Taal is a 1999 Hindi film directed by Subhash Ghai. Taal was an official selection by Roger Ebert for his 2005 Overlooked Film Festival. The film stars Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna, Aishwarya Rai, Amrish Puri and Alok Nath. It was also dubbed in Tamil as Thaalam. It was quite successful overseas, becoming the first Indian film to reach the top 20 on Variety's box office list.^[1] Anil Kapoor, A.R. Rahman, and Anand Bakshi each won a Filmfare Award for their work in the film.

Synopsis[link]

Manav (Akshaye Khanna) comes to visit India with his wealthy father Jagmohan Mehta (Amrish Puri), his aunt and uncle, and his father's employees. In Chamba he meets Mansi (Aishwarya Rai), the beautiful daughter of a spiritual singer named Tara Babu (Alok Nath); their families meet, and Jagmohan and Tara Babu become acquainted and friendly toward each other. Manav and Mansi fall in love, but when Jagmohan learns of this he packs the family up and moves them to their house in Mumbai, with the excuse that Mansi and her father are of low social status. However, he is nice to Tara Babu's face and invites him to come and stay with him and Mumbai if he, Tara Babu, ever happens to be travelling there. Mansi is distressed by Manav's departure but he assures her that he will not abandon her and that everything will be fine. She gives Manav his scarf which she modified, making it say "Manavsi", a mixture of their names.

When Tara Babu learns of Manav and Mansi's affair he is at first angry but soon agrees to travel to Mumbai to visit his younger sister Prabha and to meet Manav's family. Instead they are insulted by Jagmohan's sister-in-law, brother, and the employees and endure hostile treatment. They are forced to sit and wait outside for 9 hours before being invited into the house. When Jagmohan finally arrives at the scene, he too insults Tara Babu, which results in Tara Babu's slapping him across the face. Manav also arrives, and he rudely reprimands Tara Babu as well. Meanwhile Mansi, after witnessing Manav shout at her father, makes it clear to Manav that she wants nothing to do with him anymore. She and her father then leave the Mehta household deeply hurt.

Mansi soon meets Vikrant Kapoor (Anil Kapoor), a successful and famous music producer/director, who happens to be a fan of Tara Babu's work. With the encouragement of Prabha, she arranges a three-year contract with Vikrant, and Mansi performs dance numbers and remixes of Tara Babu's songs as well as some of Vikrant's productions. She wins awards and becomes a sensation in India. In the meantime Vikrant starts to fall in love with Mansi. Matters are further complicated when Manav arrives to apologize to Mansi for what he and his family did, as she rejects him out of grief for how he treated her father. However, he tells her that he knows she still loves him, and that he will wait for her. Vikrant learns of what happened between Manav and Mansi, but he chooses to ignore it. He has a few encounters with Manav but takes them lightly.

Vikrant proposes to Mansi soon afterwards, and her father and aunt encourage her to accept it, with the hope that it will help her forget Manav. She accepts the proposal even though she is not in love with Vikrant. After winning an International MTV Award in Canada, she comes back to India to prepare for the marriage. In the meantime Jagmohan and Tara Babu patch things up after Jagmohan realizes his mistake.

On the day of the marriage Manav arrives and tells Mansi that by marrying Vikrant when she loves Manav she is deceiving both him and herself, and that marriage is not a contract but a union of two souls; he reminds her that he loves her and will never stop waiting for her. Jagmohan also comes to the wedding with Manav and Tara Babu. Vikrant soon realizes, after seeing Mansi's reaction to seeing Manav, that she loves Manav. He assures her that the three of them can still be friends, and urges her to run to Manav. Jagmohan and Tara Babu give their blessings, and Manav and Mansi embrace. One of the last scenes shows everyone taking a family picture at the Mehta household after the wedding.

Cast[link]

• Aishwarya Rai as Mansi
• Akshay Khanna as Manav Mehta
• Anil Kapoor as Vikrant Kapoor
• Amrish Puri as Jagmohan Mehta
• Alok Nath as Tara Babu
• Jividha Sharma as Illa
• Mita Vashisht as Prabha
• Puneet Vashist as Shaukat
• Rajesh Khera as Mohan Mehta
• Bobby Darling as Dress Designer
• Shahid Kapoor as a background dancer in song "Kahin Aag Lage"

Soundtrack[link]

The soundtrack of the film was composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics penned by Anand Bakshi. Taal marked the beginning of a famed collaboration between A. R. Rahman and Subhash Ghai. They had earlier joined hands to work on a film titled Shikhar which was later shelved. The song "Ishq Bina" was initially composed for Shikhar.^[2]

The soundtrack was a big critical and commercial success. Its audio rights was bought by TIPS for a then record sum of 5 crores.^{[citation needed]} At a press conference, Ghai remarked, "I credit the name of the movie to composer A. R. Rahman. This movie is a romance and I could have called it any thing - Dil, Pyaar, Hum Bhaag Gaye, but it was A. R. Rahman's presence in the movie that gave me the confidence to call it Taal. Taal means music and music means Taal. The whole credit goes to A. R. Rahman and Anand Bakshi. Rahman kept me awake many nights, but after listening to the songs, I felt it was worth all the trouble."^{[citation needed]}

The soundtrack became a tremendous success, and was sold more than 18.5 lakh units within a month of its release.^[3] The soundtrack made the list of "Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by Planet Bollywood.^[4] It also won all the music awards of that year.

Reception[link]

Taal was moderate success at the box office in India. However, in the United States it became the first Indian film to reach the top 20 on Variety's box office list.^[1] Taal also made the list of the top ten grossing films in the United Kingdom that year. The film screened at the Chicago International Film Festival and selected by Roger Ebert for his 2005 Overlooked Film Festival.

Awards[link]

Anil Kapoor won many awards for his role as Vikrant Kapoor (the role went to him after Govinda) including Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award,^[5] IIFA Best Supporting Actor Award, Zee Cine Best Supporting Actor Award,^[6] and Star Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor Award. Singer Alka Yagnik won the Filmfare award for Best Female Playback for the song "Taal Se Taal Mila". Composer A R Rahman also received a number of awards for his work in the film, including a Filmfare Best Music Director Award, an IIFA Best Music Director Award, and a Zee Cine Award for Best Music Director.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Taal at the Internet Movie Database
• Roger Ebert on Taal