Ta Ra Rum Pum

What’s the Story?

TA RA RUM PUM is the American Dream story of Ravjeer (Saif Ali Khan), who gets a great job as a race car driver with help from Harry (Jaaved Jafferi). Ravjeer (or RV) marries Radhika (Rani Mukerji), and they have two kids. RV acquires their NYC home, and everything else, "on installment." Everything is going great until RV gets in an accident, and his dreams are dismantled one defaulted loan at a time. But RV and Radhika don't tell their kids what's going on. They keep them in the same private school even as they downsize to a large studio, telling them it's because they're on a hidden-camera reality show called Don't Worry, Be Happy, with the prize going to those who take on adversity with utmost grace and a smiling face. Will RV and Radhika manage to come up with the school fees in a month? Will the children find out? Will they land on their feet again?

Is It Any Good?

Ta Ra Rum Pum is predictable but also invigorating, like a day at a county fair eating too much junk and going on too many fast rides. Siddharth Anand's Bollywood confection is a feel-good film in English and Hindi (with subtitles) that's stuffed with extended-but-exciting car chases, lavish dance numbers, not-so-subtle moral lessons, and a meandering plot, it's sweet but somehow not saccharine. Even better, it's loads of fun.

Oddly enough, the lessons in this Indian film -- one of the best homages to New York City -- are supremely sensible and startlingly American: Go to college. Avoid buying on credit. Eat lunch every day. Thankfully, it unfolds in surprisingly charming ways that most American movies don't.