by Anony Mili

Created on: June 24, 2009

Taal is a Bollywood film released in 1999 which starred Aishwarya Rai (former Miss World), Akshaye Khanna and Anil Kapoor with strong support from Alok Nath and Amrish Puri. Taal was produced and directed by Subhash Ghai and the music for the film was by A R Rahman. The film could be classed as a musical romantic drama.

Manav (Khanna) is a young man from the UK who is touring India with his father, Jagmohan Mehta (Puri), and relatives. On their travels they meet a renowned singer Tarababu (Nath) who is famous for being a wonderful spiritual singer. Tarababu's daughter is the beautiful and musically talented Mansi (Rai) who Manav falls in love with on first sight. She reciprocates his feelings but when he leaves to go to the family home in Bombay they know they want to be together forever. Mansi's father is not happy with their romance when he first hears of it but eventually accepts his daughter's wishes and with her he travels to the big city to meet Manav and his family again. Jagmohan had extended an invite to him to visit them whenever they were in town. Except when they go to visit, they are kept waiting outside in the street in the scorching hot weather all day until the family returns and even when they return, they show surprise and ask why they didn't call to make an appointment before visiting. Tarababu ends up insulting Jagmohan and Manav walks in on this and insults Tarababu, Mansi can't bear to see her father insulted and they leave the Mehta home in disgust.

Mansi is discovered by a bit-time producer Vikrant Kapoor (Kapoor) who makes her extremely rich and famous. Manav, during this time, realises he can't live without his Mansi and tries to make amends. Unfortunately Vikrant develops feelings towards Mansi too. Will Mansi return Vikrant's love? Or will she forgive Manav and his family for their unfair treatment of her father and herself? Will there be a happy ending for anyone?

Taal is a film which I would consider to be in my top 20 if not my top 10 favorite Hindi films. I found a lot of things about the film very enjoyable including the acting of the leads, the beautiful locations and colorful scenery used throughout the film and the songs.

Aishwarya Rai played the part of Mansi beautifully. She looks stunning all the way through the film and one totally sees why she behaves the way she does. Having seen her in other films since I think this has to be one of the best roles she's taken on in her acting career. Kudos

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