Ta Ra Rum Pum

Went over to see this movie due to some obligations. Had zero expectations from it, and it lived up to them.

Summary
Rajveer Singh (Saif Ali Khan looking a little haggard and not as fit as usual) is a pit-crew worker in a racing team. Harry (Jaaved Jaaferi, reliable as ever) is a team manager for a racing team; Speeding Saddles, and he discovers Saif's driving skills on a taxi ride across the city.
Saif also gets to meet a music student, Radhika (Rani Mukerji, with a stupid hairdo), during the same ride; and falls for her instantly.
Saif becomes a race car driver for Speeding Saddles; and goes on to win a number of races, in the process shortening his name to a chic RV. On this journey, he also gets married to Rani and spares some time to sire two kids, Priya/Princess (Angelina Idnani, normal) and Ranveer /Champ (Ali Haji, trying too hard to be cute).
This fairy tale story is interrupted as the result of a racing accident (Days of Thunder anyone?) which keeps Saif away from the racetrack for an year. His comeback is not the stuff of legends, and his picture perfect world shatters when he realizes his credit line doesn't last as long as his race track.
How the family survives this downturn, and comes up all trumps forms the rest of the story.


Actors
Saif Ali Khan for a change, does not look the normally fit and energetic guy that he usually does. He probably realized the stupidity of the script and got disinterested in the movie. He tries to make up for it in the second half, but is not very impressive, sleepwalking through the entire movie.
Rani looks horrible for the first half of the movie, and is unable to carry off the short-skirt look made popular by Preity Zinta in Salaam Namastey. In the second half, she has to wear a no-makeup look, which doesn't suit her as much either. As regards to her histrionics, she is dependable as usual, though her shrieky avatar pre-marriage is irritating.
The kids do a fine enough job, but never register as endearing.
Jaaved Jaaferi is great in a small role and leaves you in splits as always.
The primary antagonist Rusty is so comically characterized that he ends up without a single dialogue and a sneer which reminds you of Shashikala in movies from the '80s.

Technique
Director Siddharth Anand showed some promise in his earlier movie Salaam Namastey, even though that too was inspired from Nine Months. For this movie, he lets the money do the talking. The lavishly mounted race track scenes almost scream out saying... hey, now that you have this to take home, why bother with a script.
The screenplay by Habib Faisal is inspired in parts by Days of Thunder, Cinderella Man and Life is Beautiful.
With such varied influences, it sometimes ends up with ridiculous scenes not having any relation to the main theme of the movie.
Surprisingly, the music by Vishal Shekhar is plain bad and the songs come as obstacles in this movie already crawling at a snail's pace.
This screenplay of convenience also ends up painting the car races as death duels where the racer's main aim is to create as many pile-ups as necessary to leave his competitors behind; and if he ends up killing a few of them, so much the better.


Trivia

1. Ali Haji, the child actor has earlier worked in Family (with Amitabh Bachchan) and Fanaa besides ad campaigns for Dabur Chyawanprash, Lifebuoy and Tata Tea.
   His forthcoming films include Drona (Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra) and Partner (Salman Khan, Govinda, Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif).
2. The other child actor Angelina Idnani has been a part of Phir Hera Pheri and Benares, and quite a few ads like Nutrela, Everest Masala, Haldiram, Montex pens and Mahindra Club Holidays.
3. Cinematographer Binod Pradhan, a veteran of films like Mission Kashmir, Devdas and Rang De Basanti, and also Ta Ra Rum Pum has a cameo in this movie in a group scene with Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji.
4. Shekhar Kapoor had planned a movie named Tara Rum Pum Pum a long time ago with Preity Zinta (before her debut in Dil Se). But the movie got stalled like a number of other Shekhar Kapoor movies .
5. During the shoot of the film in the US, Saif stayed away from the unit, on his own in a studio-style apartment/hotel, and this caused a lot of gossip regarding how he shared cold vibes with Rani.
6. Director Siddharth Anand, all of 26 years; assisted Kunal Kohli during the making of Mujhse Dosti Karoge and Hum Tum. He also was a part of the team that wrote Hum Tum (which was inspired by When Harry Met Sally).
   Before joining the Yash Raj banner; he had also assisted Rahul Rawail in the comedy Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi starring Kajol.
7. Siddharth had written this movie keeping Saif in mind. Rani was finalized only after the script was written in totality.
8. The hotel that Saif had checked in to, was in the middle of nowhere, opposite a cemetery without any windows. Saif used to smoke a lot and so, he got them to make him a window. Now they call that room the 'presidential suite' as it's the only one with a window there.
9. Rani and Siddharth know each other from their school days when they studied in the same school and traveled by the same school bus.

Opinion
Mostly a bummer, unless you are interested in watching a few race tracks or are die-hard fans of Saif/Rani. Also, if you are moved to tears at the slightest provocation and love watching emotionally manipulative movies, you could go for it. Would still recommend re-viewing Cinderella Man to achieve that end.