everyone else and manners don't really mean very much. The scene where Mansi and her father go to visit Manav's family and sit outside waiting all day in the scorching heat was very touching and as a viewer it made me furious that rich people can behave that way towards a family who just a short time ago they were singing the praises of and treating as their equals and more!

The music in Taal was definitely something I have to comment on. With music by A R Rahman (who's rarely involved in musical flops to my knowledge), lyrics by Anand Bakshi and playback singers including Aditya Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan the music is good enough to consider buying the music album for the film. The title song Taal Se Taal Mila is absolutely fabulous and the rest of the songs are generally all very catchy too and worth at least listening to more than once in my opinion. It's not often that I enjoy the songs in a Bollywood film; often I find that I have to fast forward the songs to get back to the rest of the film. I didn't find myself doing this in Taal, in fact, I went back to listen to the songs again because most of them were so catchy, especially the title song.

The cinematography is definitely also worth a mention. Some really fabulous scenery and locations used throughout the film making this a colorful extravaganza and making you, as a viewer, want to visit those places. Filming locations included Niagara Falls, Toronto Islands in Canada and various parts of India.

Taal was directed by Subhash Ghai who is famous for directing blockbuster Bollywood flicks such as Karz, Hero, Saudagar, Aitraaz and 36 China Town. Having seen just 3 of those that I've listed (hero, Aitraaz and 36 China Town) I'd say Taal was definitely the one I enjoyed the most, although I did enjoy the others and would definitely recommend them too. The film runs for approximately 180 minutes and is classified as suitable for viewers of all ages. Although the film was released in 1999, it was only released on DVD in 2003. The main dialogue in the film is Hindi (but obviously DVD versions will have English subtitles available).

I'd be happy to give Taal a very strong 4.5 out of 5 rating and I do believe the film was a huge hit in its time which was evident from the amount of awards it won the year after its release (2000) including from Awards of the International Indian Film Academy, Filmfare Awards, Screen Weekly Awards and Zee Cine Awards including several for Best Music Direction, Best Lyricist and Best Supporting Actor (Kapoor).

Learn more about this author, Anony Mili.
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