Review: Tahaan

Review: Tahaan

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Tahaan

Cast: Purav Bhandare, Rahul Bose, Anupam Kher, Sarika
Director: Santosh Sivan



Anupama Chopra, Consulting Editor, Films, NDTV

There is a small but telling moment in Tahaan when a little boy, frantically searching for his donkey, interrupts a bunch of kids playing chor-police.

Since we are in Kashmir, half the boys are playing militants and the other half the army. At the end of the game, they all fall down. This brief scene beautifully captures the irony, horror and unending tragedy that is Kashmir.

Director-writer-cinematographer Santosh Sivan gives us a fable about a childhood fractured by loss and grief.

Tahaan?s father was picked up for questioning three years ago and never returned. His mother weeps, prays, searches and endures.

When the money runs out, she sells her son?s best friend, a donkey named Birbal.

Tahaan?s struggle to get Birbal back leads him to a dark, dangerous space. Eventually, he's standing in a street, bewildered and afraid, holding a grenade in his hand.

The children in Tahaan, Purav Bhandre and Dheirya Sonecha, are natural born actors and their innocence adds to the ache in this story.

The adults?Sarika, Anupam Kher, Victor Banerjee, Rahul Bose?are also very good but the performances cannot mask the meandering and sometimes na