Taxi Driver

Story: Hindi cinema of the current times has matured considerably since the golden era in that writers generally stick to one well-defined theme and characters are nicely developed throughout the story. While Taxi Driver' succeeds in sticking to just the main theme instead of going all over the map, it fails in delivering a structured flow where the scenes do not feel disconnected. I mean, we have goondas sporadically dropping in and out throughout the film. The story and the presentation was not gripping. The movie is ideal for putting on the DVD while doing your chores and occasionally curiously glancing at TV, say every few minutes.

Action: When I was growing up, I saw Dev Anand as a chocolate hero. He came from an era prior to a time when the hero was usually modeled as a macho image -- not unlike the one painted by Amitabh Bachchan in Janjeer. The action scenes shown in this movie were probably good enough for the 1950s Hindi film standards. But still, watching Dev Anand beating up four goondas was not even laughable.

Songs: I've was familiar with a couple of songs before watching this movie. The rest were new to me. The music was not the typical SD Burman kind. It sounded more like RD. Overall, it was just OK.

Rating: Had this movie been made after ... say 1980s, I would have dropped the rating to 2 or 3. But just like my other reviews of old movies, I've included extra points for the nostalgic factor and, thus, have placed this movie at 5.