Movie Review: Tadap

Rating: 2 of 5

Star Cast: Ahan Shetty, Tara Sutaria, Saurabh Shukla, Kumud Mishra, Sumit Gulati.

Director: Milan Luthria

A love story about a man spurned, scorned and left to suffer, Tadap, directed by Milan Luthria and written by Rajat Arora, is strewn with the cliches of the genre. It does not have a single original sleight. But that is the least of the film’s drawbacks. Scratch the prettified surface and what you find is a misogynistic rant masquerading as a movie.

Director Milan Luthria, armed with a very good script, is in top form. His narrative style is very good. He has also extracted wonderful work from out of his actors. On the whole, Tadap is a hit fare. Its music will soar even more post-release, on the popularity charts.

So when a romantic action drama like Tadap (remake of Telugu hit RX100) comes along and refuses to sugar coat modern day relationships and tackles ‘taboo’ topics like casual sex and infidelity, it tends to hit you in the face. If you haven’t seen the original, the toxic love story can give you a jolt in the second half of the movie. The twists and turns in the plot seem convoluted and in an effort to shine the spotlight amiably on one of the protagonists, the other one’s character unfortunately suffers.But what works for Tadap are earnest performances all around, especially from the lead stars and some great dialogues. If only they could have been more generous with the female character. But every great love story needs a villain, we guess, even if here it comes in the form of an unexpected modern day beauty with a penchant for the high life.

Without spoiling the film, the film ends with a golden light-like soul of a certain character exiting its body & that CGI generated light is undoubtedly the best performer of the film. Ahan Shetty deserved a better debut than this & it’s not just him, every actor deserved a better film than this. Due to very little to explore, there’s no scope for Ahan to get into different shades for his character. His act gets as monotonous as Game Of Thrones‘ winter in the last two seasons. Could he do better with a good script? Probably, as this doesn’t hint at anything super assuring of his talent.

It’s three bad films at a stretch for Tara Sutaria meaning three times where she could have just declined the role, for not having a proper character sketch. She needs a miraculous turnover from here to maintain her place amid the flooding of new talent in the industry. Saurabh Shukla emerges to be the ‘tinka’ to a drowning script giving us a couple of giggles to bear many moments of awkward silence. Kumud Mishra sleepwalks in an unexcitedly penned character of a politician. Sumit Gulati’s character makes no sense adding to many other similar things in the film.