Tahaan
| Tahaan | |
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 Promotional poster for the film |
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| Directed by | Santosh Sivan |
| Produced by | Shripal Morakhia Mubina Rattonsey |
| Written by | Santosh Sivan Ritesh Menon Paul Hardart |
| Starring | Purav Bhandare Anupam Kher Sarika Rahul Bose Rahul Khanna Victor Banerjee |
| Music by | Taufique Qureshi |
| Cinematography | Santosh Sivan |
| Editing by | Shakti Hasija |
| Release date(s) | 5 September 2008 |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Official website • IMDb | |
Tahaan is an Indian drama film by Santosh Sivan. The film is based on the life of a young boy and his pet donkey.[1] 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.
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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 told that old man 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. He finds him and Tahaan is hired to help guiding Birbal; as payment he is promised to get him back afterwards. However, after doing his work Tahaan does not get the donkey or any other payment. Subhan gives the donkey to his eight year old nephew. His household help Zafar (Rahul Bose) is also not of any assistance to Tahaan.
On his way back home, Tahaan encounters Idrees, a teenager who discourages him, saying 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. At a checkpoint the package and grenade are not discovered due to the fact that the soldiers know and trust Subhan Darr. Tahaan is about to commit a terrorist act with the grenade and has already removed the pin, when he changes his mind and throws it safely in a river.
Subhan's nephew learns that Tahaan is fond of Birbal, and at his request Subhan gives it back to Tahaan.
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.[2]
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.[2] It was only after 18 years that a film was filmed in Kashmir.[3]
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. [4][5] 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.[4]
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." [5] Raja Sen of Rediff gave it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "must-watch".[6] Rajiv Masand of CNN-IBN called it a "film of great virtue" and gave 3 out of 5 stars.[7] Baradwaj Rangan called it as a "film of first-rate performances".[8]
- ^ Chakrabarti, Paromita (2008-09-04). "Another Tale of the Vale". Retrieved on 2008-09-04.
- ^ a b "Newspaper report inspired Sivan's Tahaan". ANI. Hindustan Times (2008-08-25). Retrieved on 2008-09-04.
- ^ "'Tahaan', story of a Kashmiri boy". Press Trust of India (2008-08-29). Retrieved on 2008-09-04.
- ^ a b "Signature cinema". Ziya Us Salam. The Hindu (2008-09-07). Retrieved on 2008-09-08.
- ^ a b "A week that offers some brilliant, responsible cinema". The Hindu. Retrieved on 2008-09-07.
- ^ "Tahaan is a must-watch". Rediff. Retrieved on 2008-09-04.
- ^ "Tahaan, a film of great virtue". Retrieved on 2008-09-04.
- ^ "Review : Tahaan". Retrieved on 2008-09-04.
