Taish Review

The story isn’t a straight forward one and follows a non-linear route. It starts by showing how our leads are struggling with their personal turmoils, and the flashback explores what led them to reach a certain point of self-destruction. We’ve Pali (Harshvardhan Rane) who is finding hard to see the love of his life Jahaan (Sanjeeda Sheikh) marrying someone else. Divided basically into two parts, the first half of the story follows a very routine ‘gore at the wedding’ template. But, it’s the second half which really matters consisting the meaty portions. The ‘Taish’ of Taish lies in the latter half of the story, making it way different than the expectations it lay down in the first half. Bejoy Nambiar’s story-telling (also written by Kartik R. Iyer, Anjali Nair and Gunjit Chopra) triumphs even the good performances by the show’s leading cast. This is Nambiar’s attempt at putting things, those have worked for him in the past, together in a single show/film. Just when I started thinking that the show is getting in a similar zone as Siddharth Sengupta’s Undekhi, Nambiar not only proves me wrong but also brings out the best of his world. Nambiar gets into the head of Harashvir Oberoi (cinematographer) taking some very bold decisions regarding colouring the film. Impeccable usage of lights, sharp camera angles results in a much more superior product. Ten minutes into the show and I get the song Jaago, fulfilling my life-long wish of listening to a Lifafa track in anything created by Bollywood. The final episode also has Lifafa’s ‘Main Jee Raha Hoon’, and I didn’t ask for more. A couple of other songs click as well and are all situational. Gaurav Godkhindi and Govind Vasantha’s background score scores well in the overall scheme of things. Priyank Prem Kumar’s editing might test the patience of some of you out there, but it’s satisfying by the end of the show. Set in London’s Southall, full marks to the actors for getting as close to English accent as we can. All said and done, Taish is an absorbing trip of its defining emotions such as anger, rage, indignation. Backed by an unequalled story-telling by Bejoy Nambiar, this show/film packs a riveting punch.