Taxi No. 9211
has attitude, style, witty dialogues, an energetic
music track and a knock out central performance
by Nana Patekar. But an inconsistent screenplay
sees the film as time-pass at best.
Inspired by the Ben Affleck – Samuel L
Jackson starrer Changing Lanes (2002)
but unlike the recent Ek
Ajnabees and Zindas changed sufficiently,
the film looks at Raghav Shastri (Nana Patekar),
an Insurance Salesman to the world, but a caustic,
cabbie in reality, who needs thirty thousand rupees
by the end of today to keep his taxi…And
Jai Mittal (John Abraham), the equally acidic
heir to a resourceful business family, who needs
a bit more - Three hundred crores actually also
by the end of the day. Jai needs to contest his
father’s will in court. He gets into Raghu’s
cab to get there. What was thought to be an ordinary
cab ride turns into a day of hell for the two
as they get involved in an accident that brings
out the worst in each other.
 There
is enough to recommend the film - Director Milan
Luthria’s third film and his most assured
and controlled effort, yet. Luthria explores what
he calls a hardboiled Mumbai where nobody has
time for anything. Quoting him in a recent interview
to Time Out Mumbai,
“Your city defines the pace you set.
In a place like Poona you can’t go faster
than the pace of the city, in Bombay you can’t
go any slower.”
To Luthria, that is the essence of the film.
The film shows that irrespective of class and
personalities of people on either side of the
divide, the common problem that Mumbaikars face
is that everyone is same in the end. No one here
stops to look inside to find answers but keep
running on the treadmill all their lives till
they fall off and die.
The tone is set right at the beginning with Sanjay
Dutt’s Munnabhai like voice over introducing
the characters thereby giving the film its attitude
at the beginning itself. The film is largely humorous
with drama blended in quite effectively. Some
scenes that stick to the viewer’s mind include
the Police Station Sequence, the exchange between
Nana and Sonali at the station, Nana getting hold
of the will at the Vault and Nana’s birthday
sequence.
These days it is refreshing to see shooting on
actual locales and the film has managed to shoot
all over Mumbai tackling crowd situations, government
permissions, and the logistics of shooting taxi
and car chases across the length and the breath
of Bombay – all in a single schedule of
45 days. The use of a lot of hand held camera
tries to make the viewer they are part of the
locales and this gives the film a different candid
and yes, Bambaiya look.
 As
far as performances go, Nana Patekar carries the
entire film on his shoulders. Without him there
would be no film. True one has to keep in mind
that Nana will always play a man with a loose
fuse but admittedly no one plays the role better.
Be it the scenes where he explodes or drops his
barbs with a deadpan straight face or breaks down
at his final family reunion, he is brilliant.
Be it in the Police Station with him harping on
his unjust treatment or pointing to the Rs 500
the hawaldar has taken as a bribe or telling his
son who is fielding that he is to become Tendulkar,
not Kaif – he is spot on with impeccable
comic timing. As his foil John Abraham smartly
underplays but at the same time is no actor and
there is a difference between subtle underplaying
and being wooden – unfortunately, he is
wooden to the core. A stronger performer was needed
to play off against Patekar and here is where
the film falls as Nana literally acts the socks
off everyone else in the film. Sonali Kulkarni
as Nana’s wife is surprisingly efficient
though Sameera Reddy in a half baked role is a
big no-no.
On the flip side the sequence of John on the
highway avoiding vehicles is tackily executed.
On the script level, there is not sufficient justification
for the two men to go hammer and tongs at each
other and John’s sudden change of attitude
too is a pat too convenient and not really convincing.
The film drags at places in the second half and
could have been trimmed and made tighter. There
are also continuity gaffes. If the taxi was banged
up in the accident how come it is in perfect shape
as Nana chases Sameera Reddy? Also, Taxi No.
9211 looks like it has been planned, shot
and styled simultaneously with RSE’s earlier
offering, Bluff Master,
thereby giving one who has seen the earlier film,
a strong a sense of déjà vu.
One place where the film scores is its vibrant
music track. While most of the film soundtrack
is peppy and zingy (Metre Down and Bambai
Nagaria), the song that really stands out
is the more serious and well written Aazmale
Aazmale where the two men come to terms with
the reality of their lives.
All in all. worth a dekho…
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