Tara Review

Films starring kids in lead roles are usually made for consumption by kids and families. And so you had the young protagonists sticking to helping trap villains, uniting parents and getting involved in supernatural occurrences. You also had the occasional pet or two (or several) to spice up things.

Now it can be argued that the 21st century kid should be permitted more technological achievements, and rightly so. But Tara breaks certain other inflexible rules - notably that films starring kids in lead roles are usually made for consumption by kids and families. And this is what will contribute to its demise.

Tara begins with the marriage of Surya (Akash) to Bhanu (Ruthika), computer professionals both. The marriage doesn't start off well - Bhanu wants to claim her independence by refusing to accept Surya's demands for sex, and after waiting for a couple of years, one day he just rapes her.

Now you and I and all the feminists and women's libbers out there can argue the intricacies of this approach of Surya and try to see the perspectives on either sides, but this film was being made for kids, remember? If the purpose is just to show that the parents can't stand each other, is there any shortage of other ways to do it?

Anyway, Bhanu is pregnant now, and Usha (Nihaarika) is born. And she has to grow up amidst the hatred between and the busy lives of her parents, longing for seemingly unattainable love and affection. And when Surya once attends a party bordering on an orgy and gets caught by his wife, it's divorce.

The divorce ruling is that Usha should spend three days of the week with her father and three days with her mother, and the remaining day with any of the two. Surya gets married to his secretary the very third day after the divorce. Usha senses the hatred for her of her new stepmother, and leaves for her mother's place. But she has just decided to get married, too, to her old boyfriend, and the new family here does not accept Usha either. And she persuades her grandparents to get her into a boarding school.

It's glory time for the young genius now. At the hostel Tara develops a computer application that uses WAP to enable email exchange between a computer and a cellular phone (now you know who invented it), and this leads to her winning a contest of some sort, and Bill Gates noticing it and sending his men to get her to the USA. Events after that lead to her parents getting together again to show her that they truly love her.

There are several illogical things in the already bad storyline. The lack of affection towards Usha by her parents who were welcoming her with a song and dance sequence (in Bombay style) when Bhanu is expecting, Bhanu's realizing that she's pregnant within moments of being raped... they abound. The comedy is crude - and this is a kids' film, remember? AVS is made to do things on screen that are downright revolting.

The only thing worth mentioning is the role of Usha who does a decent act of being the lovelorn child. The story doesn't demand much acting from the cast, so they have not spent much effort - except for the comedians, that is, who do their best to chase you out of the theater. If there is any music, you miss it. You'll wish you had the rest, too.