De Talli (Movie review)

Poor Ramgopal Varma. The ghosts of his debacle at attempting to remake Sholay will, it seems, linger forever in the annals of Bollywood jokes. In fact, in De Taali, a film by Ramu protégé E. Niwas, one of the best moments is the scene in which actor Riteish Deshmukh threatens to torture Rimi Sen by making her watch Ramu's Aag.

De Taali is part of the genre of films that have benefited by the multiplex boom allowing for more light-hearted, frivolous movies to enter the market. Paglu (Riteish Deshmukh), Abhi (Aftab Shivdasani) and Amu (Ayesha Takia) are introduced to us as three best friends.

Paglu is instrumental in orchestrating the chemistry of love between Abhi and Amu. Paglu is supposed to be a fun guy indulging in silly antics and sillier jokes. Abhi throws his heart out to every woman he meets, gets it broken and rises to fall in love again.

So in the whole Abhi-Amu love game there's a wee little problem. Abhi seems to be smitten by Kartika (Rimi Sen), one of the many in his long list of strange women that he's attracted to.

Sworn by the bonds of friendship, Paglu and Amu resolve to rescue Abhi from the tight clutches of the seductive Kartika, who is clearly intent on trapping unsuspecting Abhi into matri-money.

And so the grand plan is to abduct Kartika and reduce her existence to one of house arrest.

De Taali suffers from the usual problems of a Hindi film that starts off with some promise but feels this desperate need to fatten the middle in order to give its viewers value for money. E Niwas's most successful comedy was the multi-starrer Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega. De Taali tries to mix in a dash of Dil Chahta Hai with the Love Ke Liye formula in the hope of emerging as better viewing.

The cast doesn't need any more praise, particularly Riteish Deshmukh, who has yet again demonstrated his ability as a fine Bollywood comic actor and raises the performances of his co-actors. The usually placid and unimpressive Aftab Shivdasani benefits greatly from Deshmukh's presence and works well. As for Ayesha Takia, she too, has proved herself as an endearing actress and flits from buddy to belle with ease.

As a final verdict, De Taali won't make it to any memorable movie list and is at best a bubblegum film for younger urban audiences looking at what their lingo defines as "total timepass".

Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Ayesha Takia, Rimi Sen
Directed by: E. Niwas
Music: Vishal-Shekhar