I seriously want to register a Missing Persons Complaint with the nearest police station.
Name: Milan Luthria. Profession: Film director. Brief resume: Took difficult subjects like Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai in 2010 and The Dirty Picture in 2011 and made splendid films out of them along with writing partner Rajat Aroraa.
Missing since: He made the sequel to Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara in 2013 where the film was as wonky as the spellings.
Took so long to register the complaint because: We hoped it was an aberration and he’d come back one day. But after squirming through Tadap this morning, we know that the real Milan is missing bigtime and this time he’s taken Rajat along with him.
It really is unbelievable that Milan Luthria delivers the biggest thud of his life with the Hindi remake of the 2018 Telugu hit, RX 100.
The storyline itself is too weird to make a film around it. Men have done it from time immemorial where they’d have a fling with a girl but marry another. So what’s so life-endingly severe if MLA’s daughter Ramisa (Tara Sutaria) beds Ishana (Ahan Shetty) but wants to wed her boyfriend from London?
Perhaps the makers thought it was a unique mystery to unveil that it wasn’t, as you’re half-heartedly led to believe, her MLA dad Damodar (Kumud Mishra) who put a spanner in the works but Ramisa herself who’d wanted Ishana only for time-pass. Too bad he took it so seriously that he goes on a three-year binge of breaking bones, hitting the bottle, smoking like a badtameez at funerals, and torching Damodar’s businesses with complete impunity.
It never occurs to Ishana’s foster Daddy (Saurabh Shukla driving a jeep that says Daddy on the windshield) to tell him the truth that Damodar was not the proverbial villainous father and that Ramisa was the one who’d played with his feelings. He could’ve saved the town from this youngster with raging angst.
But then logic isn’t the strong suit of Milan-Rajat’s messy mélange that spells disaster from the word go.
Hero Ahan Shetty is introduced after a series of chases and blows, through a hole in the door that he has just punched. That’s when you see his face for the first time. Don’t look for anything more impressive as Ahan makes an unimposing debut with facial expressions that urgently require a strict acting coach.
Worse, producer Sajid Nadiadwala may make massy movies but he did introduce Tiger Shroff with at least decent action scenes in the otherwise unwatchable Heropanti (2014).
This time, despite signing on two coordinators, Stefan Richter and Vikram Dahiya, there isn’t a single action set piece that makes you go wow, what a hero.
Tara Sutaria who has already been seen in 2019 films like Student Of The Year and Marjavaan, looks pleasant but springs no surprise as an actress.
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The only actor who marks his presence is Kumud Mishra as Damodar.
Pritam’s Tumse bhi zyada lingers but is wasted in a film that’s far from lyrical.
That’s where it scores so poorly. Milan Luthria has two songs in quick succession to show lovemaking which may establish jumping hormones but does in no way establish the deep, soul-shattering love that’s kindled in Ishana. One of the several reasons why the viewer remains disengaged with the animal-like shouting and bingeing by the hero.
So ultimately, instead of the hero who’s supposed to be anguished, coming out of the theatre is a tormented viewer.
Honestly, if this is the fare that’s forcing us to go back to theatres, give me lockdown and the OTT any day.
Tadap Trailer: