Movie review 'Tamanchey': Fails to fire

Director: Navneet Behal  

Cast: Richa Chadda, Nikhil Dwivedi, Damandeep Singh Siddhu

Rating: 1 star 

Two convicts on the run lose their hearts to each other. It’s not a drab premise to begin with, but the makers of this gun-toting film, Tamanchey, seem to lack the craft and the imagination to make this a pacey thriller.

He is Munna Mishra (Nikhil Dwivedi) and she is Babu (Richa Chadda). They meet under the most unlikely circumstances after their police van falls off a cliff, leaving them as the only survivors. Thrilled at the prospect of freedom they set off, initially squabbling and eventually making out at every given opportunity. After a torrid lovemaking session in a moving train on a bed of tomatoes (that is guaranteed to ruin tomatoes for you) the two get separated. It’s hard to forget the scene and that is not meant as a compliment. We saw Hrithik Roshan bathed in tomato pulp in the Tomatina song in Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara and that took food porn to another level, unintentionally so. But Nikhil Dwivedi is no Hrithik. The rest you can imagine.

Anyway, by the time Munna and Babu get separated, Munna is madly in love with her and is willing to do anything to get to her. Even if that means entering a menacing drug dealer’s den. Turns out Babu is gangster’s moll to Rane, played by theatre actor Damandeep Singh Siddhu, the only convincing act in the film. As soon as Munna enters the scene, Babu starts two-timing her gangster boyfriend and the game turns more dangerous, with a fair chance of their little naughty affair nailing their coffins.

The tense story soon spills in all directions, almost as if it is trying to escape sense. Munna’s dialogues are unnaturally theatrical and Nikhil’s pitch is grating. They never explain why he talks in C-sharp when the police is searching for them, perhaps in the next room. Richa Chadda is predictably rough and foul-mouthed, as much her character demands. We would have been impressed had she not worn similar shades in Fukrey and Gangs of Wasseypur. However, she does make the film watchable. Damandeep induces terror as Rana and his is an impressive act indeed. The music is terribly abrupt and cuts through important sequences. The camerawork, however, is edgy in parts and manages to capture the Delhi underbelly quite well.

Navneet Behal, the director, in this directionless story, makes a weak attempt to raise uneasy questions about a convict’s dilemma but he only manages to crowd the plot with too many things. Just a little over 100 minutes, Tamanchey feels eternal. And this reviewer cannot get over the Rang De Basanti-esque ending. To blatantly copy the treatment of such a vital scene from a cult film, makes this film, in my opinion, absolutely unforgivable.