene above the clouds.
Can you imagine how disappointed I am after seeing it? There is NO MAGIC but just one psychedelic Mary-Poppins-kind-of Animation Dance with Disney-sort-of bears. What a crap. Well, for Indian cinema this is something new (I guess) and children will love the interaction of humanbeings and cartoons.
If there is any magic in this movie then you may find it within the way how Saif and Rani are dealing with their children. That’s probably the main reason why the movie actually will become a Blockbuster. Rani and Saif have this well running chemistry. I especially like this inner weakness that Saif is showing sometimes and this inner strength of Rani. It is fun when they are playing games with such qualities and balance out each other. But however: The whole Reality-Tv-Game-Storyline, one could define as magic of this movie, is just a bad copy of Begninis “Life is beautiful”. Also the tragic of Arvi loosing his job and house didn’t affect me in any way. The racing-parts were way to loud (in the PVR) and besides a few nice effects this was just dizzy. Four times you will see (more or less) the same shots of the racing. And always this annoying flashbacks, sigh.
Bollywood-Disney conspiracy?
A incredible thought came to me during the Mary-Poppins-like dancing-bear scene. Mamabear and Papabear try to kiss, but are interrupted in the very last moment.
OMG
I was so laughing.
In American Animation-movies we see kissing all over. Maybe this is enough reason for conservative Indian parents to not allow their children to watch them? Did somebody ever thought of that? Maybe Bollywoodproducers are thinking similar and actually react on Disney and Pixar to target both the children and the parents. F.e.: The racing scenes in “Tara Rum Pum” are surely nice for the kids who wanted to see the American Animationfilm “Cars” but probably weren’t allowed. Hmmm. But why? Was there probably a kissing scene in “Cars”?
This is mindfucking, I know. Ho jayega. But still- “Tara Rum Pum” is a very good mix to serve both parents and children. And maybe grannys. Not so much the youth- they seemed rather bored. No, not “censor bored” cause of the not kissing bears. Bored because it is a long boring movie with to many repeats of always the same racing thing.
Song and Dance
So what is good about this movie despite some well-played Rani-Saif interactions? The Soundtrack is nice. First song has memorable choreography. Very much “in your face”. (I liked that). The Bhangra-Song had nice Chickenstyle-dance. (I copy that). Ranis “Tara Rum Pum” Part is what we call a earworm. As well the more energetic “Tara Rum Pum” Theme which is performed with the controversial Cartoon bears. Additionally I remember this frustrating song in the second part, which is nearly to good for the movie. And I think there was a average romantic song- showing all the NY-settings we know already from KANK and KHNH.
Revenge
When Arvi won his first race he cheated and bumped another car. Later on he himself gets more heavily bumped and now we are supposed to think that this is unfair. And in the end there has to be revenge. So he bumps the guy back even more heavily. Welcome to “Ben Hur”. (Unsurprisingly we had some people in the hall who applauded.)
Conclusion
It is a cruel movie with no kissing bears and very bloody revenge. But still it has nice actors and songs (and according to some theories Hindi-Cinema does not need more to be successful). The plot is poor if you ask me. Familydrama is boring. Racing is boring. Taxidriving is fun.
But there is no such thing as magic. Bleh.
I want magic.
End of Spoiler
