Tadap Movie Review: Iss Dil Se ‘Aah’ Nikalti Rehti Hai!

December 3, 2021

568 4 minutes read

Tadap Movie Review Rating: 1.5 out of 5.0 stars1.5

Star Cast: Ahan Shetty, Tara Sutaria, Saurabh Shukla, Kumud Mishra, Sumit Gulati & an unforgettable cameo of Ahan Shetty’s soul

Director: Milan Luthria

Tadap Movie Review(Pic Credit: Youtube/Empire Movies)

What’s Good: It wasn’t hard to decide that there’s nothing good apart from Saurabh Shukla’s presence in the first half

What’s Bad: Now that’s tough & hence I decided to elaborate this section into a whole review below

Loo Break: Could prove to be more refreshing!

Watch or Not?: Even if you’ve nothing else to do over the weekend, I’d suggest you to sleep!

Available On: Theatrical Release

Runtime: 126 minutes

User Rating:

We have a hero whose name sounds like a hashtag couples use while getting married, he’s named Ishana (a perfect # for ‘Khalee Peeli’ duo Ishaan Khatter & Ananya Panday), played by Ahan Shetty and he’s always in his ‘uncontrollable aashiq’ mode for a reason later revealed. He looks like someone who could scream at you at any given point in time without any reason. Like, if you serve him coffee instead of chai, he’ll scream at you (though I’m with him just on that thing).

In a flashback we are introduced to his love interest whose name also sounds like yet another ‘hashtag for couples’, enters Ramisa (if for some reason Rami Malik & Sarah Shahi decide to see each other, they can use this name as a #) played by Tara Sutaria. Ishana’s daddy who’s also named as daddy (Saurabh Shukla) is Ramisa’s politician dad Damodar’s (Kumud Mishra) close associate. Ishana falls for Ramisa and vice versa but there’s a twist because how more could you tweak an age-old story to a level where everything shatters?

(Pic Credit: Tadap Poster)

Tadap Movie Review: Script Analysis

Rajat Arora has adapted Ajay Bhupathi’s story from RX100 & I won’t be commenting on that film as I haven’t seen it yet. So, all my criticism is only and purely for Tadap. Just to explain in one lone, Tadap is Dhadkan only with a bad story, a ‘bewafa’ Anjali and without Ram in the picture. Imagine Suniel Shetty’s Dev going batshit crazy after Anjali leaving him but in this one ‘it’s her choice’. That story coupled with dialogues like “Boys prefer babes over bones”, Rajat Arora has definitely lost in translation with this one (going by the generic reviews & reactions to RX100).

Ragul Dharuman, amid all the chaos, manages to capture some breathtaking aerial photography providing a beautiful painting-like appearance to many scenes. The fresh visuals are instantly burdened with the blotchy script and bleh dialogues. Either Arora has lost his magical touch to write memorable lines (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, The Dirty Picture, Taxi No. 9211) or we’ve reached the tipping point as per the law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. Okay, I’ve saved the best worst best joke for the end (skip if you’re allergic to shitty jokes, same suggestion for the film as well): Anupam Kher & Akshay Kumar’s ‘ahaaaan ahaaaan ahaaaaaan’ in Heyy Babyy had more acting than Ahan in Tadap.

Tadap Movie Review: Star Performance

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.

Tadap Movie Review: Direction, Music

I’ve not seen Baadshaho yet but I can still safely say this could be the worst film by Milan Luthria. This man has given some ‘seeti-maar’ masala entertainers to the industry, but keep your seetis out for this one. The outdated feel brings ahead a different problem of the director getting stuck in a time bubble. This could have still been okay in some other era but the access to super-rich content fades the necessity of wanting to watch such mediocre films & spend money on them.

Pritam goes back to the ’00s with the story and composes songs that sound as per the uncalled-for outdated theme of the film. It seems he & lyric-writer Irshad Kamil did a pact of filling this with some decayed songs from the bank after looking at the story building on-screen. Apart from Dino James’ rap in Ishq Hoye Na, not a single song would make it to my ‘listen to’ list ever again.

(Pic Credit: Youtube/Empire Movies)

Tadap Movie Review: The Last Word

All said and done, Tadap tries to mix & match various formulas already used for romantic dramas, failing to create any novelty factor for itself. I see no situation under which I would recommend a trip to the theatre for this one.

One and a half stars!