Ta Ra Rum Pum

Infobox_Film
name = Ta Ra Rum Pum

---

caption = Movie poster
director = Siddharth Anand
producer = Aditya Chopra
writer = Habib Faisal
narrator =
starring = Saif Ali Khan
Rani Mukherjee
Ali Haji
Angelina Idnani
Javed Jaffrey
music = Vishal-Shekhar
cinematography = Binod Pradhan
editing =
distributor = Yash Raj Films
released = 27 April 2007
runtime = 153 mins
country = India
language = Hindi
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0833553

"Ta Ra Rum Pum" (Hindi: ता रा रम पम, Urdu: تا را رم پم) is a 2007 film that stars Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji in the lead roles. This is the second time the lead pair worked together after the success of their last film, "Hum Tum" (2004). The film is directed by Siddharth Anand, who directed the 2005 film "Salaam Namaste". The film was a semi-hit at the box office in India. The plot of this film can be compared loosely with of Will Ferrell starred Talladega Nights, as in this film the protagonist meets with an accident while racing and than makes a comeback destroying his nemesis race driver.

Production

Shooting began in May 2006 and the film was released on 27 April 2007. [cite web|url=http://www.yashrajfilms.com|title=Yash Raj Films] The working title was originally "Ta Ra Rum Pum Pum" [cite web |url=http://www.ranimukherjee-onweb.org/ta-ra-rum-pum.html |title= Ta Ra Rum Pum|accessdate=2007-04-24 |format= HTML|work= Title Changed] The film was shot almost entirely in the United States of America, with a few scenes shot in a studio in Mumbai. Portions of the film were filmed in Rockingham, North Carolina at the Rockingham Speedway and at West Allis, Wisconsin at The Milwaukee Mile. Ali Haji had to go through three auditions and Angelina Idnani was called in for her fourth audition before they were both finalized for the movie.

The cars used in racing scenes were provided by Andy Hillenburg, who later purchased the Rockingham Speedway months after its release and provided the stunt drivers, as many ARCA Re/Max Series drivers participated in the filming. (An ARCA Re/Max Series sticker can be found on the car.)

Plot

Rajveer Singh (Saif Ali Khan) has an immense passion for stock car racing and dreams of making it big on the racecourse. After being discovered by his manager Harry (Jaaved Jaffrey), he meets Radhika Shekar Rai Banerjee (Rani Mukerji) and instantly falls for her. He joins Speeding Saddles, a failing race team, and transforms from Rajveer Singh to RV the race car driver. He wins his first race and keeps winning, making him quite wealthy.

What started as an innocent love blossoms into a serious relationship as months pass by. Radhika is a great pianist, majoring in music at Columbia University, whereas Rajveer has no degree or any educational background. His lack of education and planning earns the disapproval of Radhika's father, Subho Shekar Roy Banerjee (Victor Banerjee). Radhika leaves her father and marries RV. She forgets about her degree and takes on her job as a wealthy housewife therefore Radhika Shekar Roy Banerjee turns into Shona. Their family is complete with the birth of two beautiful children, Priya aka Princess (Angelina Idnani) and Ranveer aka Champ(Ali Haji). Luck follows him as RV and he is soon proclaimed the number one race car driver in the USA.

However tragedy strikes when RV is involved in an accident whilst racing and he is hospitalized for a few months. He tries to make a comeback but the trauma of the accident mentally scars him. After a string of failures, he is forced to auction his house andmove with his family to a run-down Bronx-style neighborhood. RV and Radhika decide to hide the terrible truth from their children by saying that they are part of a reality television show where they have to live a poor life in order to win a mythical grand prize.

The family struggle with their new lifestyle but stick together by using a mixture of fantasy and cheerfulness to pull through. However an incident forces RV to make a decision and reclaim the life that was taken away from him. He goes in a heart pounding race and ends up winning, then reclaims everything he had lost

Cast

* Saif Ali Khan as Rajveer Singh a.k.a RV
* Rani Mukerji as Radhika Shekar Roy Banerjee Singh a.k.a. Shona
* Angelina Idnani as Priya Singh a.k.a Princess
* Ali Haji as Ranveer Singh a.k.a Champ
* Jaaved Jaffrey as Harry (Hari aka Hariprasad Dhirubhai Patel)
* Shruti Seth as Sasha
* Victor Banerjee as Subho Shekar Roy Banerjee
* Christy Johnson as Model

Crew

* Director: Siddharth Anand
* Producer: Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra
* Writer: Habib Faisal
* Dialogues: Habib Faisal
* Music Director: Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani
* Cinematography: Binod Pradhan
* Costume design: Surily Goel
* Sound design: Dileep Subramanian

Music

The music of the film has been conducted by the duo Vishal-Shekhar. While, Javed Akhtar has penned the lyrics. The song "Ta Ra Rum Rum" has been animated in the film. The film contains six songs:

Response

Box Office

"Ta Ra Rum Pum" opened to an average response, where collections were reported to be as low as 50%. However the film saw a good opening of 90-95% in the big cities such as Mumbai and Delhi, the smaller cinemas received an average response of 50-70%. [cite web |url=http://www.ibosnetwork.com/|title=Ta Ra Rum Pum Box Office Report|accessdate=2007-05-02 |format= HTML|work=ibosnetwork.com] Though the film opened to an average response the next two days saw a huge jump in collections. The collections dropped on Monday by about 55-70%. [cite web |url=http://www.ibosnetwork.com/|title=Ta Ra Rum Pum Box Office Report|accessdate=2007-01-01 |format= HTML|work=ibosnetwork.com] In its first week the film collected an impressive 4.37 crores in Mumbai, [cite web |url=http://www.indiafm.com/trade/domestic_boxoffice/index.html|title=Impressive First Week|accessdate=2007-06-15 |format= HTML|work=indiafm.com] and has done well at the multiplexes but not at the single screens. [cite web |url=http://www.indiafm.com/trade/top5/index.html|title=Does Great Business in the Multiplexes|accessdate=2007-06-15 |format= HTML|work=indiafm.com] The overall gross for the first week in India stands at Rs. 11,43,92,260 [cite web |url=http://www.indiafm.com/movies/boxoffice/12897/index.html|title= Overall Gross: First Week|accessdate=2007-06-15 |format= HTML|work=indiafm.com] The release of "Spider-Man 3" caused a drop in collections, but the film has continued to do well in Mumbai and Delhi. [cite web |url=http://www.indiafm.com/trade/top5/index.html|title=Spider-Man 3 Interrupts!|accessdate=2007-06-15 |format= HTML|work=indiafm.com] The film became the 5th highest grossing film of 2007 so far with box office figures of Rs.34 crores.

The three main markets overseas: The UK, USA and Australia saw a similar opening. "Ta Ra Rum Pum" collected £231,835 during the weekend and debuted at number nine on the UK film chart which was a good opening. [cite web|url=http://www.indiafm.com/trade/overseas_boxoffice/index.html|title=Ta Ra Rum Pum overseas report|accessdate=2007-01-01 |format= HTML|work=indiafm.com] In the United States, the film collected $425,102 which was a fair opening for the film. In Australia the film collected $87,082. [cite web |url=http://www.indiafm.com/trade/overseas_boxoffice/index.html|title=Ta Ra Rum Pum overseas report|accessdate=2007-01-01 |format= HTML|work=indiafm.com] Though the weekend figures are good, the collections are below expectations for a Yash Raj Film. [cite web |url=http://www.glamsham.com/movies/scoops/07/may/02_yatra_ta_ra_rum_pum_guru_namastey_london.asp|title=Ta Ra Rum Pum box below expectations|accessdate=2007-01-01 |format= HTML|work=glamsham.com] [cite web |url=http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2007/apr/30box.htm|title=Review of first week collections|accessdate=2007-01-01|format= HTML|work=specials.rediff.com] The film has been given an above-average status in the United States and was a hit in the United Kingdom. [cite web |url=http://www.ibosnetwork.com/|title=Semi-Hit!|accessdate=2007-06-15 |format= HTML|work=ibosnetwork.com] In its sixth week, the film has collected 0.70 crores and has been declared a semi-hit in India. [cite web|url=http://www.boxofficeindia.com/Semi-hit|title=in India] Overseas the film has collected $1,527,252 in the United Kingdom. [cite web| url=http://in.movies.yahoo.com/070426/128/6f172.html| title=Hit in India!|accessdate=2007-06-15 |format= HTML|work=in.movies.yahoo.com]

Tie up with Walt Disney Studios

The title song of the film is a 4 minute animated endeavour with all the main charecters of the movie and four other animated charecters. This song, was remarkably executed by Walt Disney Studios as part of their three film deal with Yash Raj Films. The producers of the film, Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra were on talks to co-produce two other films, tentatively titled Roadside Romeo, starring Saif Ali Khan (Romeo) and real life girlfriend Kareena Kapoor (Laila), which is due to release on October 2008 and the other being named Koochie Koochie Hota Hai (An animated version of the 1998 blockbuster Kuch Kuch Hota Hai), starring all the four main leads of the film, Shahrukh Khan (Rahul), Kajol (Anjali), Rani Mukerji (Tina) and Salman Khan (Aman) and is to be directed and co-produced by Karan Johar and distributed by Yash Raj Films, both with the Holywood animation giants Walt Disney Studios. Roadside Romeo is to be directed by Jugal Hansraj, who has earlier worked with the Chopra's on films like Mohabbatein, Salaam Namaste, Aaja Nachle and has also done small cameos in films like Kal Ho Naa Ho for Dharma Productions. Hansraj has also written the screenplay and also voices a small part in the film himself. Teasers and promos of Roadside Romeo were first released with Aaja Nachle and were very well received by the indian audience.

Reviews

The film opened from above-average to very positive reviews. [cite web |url=http://www.indiafm.com/trade/boxoffice_update/index.html|title=Ta Ra Rum Pum review from Indiafm.com|accessdate=2007-01-01 |format= HTML|work=indiafm.com] Taran Adarsh of Indiafm.com gave the film a rating of 3.5 out of 5. The two lead actors got good feedback with Adarsh saying "Saif is extremely likable. He conveys the varied emotions with complete understanding. Rani enacts the role of the mother/wife proficiently". [cite web |url=http://www.indiafm.com/movies/review/12897/index.html|title=Ta Ra Rum Pum review from Indiafm.com|accessdate=2007-01-01 |format= HTML|work=indiafm.com]

See also

* List of films set in New York City

References

External links

* [http://www.yashrajfilms.com/microsites/TRRP/microflash.html Official Movie Page]
*