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DVD Review |
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By Joginder Tuteja, August 25, 2008 - 15:08 IST
MOVIE DETAILS
Cast: Aftab Shivdasani, Riteish Deshmukh, Ayesha Takia, Rimi Sen, Anupam Kher
Director: Eshwar Niwas
Producer: Ravi Walia
Music: Vishal-Shekhar
Lyrics: Vishal Dadlani, Abbas Tyrewala
THE FILM
There are certain films which are plain unfortunate when it comes to their box office outcome. De Taali is clearly one of them. The film released a few weeks before Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na turned into a mass hysteria. And to think of it, the one line plot of both the films was quite similar - Two childhood friends (Aftab and Ayesha) searching for love in the outer world before realizing that it existed between the two of them.
However, De Taali follows a riotous route with two other interesting characters thrown into the narrative. Together Riteish and Rimi ensure that they take over the film completely in spite of being second leads (strictly technically though) in the scheme of things. As a boy who doesn't want his friend to go into the wrong arms and as a girl who would make sure that her charms get all the riches that she was aiming for, Riteish and Rimi come up with one of their top performances ever. While Riteish uses his deadpan expression when it comes to humor (it isn't really easy to master the art) to full use yet again, Rimi is a revelation as she combines wit and evil in a deadly manner without turning into a caricature!
De Taali follows a frothy route and is also classy at places (almost coming close to Hollywood rom-coms). Just one look at the opening sequence of the film (imaginatively shot) when a viewer is candidly taken through a tree house where the trio of childhood friends (Riteish, Aftab, Ayesha) spends their time together and you know that director Niwas has tried to tell a story differently. Light hearted humor stays on throughout the 2 hour duration of the film before taking a riotous turn the moment Riteish threatens to show Rimi the DVD of Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag if she doesn't shut herself up soon. Deadly!
It isn't as if the film suddenly decides to take a sentimental route in the concluding reels of the film, as is the case with numerous rom-coms being churned out of Bollywood. It follows the comic graph throughout with Riteish showcasing his mettle as a reliable actor all over again. In fact he dominates the proceedings right till the end before a rather weird climax diminishes the impact of the film to a little extent. Numerous suitors of Rimi start getting exposed from every closet and suddenly it threatens to turn into a mess before Niwas decides to apply breaks and wrap it all quickly.
However, despite a bravura performance by Riteish, Aftab gets that one solo scene to his credit which turns out to be the best of the lot. This is the one where in a conference room, he cheekily teases Ayesha of having loved him throughout but shied away from admitting so. His childlike banter is simply priceless here! No wonder, at this very moment, one actually feels like reaching out to Aftab and exclaim - 'Come on buddy - de taali'!
PACKAGING
The film comes in a standard local plastic case. Since the DVD comes on Moser Baer, don't expect any fancy packaging.
DURATION
The film comes in a single DVD pack with the film's duration being 140 minutes.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The DVD doesn't come with any special features.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
- The DVD does not come with 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation. In layman terms, it's in a regular format (with thick top and bottom stripes) which is associated with VCD format.
- Subtitles in English
- Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1
PRICE
Rs. 50/=
CONCLUSION
When released at theaters, De Taali was hit hard due to two major factors. a) The film only had one saleable star, Riteish Deshmukh, with going not really being good for Aftab, Ayesha and Rimi in spite of consistently good performances over the years. b) The film was delayed by almost a year due to which it didn't quite fetch the kind of pre-release hoopla and buzz that it deserved. It is still to the credit of some fantastic promotion, very good performances by the cast and some hummable music by Vishal-Shekhar, which fetched De Taali a face saving opening at least. Though at the box office, it may not have created a storm, it's DVD gives audience a chance to have some fun during a weekend watch with a bunch of friends!
 
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