Bas Ek Tamanna Review

Talk of an uninspiring, meaninglessly meandering and straying storyline and filmmaker Rahul Kapoor's Bus Ek Tamanna may truly be defined. With meagre budgets in hand and extremely low publicity the film, that clashes with the highly anticipated Salman Khan starrer Bodyguard, may make way out of the theatres even without a whimper. The only talking point the filmmaker has been closely clutching onto is that the film has been banned in Pakistan.

Set in Lucknow Bus Ek Tamanna revolves around Faraaz (Sameer Aftab) a young man belonging to a middle-class family who is desperately in need of a job. He meets Sameera (Rituparna Sen Gupta), a Dubai based entrepreneur who offers him a job in Dubai; that of taking care of her psychologically disturbed child. Before leaving for Dubai, Faraaz falls in love with a simple school teacher Sanah (Gauri Karnik) and marries her. Cut to Dubai, Faraaz completely transforms himself to become a father to that child and forgets his family. He even hides his marriage from Sameera. What happens when two alternate worlds of his collide follows through the rest of the plot.

This is one film that doesn't quite have a purpose of its own. There is definitely no message in the film yet the filmmaker tries getting preachy towards the end by suddenly popping the topic of the privilege being given to Muslim men to marry as many as four wives as Sanah advices Sameera to marry Faraaz for the sake of the kid while Sameera gets into a social commentary. Even for a simple fictional saga there are far too many things which go completely haywire. For example: Why does Faraaz hide his wedding? Why does Faraaz hide the nature of his work from his family and wife? Why does he forget about them all of a sudden?

Bus Ek Tamanna could've made for a social drama or an emotionally stirring saga but what it turns out to be instead is tripe, hackneyed film that neither entertains you nor touches you. You don't feel empathetic towards Sameera's problems in life with regards to her child or feel the longing of Sanah when her husband goes offshores barring any contacts.

There are songs that are mediocre and don't add any value to the film. The heavy Urdu laden dialogues are inexplicable. Sameer Aftab and Gauri Karnik give puerile performances while Rituparna Sengupta doesn't show any improvement. The only respite about her is that her flawed dialogue delivery gets covered up courtesy dubbing. Reema Lagoo gives and earnest performance.

Over all, Bus Ek Tamanna is a long melodramatic saga which is best avoided. Watch it only if you are seeking an undisturbed long nap. 


sr:nr