The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Sanju baba raises the bar, so be it!

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 15, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Sanju baba raises the bar, so be it!

RIVETING SHOW: `Munnabhai' all the way in `Tathastu.'

Tathastu (Hindi)

Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Amisha Patel, Jayaprada, Gulshan Grover

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Kudos! In the season of laughter, Hindi cinema dares to get serious. Anubhav Sinha's `Tathastu' may not make it to the list of exceptional movies but he manages to raise more than a point about a society where the rich control the riches, the meek bring up the earth under the feet of the mighty.

But like in love, those who stay silent, suffer too.

And finally recoil at the system where a one-year-old child with a fractured arm can be administered medical attention only after the father deposits the money, where a poor child in need of a heart transplant can have the operation only after the doctors have fleeced the poor father of the last penny.

Very topical

It is a topical one that could not have been better-timed. With his go-for-the-jugular approach, Sinha shames the man in many of us, provokes the law-abiding citizen in all of us.

His tale of an eight-year-old child in need of a heart transplant leaves you shaken. He may not have been able to do a Bhansali of `Black' but manages to give us enough evidence that another day he may just come up a finished product that will be worth looking forward to.

As an ordinary worker who must shell out Rs.15 lakhs to save the life of his son, Sanjay Dutt shows frustration, anger and passion in a controlled manner.

He's no Bachchan who carried the long monologue with such finesse in `Baghban' but Dutt embarrasses no one with his long speech in the end.

And he gets able company from everybody else in the cast, including Amisha Patel, who finally seems to be playing herself. A sweet, simple girl next door faced with the prospect of losing her only child.

Jaya at her silent best

Not to forget Jayaprada, making a comeback as a doctor. Some of the passing years have left their imprint on her chiselled beauty, undiminished remain her acting skills in a role where she speech seldom stains eloquent silence. There is Gulshan Grover too with an understated presence that is quite refreshing.

The film has its flaws all right: we have the unique case of a woman in labour in a heart hospital for delivery! And a doctor held hostage one moment, being free to work out a solution with cops the next! Overlook them. Appreciate the purpose.

Tathastu is a film with a purpose, art not divorced from responsibility.

ZIYA US SALAM

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