Taal

About the film

Taal (transl. Rhythm) is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic drama co-written, edited, produced and directed by Subhash Ghai. The film stars Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai and Akshaye Khanna in lead roles, while Amrish Puri and Alok Nath feature in supporting roles.

Taal was released on 13 August 1999, coinciding with the Indian Independence Day weekend, and proved to be a major commercial success at the domestic and overseas box-office, becoming the first Indian film to reach the Top 20 on Variety's box-office list.

Plot

Tycoon Jagmohan Mehta arrives in Chamba, India for a long vacation with his extended family, including his son, Manav. He meets Mansi, the beautiful daughter of an impoverished folk singer, Tara Shankar Manhuja. As the owner of the Mehta & Mehta Group of Companies, Jagmohan is looking to invest in Chamba. Over time, Jagmohan and Tara Shankar become friendly with each other.

Eventually, Manav is besotted with Mansi and they keep meeting. One day while doing Yoga together Manav tells her that he is in love with her, and asks her if she is also in love. She denies and says they cannot be together because of the difference in their status and that she will not meet him again. After running into each other once again and more encounters Mansi also falls in love with Manav. Jagmohan is against their relationship due to Mansi's poor socio-economic status. Tara Shankar is initially angry but later reaches Mumbai to visit his journalist cousin, Prabha, and to meet the Mehta family for a marriage alliance. Unfortunately, they insult Tara who has been waiting outside their house for 9 hours with Mansi. Instead of standing-up for Mansi, Manav who just arrives to the house takes his Father's side and insults Tara. Deeply hurt, Mansi leaves with her father, breaking up with Manav.

Mansi soon meets a famous music producer and director, Vikrant Kapoor while in Mumbai, who happens to be a huge fan of Tara's music. She starts working with him and performs dance numbers and remixes of his productions and Tara's songs. She begins to win awards and becomes a national sensation and celebrity. Slowly, Vikrant begins falling for Mansi. Meanwhile, Manav finds out that his family ill-treated Mansi and Tara.

Music

The soundtrack of the film was composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics penned by Anand Bakshi. The soundtrack was released on 12 June 1999 and it became a major critical and commercial success. At a press conference, Ghai remarked, "I credit the name of the movie to composer A. R. Rahman. This film is a romance and I could have called it any thing – Dil, Pyaar, Hum Bhaag Gaye, but it was 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."

The soundtrack became a tremendous commercial success, and was sold more than 1.85 million units within a month of its release. It went on to sell 4 million units, becoming the best-selling album of the year. The soundtrack made the list of "Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by Planet Bollywood.

Reception

Taal emerged as a major commercial success in India, netting ₹23 crore in India on a budget of ₹11.50 crore, and also performed well internationally. In the United States, it became the first Indian film to reach the top 20 on Variety's box-office list. The final worldwide gross collection of the film stands at ₹51.16 crore, making it the third highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.

Taal was premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival, and was screened as the "official selection" at the 2005 Ebertfest: Roger Ebert's Film Festival, and retrospectively at the 45th IFFI in the Celebrating Dance in Indian cinema section.

Accolades

At the 45th Filmfare Awards, Taal received 12 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Ghai) and Best Actress (Rai, who won the award for her performance in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam), and won 6 awards, including Best Supporting Actor (Kapoor) and Best Music Director (Rahman).

Key details