Taxi No. 9211
Makes for a fun ride while it runs. Once over, it is just as easily forgotten.
Taxi No. 9211 makes for a fun ride while it runs. Once over, it's just as easily forgotten. At least it didn't linger on for very long with me.
The film's breezy, well-shot, captures Mumbai at its energetic best, has cool tunes from Vishal-Shekhar and razor-sharp lines from Rajat Aroraa which make the film alternate tantalisingly between the edgy and the funny. The inspiration from Hollywood is obvious in the uncluttered, no-nonsense story-telling. In fact, there's hardly a heavy-duty story here. The narrative is built on a series of events that unfold in the lives of two people. One needs Rs 30,000, the other wants Rs 300 crore. The film moves forward entirely on the interaction between these two figures who are poles apart yet quirkily similar. How they are thrown together, go through a lot in the course of a single day and then attain self-realisation through each other is what the film's all about. The finale does get too pat and sentimental, not all of the protagonists' actions seem logical, in fact, their hostility seems much too extreme and ludicrous at times. And they seem to go through a bit too much to learn some basic, rather simple issues in life.
The inspiration, I am told, comes from Roger Michell's Ben Affleck-Samuel Jackson starrer, Changing Lanes. And so the racial divide in the Hollywood film very conveniently becomes the economic split in Bollywood's hands. The central characters represent two distinct lives and lifestyles of Mumbai, the upmarket high-rises against the low-brow chawls. Needless to say, the actors are tailored for their roles. John, the philandering dude with attitude, is Jai Mittal, the swishy heir to a business family. And the role of Raghu Shastri, the short-tempered taxi driver who is cynical even with his own self, deserves no other actor than the eccentric Nana Patekar. Quite obviously then the rest of the cast matters very little.
INDIAN Top 5
1. Taxi No 9211
2. Rang De Basanti
3. Fight Club
4. Aksar
5. Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai
US Top 5
1. Madea's Family Reunion
2. Eight Below
3. The Pink Panther
4. Date Movie
5. Curious George
Courtesy: Film Information
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