A promising storyline, letdown by a disproportionate mix of multiple genres !

Akash

Actor Vaibhav and director Yuvaraj Subramani’s combination film is Taana, also starring comedian Yogi Babu and actor Nanthita Swetha in crucial roles. With the base of the story based on the struggle of the protagonist to become a cop, the makers have infused horror and comedy elements through the 2 hour run-time. How has it worked for the audience?

Taana starts off with a fairly interesting flashback that describes what the core of the film is about to deal with. Actor Pandiarajan fails to become a policeman in a village, that has a lineage of cops coming from this particular family. He swears to make his son a reputed police officer in order to take this lineage forward. Pandiarajan’s son played by Vaibhav (Shakthi), is a carefree youngster and has a disorder because of which gets a female voice, in case any emotion strikes the chord in his body. How he deals with this medical issue and becomes a cop successfully forms the rest of the story.

Though the plot may seem fairly simple on paper, the director has decided to bring in numerous elements like horror, investigation, comedy, drama and romance to entertain in audience, but ironically, this decision has worked against the favour of the makers. Casting of this film is not too bad as Vaibhav and Yogi Babu (Duuma) try their best to entertain here and there. Nanthitha does a decent job but her character is not very strong. The other roles do not leave any impact due to poor character sketch and arcs. Hareesh Peradi as the notorious DIG is the only other mention-worthy actor, who gets to portray shades of grey.

Taana promises audiences that it has some content every now and then with scenes that involve actor Sandra and the twins towards the latter half too. However, this promise though gets dissipated due to a slightly less mature execution. The engagement sure is a problem and the romance portions seem quite old. Even the budget does not seem to have helped the horror portions. A particular sequence at a lonely railway track, where the hero has to look after a dead body till the police force reaches the place, starts off well but goes haywire midway due to ordinary VFX work and unwanted addition of comedy in the middle of a serious scene. This genre shift is very abrupt and does not let you settle into one particular mood for long.

Technically, Taana could have been much better given the fact that they have notable names to their list. Music by Vishal Chandrasekar is just about average and so is the edit by GK Prasanna. Stunts too leave barely any impact towards the climax and the overall tech work inclusive of the VFX is just about alright. The night sequences have been shot in a decent manner and this could be a positive to the picture. However, one might expect more finesse and depth with these names on the card.

On the whole, Vaibhav’s Taana seems to have the intention and content that is required for an engaging film. In fact, the portions that deal with the struggle of Vaibhav to become a cop are quite interesting so are the investigative portions in the latter half. But what could have been better is the consistency and execution of the overall product for the number of genres that the film touches upon, within its duration. With a better mix of these tracks in a more pleasingly entertaining manner, we may have had an enjoyable Taana from director Yuvaraj!

Bottomline:

Vaibhav’s Taana has the ingredients for a sumptuous meal, but falls short due to inconsistency!

Rating: 2.25/5