Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007)

A poor New York resident, who is of Indian origin, dreams of becoming a fast car race driver. He endeavors, and his efforts are rewarded when he selected by a little-known group called '... See full summary »

Director:

Siddharth Anand (as Siddharth Raj Anand)

Writer:

Habib Faisal (screenplay)

Stars:

Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukerji, Mayank Amin

Cast

Credited cast:
Saif Ali Khan	...	Rajveer 'RV' Singh
Rani Mukerji	...	Radhika Shekar Rai Banerjee (Shona)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mayank Amin	...	Dancer - Nachle Ve
Vic Aviles	...	Yellow Team Manager
Noël Baker	...	Race Queen / Miss Charlotte
Nikki Baksh	...	Dancer
Victor Banerjee	...	Subho Shekhar Rai Banerjee
Dolly Bindra	...	Mrs. Panoya
Vance Branton	...	Pit Crew Chief
Christopher Combs	...	Orange Pit Crew Member
Bharat Dabholkar	...	Billy Bhatia
Meraby Ellis	...	Landlord
Matthew Fleming	...	Stan
Sam Ghosh	...	Dancer
Mary Goggin	...	Music School Principal

Storyline

A poor New York resident, who is of Indian origin, dreams of becoming a fast car race driver. He endeavors, and his efforts are rewarded when he selected by a little-known group called 'RACING SADDLES'. He joins them and soon becomes their ace race driver. This man, whose name is Rajveer, then meets with a rich American woman, also of Indian origin, whose name is Radhika. Both fall in love with each other. They cannot get married, because Radhika's family hates Rajveer mainly because he is very poor. But Radhika is very stubborn, so she marries him. She loses all her rights to her family's wealth. They get married and become parents of two children. They also become very rich. Then Rajveer has an accident which changes their lives forever. They get into debt and stand to lose everything. Will Radhika be forced to return back to her family?

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Plot Keywords:

new york | racer | marriage | comeback | family relationships | 

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Taglines:

Don't Worry Be Happy

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Offical Site

Country:

USA India

Language:

Hindi English

Release Date:

27 April 2007 (India)

Also Known As:

Papa gibt Gas - Eine Familie ist nicht zu stoppen

Filming Locations:

Aberdeen, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£231,835 (UK) (27 April 2007)

Gross:

$872,643 (USA) (25 May 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Yash Raj Films, Bollywood Hollywood Production, Pinnacle Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

153 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The crew had to lock up Times Square for the shoot of the song 'Hey Shona'. The brief was that the 2 actors were supposed to be alone in every location in New York for the love song. The crew got there at 2AM to prepare for the shot, and timed everything so that the location could be locked up & the first shot could be canned as soon as the light was right.

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Goofs

The license plate number of the cabs driven or when he is riding in a cab keeps constantly changing from shot to shot. Also, when he takes a first look at the cab in the garage it is a different model, but he is seen driving a different model in the next scene.

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Connections

Referenced in Roadside Romeo (2008)

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Soundtracks

Tara Rum Pum Tararumpum
Written by Javed Akhtar
Composed by Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani
Performed by Shreya Ghoshal
Courtesy of Yash Raj Music

User Reviews

The great Indian family, rendering great messages

Ta Ra Rum Pum tells the story of a US based Indian cab driver turned car racer - Rajveer Singh aka RV whose fate provided him the right channel to showcase his talent of fast driving through Hariprasad aka Harry (Javed Jaafery). He went on to win 50 high profile races and made enormous money, married the love of his life - Raadhika nicknamed as Shona (Rani Mukherjee) and got two lovely kids when the ill-fate struck him and his rival in profession masterminded his accident during a race. The real story of this movie starts with the aftermath of that accident. RV survives but loses something as precious as life - his self-confidence. The haunting moments of that mishap have taken on his nerves, not allowing him to reach his peak in any race. The speed of his driving breaks down the moment the bygone painful moments start haunting him. Now he is scared of picking up the required speed during any race. And the result is obvious. He fails. After winning 50 races prior to his accident, he goes on to lose 10 in a row post his accident.

The world does not belong to the losers. A loser is bound to lose money, resources, recognition, support, opportunities, almost everything. RV also heads for the same destiny because he is no longer a winner. He has to digest the harsh reality of being a loser. But one thing he has not lost - the faith of his wife in him and his abilities. She has loved him in his riches. She loves him in his poverty too. She had married her against the wishes of her rich father and now in the difficult times, she is not ready to accept any parental help and hurt the self-respect of her man. But the problem which is staring right into the face of both RV and Shona is even bigger than their poverty. Hitherto they have fostered their children luxuriously but now their offspring has to learn to live in the conditions polar different from what they are used to. How to convey it to the tender hearts ? The parents, i.e., RV and Shona devise a plan to make their little son and little daughter accept the changed situation. They tell them that they are going to participate in a reality show whose requirement is to live in poverty and if they successfully spend their time in impoverished conditions, they will win the show.

RV, Shona and the little ones shift from a palace like mansion to a small shack and start living under severe monetary constraints with RV becoming a cab driver again and Shona playing piano in the hotels and parties. The only thing that the parents cannot afford to lose is the good education of their children. Hence they work hard and arrange enough money to ensure that their kids are able to continue in their current school. Hardships do continue in terms of food, clothes, shelter and medical treatment. The zenith of their trouble comes when their little son needs a costly operation to survive. How to arrange the hefty sum ? RV's adversaries are happy about it, mocking his helplessness and misfortune. The moment has come for RV to overpower the painful flashback and reenter the skin of the winner. Harry comes up with an opportunity which RV can encash to repulse the inching death of his son and the ill-fate of the whole family. Can he do it ?

The movie underscores Indian family values and highlights the significance of saving alongwith earning. The lesson that RV learns the hard way is if you spend every penny you earn without any saving for the unforeseen difficult times, those times will hit you harder than normal. The movie underscores the significance of wife's love and support for the husband when he is not the winner in the worldly life and her standing by him in the tough times. Shona's protecting her husband's self-respect when the days are no longer sunny for him, is exemplary. Such wife only is able to pave the way for the return of happy times for the family later.

The plot of the movie has been inspired by certain Hollywood movies. Cinematic liberties have been taken aplenty and the movie is melodramatic in some parts. The filmmaker conveniently forgot that impoverished people can't wear designer clothes. Anyway, the positives of the movie outnumber its negatives. It is interesting from beginning to end and several scenes leave a deep emotional impact on the viewer.

Shot lavishly in the USA, this movie is technically superb. Vishal-Shekhar's music is ear-soothing. I like its title track the most in which the animated characters appear with the human characters.

Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerjee make an ideal on-screen pair. Both have complimented each other very well and lit up the screen with their marvellous performances. The child artists alongwith Javed Jaffery and others have also done their parts perfectly.

So here comes the great Indian family which sticks together and renders some great messages for life. I don't know why this decent family entertainer did not score on the box office. For me, at least, it has a repeat value.