De Taali at best seems like a four episode back to back rerun of a light hearted sitcom but minus the funny and witty lines, better still it looks like the compilation of the deleted scenes as the movie is just not humourous. That’s the problem with movies that you go in certain expectations to be entertained and have a nice time, they invariably disappoint.
The story is of three friends, Riteish Deshmukh (Paglu), Aftab Shivdasani (Abhi) and Ayesha Takia (Amrita) their bonding.Abhi is always getting a new girlfriend every fortnight and getting dumped the next and the other play along with him. Trouble comes when Affy falls for Rimi Sen (Kartika), who actually is a gold digger and Paglu sees through her plans and by the time of interval Kartika is kidnapped by Paglu and Amu for preventing her from marrying Abhi. De Taali was to be about friendship but I didn’t see many friendly scenes as by the initial reels, Paglu had become cupid and sown the seeds of love in Amu’s mind towards Abhi.He was trying to convince her that the special girl that Abhi is searching for is none of the 31 girlfriends but one before him.
When the initials credits rolled, showcasing the world of the three best friends ,it promised to be a nice film, better than what E Niwas had been making recently,like,Dum,Bardasht and My name is Anthony Gonsalves and he could have done it too for he had three very good actors at his disposal in Riteish Deshmukh,Aftab Shivdasani and Ayesha Takia.You actually feel bad for these guys, for how much can they salvage the film with their impressive comic timing when the screenplay itself doesn’t give them the opportunity to do so. Infact they are good despite the script.
The scenes involving Neha Dhupia and Hrishita Bhatt are nice and one where interacts with his landlord strictly passable. But there is one moment of magic when Aftab tells Ayesha how he knows she loves him and missed him and cried for him. Had the director and the script conjured up even half a dozen such scenes it could have indeed become a good film, but sadly it is not and ends up as an average attempt although the story had definite potential .
Aftab with his love struck look, Ayesha with her infectious smile, Riteish with his sunken eyes and deadpan humour are fantastic but the film is just not happening. Rest of the cast is strictly okay. All the songs (Vishal –Shekhar, music) are hindrance to the narrative but the title track and Teetri are foot tapping and would be playing in night clubs for sometime to come. So I give one and a half rating to De Taali, strictly average fare.