Before this new age wave of low budget experimental movies in the present millennium, there were not many directors in Bollywood who could have dared to make a film on the subject of Eunuchs/Trangenders. But there was one man who had a fabulous cinematic vision to make such a project based on this neglected community inspired from a true incident. And he was Mahesh Bhatt, already famous at that time for his many offbeat & controversial masterpieces such as ARTH, SAARANSH, SIR, DADDY, NAAM and more. But with TAMANNA in 1998, the director touched new heights of his creative expression, extracting more than one worth watching performances in the same movie from its talented cast.
The film was written around a true incident of Mumbai when a eunuch called Tikku, picked up a new-born girl-child from a road side dustbin and then looked after her as a real parent. Though Tamanna may not be found in many must watch lists of Bollywood movies over the net. But once you have watched it you may wonder why it is not there among the top bracket of all those listings.
It starts from the sequences of a newly born girl-child being thrown out of a millionaire’s house and then moves into her adolescence age with some highly sensitive sequences which are sure to make you go numb with tears in your eyes. Later the emotional drama reaches its height when the girl comes to know about the truth of her guardian’s identity and her own status of an abandoned child. And in between these outbursts you get to see some exceptional acting skills from two well known actors of Bollywood namely Paresh Rawal and Manoj Bajpai. Here I would like to add that the scene, where the eunuch personality of Paresh gets revealed in front of Pooja, can be easily included in the list of best ever scenes canned in the history of Hindi Films and you simply got to see it before reaching any further conclusion of yours. The film was not only a bold, first of its kind of attempt in mainstream Bollywood but it was also one of those few first films which bluntly talked about GIRL FOETICIDE in the year 1998. And now the same problem has reached an alarming state and is being discussed at every channel, magazine and newspapers quite regularly. In fact that is what we call A CREATIVE WORK DONE WAY BEFORE ITS TIME
Paresh as Tikku is simply outstanding giving a text book kind of performance in the role of an innocent, helpless eunuch, which can easily be included in his 10 career best performances. But Manoj Bajpai as Salim, stands along with him with an equally appreciable act of Tikku’s only childhood friend and its truly an incredible experience to watch both these veterans together on the screen giving such in-depth performances in this offbeat film based on an unusual theme. In the lead role, Pooja Bhatt impressively proves that talent lies in her genes but TAMANNA completely belongs to Paresh and Manoj together…..unarguably. Though towards the end, the film goes back to a typical Bollywood kind of climax but still I would like to strongly recommend it to the viewers who love intense emotional dramas and don’t mind shedding some of their valuable tears while watching a movie.
So if you want to see a director’s vision transforming the so called UGLY into THE BEAUTIFUL, then watch TAMANNA. If you want to see what friendship really means, crossing the boundary of genders, religions and castes then watch TAMANNA. And if you want to see how human emotions can be depicted in a powerful, energetic way on the silver screen then watch TAMANNA by one of the most controversial yet immensely talented director Mahesh Bhatt.
Continuing with the praises, would like to end this write-up with a famous couplet of Nida Fazli which has been also used in one of the songs of the movie's appreciable soundtrack as:
“Ghar Se Maszid Hai Badi Door, Chalo Yun Karlein,
Kisi Rotey Hue Bachey Ko Hasaaya Jaaye.”
Directed By Mahesh Bhatt
Starring : Paresh Rawal, Manoj Bajpai, Pooja Bhatt, Sharad Kapoor and more.
