Tahaan

Infobox Film
name = Tahaan


caption = Promotional poster for the film
writer = Santosh Sivan
Ritesh Menon
Paul Hardart
starring = Purav Bhandare
Anupam Kher
Sarika
Rahul Bose
Rahul Khanna
Victor Banerjee
director = Santosh Sivan
producer = Shripal Morakhia Mubina Rattonsey
editing = Shakti Hasija
distributor =
released = 5 September, 2008
runtime =
language = Hindi
budget =
cinematography = Santosh Sivan
music = Taufique Qureshi
soundtrack =
country = India
awards =
followed_by =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 1213928
website = http://www.idreamproduction.com/website/tahaan

"Tahaan" is an Indian drama film by Santosh Sivan. The film is based on the life of a young boy and his pet donkey.cite web|title=Another Tale of the Vale|url=http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Another-Tale-of-the-Vale/357148/|date=2008-09-04|accessdate=2008-09-04|last=Chakrabarti|first=Paromita|publisher|The Indian Express] It is a fable-like journey of the eponymous eight-year-old boy, whose life revolves around the pursuit to find real purpose in his little world. The film stars Purav Bhandare as the young boy. Anupam Kher, Sarika, Rahul Bose, Rahul Khanna and Victor Banerjee form the rest of the cast.

Plot

Tahaan (Purav Bhandare) lives with his grandfather (Victor Banerjee), mother Haba (Sarika) and older sister Zoya (Sana Shaikh) in the Kashmir valley. The family lives with the ardent hope that the boy's father, who's been missing for over three years, will return home. The death of the grandfather pushes them into financial crisis. The local moneylender and his manager (Rahul Khanna) take away the family's assets including Tahaan's pet donkey, Birbal, in lieu of an unpaid loan. While the rest of the family seeks redemption from the crises, Tahaan is determined to bring Birbal back home.

After salvaging money using various means, Tahaan reaches the moneylender to reclaim Birbal. He is piqued to know that an old gentleman Subhan Darr (Anupam Kher) bought the donkey and went across the mountains. The irony being that his father went missing behind the same mountains. Gathering courage, Tahaan goes in search of the old man. Upon meeting him, Subhan does not befriend the boy easily. He slowly understands Tahaan's love for the donkey. It dawns upon the young boy that Subhan had given the donkey to his eight year old nephew. His household help Zafar (Rahul Bose) who is also not of any assistance to Tahaan.

On his way back home, Tahaan encounters Idrees, a teenager who discourages him that his efforts will not be sufficient to get Birbal back. Instead he suggests to do him a favor. Tahaan is asked to take a package across the mountains in his onward journey. Upon seeing his eagerness, Idrees hands him over a grenade and says that when the time is right, he will be told what needs to be done. What happens next forms the rest of the story.

Production

After major commercial releases such as "The Terrorist" (1999), "Asoka" (2001), "Anandabhadram" (2005) and "Before the Rains" (2007), award-winning director Santosh Sivan got the idea for this film after reading a newspaper report. He formed a fable-like story from the report.cite web|title=Newspaper report inspired Sivan's Tahaan|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=94d3873e-2f12-4307-aea5-dd7c6bcf74e8&ParentID=8bcfda1f-d926-40ab-a4b0-c14631bce7de&MatchID1=2903&TeamID1=2&TeamID2=15&MatchType1=2&SeriesID1=793&PrimaryID=2903&Headline=Newspaper+report+inspired+Sivan's+EMTahaan/EM|date=2008-08-25|accessdate=2008-09-04|work=ANI|publisher=Hindustan Times]

Since Kashmir is a strife-torn area, films are rarely picturized there. However in the case of this film, Sivan thought that audiences can relate it to the film well. It was only after 18 years that a film was filmed in Kashmir.cite web|title='Tahaan', story of a Kashmiri boy|url=http://www.ptinews.com/ptiptisite.nsf/0/0D871DB589DB0655652574B4002F80ED?OpenDocument|date=2008-08-29|accessdate=2008-09-04|work=Press Trust of India]

While filming in Pahalgam, Sivan realised to his surprise that children were comfortable with guns. It seemed to him that it was a part of everyday life for them. cite web|title=Signature cinema|url=http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/09/07/stories/2008090750210500.htm|date=2008-09-07|accessdate=2008-09-08|work= Ziya Us Salam|publisher=The Hindu] cite web|title=A week that offers some brilliant, responsible cinema |accessdate=2008-09-07|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2008090750490200.htm&date=2008/09/07/&prd=th&|work=The Hindu] The film makes eloquent use of Quranic verses or "azaan", for which the director took help from research scholars in Kashmir.

When shooting there we only wanted to show the real life. I had heard some Quranic verses there at some Dargah. I thought I could use them to send a message of hope. I wanted to use the azaan for a nice purpose, a beautiful thing, not for any wrong deed... At the end I wanted to show the positive power of a dream.

Reception

The film opened to generally positive reviews. Ziya Us Salam of "The Hindu" hailed the film as a 'visual poem' and "Responsible cinema, brilliant cinema." Raja Sen of Rediff gave it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "must-watch". [cite web|title=Tahaan is a must-watch|accessdate=2008-09-04|url=http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/sep/05tahaan.htm|work=Rediff] Rajiv Masand of CNN-IBN called it a "film of great virtue" and gave 3 out of 5 stars. [cite web|title=Tahaan, a film of great virtue|accessdate=2008-09-04|url=http://www.ibnlive.com/news/masands-verdict-tahaan-a-film-of-great-virtue/72971-8.html] Baradwaj Rangan called it as a "film of first-rate performances". [cite web|title=Review : Tahaan|accessdate=2008-09-04|url=http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/2008/09/06/review-tahaan-a-wednesday/]

References

External links

*imdb title|id=1213928|title=Tahaan
* [http://www.idreamproduction.com/website/tahaan Official website]