Ta Ra Rum Pum was theatrically released in India by Yash Raj Films on 27 April 2007. The film emerged as a moderate commercial success, grossing ₹70 crore (US$8.2 million) worldwide, thus becoming the tenth highest grossing Hindi film of the year. It received mixed reviews from critics upon release, with praise for its setting, and Khan and Mukherji's performances, but criticism for its screenplay, length, and pacing.
Plot
Rajveer "RV" Singh, a happy-go-lucky race track pit crew member and aspiring racer, lands a professional stock car racing contract with the Speeding Saddles, a struggling racing team, after illegally speeding a New York City taxi owned by the team manager and his eventual agent, Harry.
RV soon becomes a successful racer, and later marries Radhika "Shona" Shekar Rai Bannerjee, a pianist and music major at Columbia University, despite the disapproval of Radhika's father, businessman Shubho Shekhar, due to the pair's lack of academic degrees and conventional employment. After the wedding, Shona leaves her career to care for their two children, Priya "Princess" Singh and Rajveer "Champ" Singh Jr., as RV and Speeding Saddles become the sport's most acclaimed.
One year later, during a race, rival racer Rusty Finkelstein crashes into RV's car, severely injuring and hospitalizing him. RV returns to the sport a year later but finishes last in each race owing to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his accident. Exasperated, the team owner Billy Bhatia fires RV and replaces him with Rusty.
After the couple fails to get alternative employment (including a failed attempt by RV to create a breakaway team with Harry), their house is foreclosed, and most of their possessions, including Shona's wedding ring, are auctioned off to pay creditors. With only about $2,000 left to their name, the family moves into a one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of the city.
Determined to keep their children at their private school, Shona and RV take several odd jobs; RV attempts to abandon the family dog, Bruno, to ease the burden on them. Bruno is returned by Harry, who offers RV his taxi license; he rejects it due to Harry's continued employment with the Speeding Saddles but eventually accepts it. Shona later gets a job as an events pianist and runs into Shubho, who offers the family assistance, but she rejects it after he insults RV. Princess overhears RV and Shona fighting and learns of their financial trouble. She tells Champ and the pair decide to secretly save their lunch money to help their parents. This results in Champ eating waste food from the garbage.
RV gets a passenger who asks for a speedy airport arrival; using it as a chance to test his racing skills, RV initially does well but falters after suffering flashbacks of his accident. In a last-ditch attempt to pay their school fees (and throw a birthday party for Champ), RV lies to his friends and fellow cab drivers saying Princess has pneumonia, prompting them to pool a fund for her medical expenses.
Shona finds out that RV lied to his friends about Princess having pneumonia and gets enraged at RV. However, Champ suddenly falls unconscious and begins bleeding from his mouth. The family rushes him to the hospital and then RV and Shona learn the truth that Princess and Champ have been saving their lunch money to help the financial issue, where they find out Champ has a piece of glass in his stomach, and surgery to remove it would cost $65,000. After Billy rebuffs his plea for help, Harry offers RV the chance to make their team and get back into the racing world. RV accepts the offer and his cab driver friends form the pit crew and accept RV's apology for lying to them about Princess having pneumonia. RV encounters Rusty and starts encountering his PTSD and flashbacks from his accident with Rusty, but he overcomes his PTSD as he is more concerned with his son's condition and motivates himself to keep going. On the last lap just as Rusty tries to shove RV again, this time RV shoves Rusty in the same way Rusty did to RV and causes Rusty to barrel-roll down the back stretch and die in a fiery wreck. RV wins the race.
RV returns to racing full-time, Shona becomes a professional pianist, and the family (including a now healthy Champ) moves back to their original home but sometimes go back to their old place to see their friends. RV then gifts Shona her wedding ring.
Saif Ali Khan was cast as the racer Rajveer and Rani Mukerji as the pianist Radhika.[3]Ali Haji and Angelina Idnani were cast as their children. While, Haji had to go through three auditions, Idnani did four audition, before they were finalised.[4]
The cars used in racing scenes were provided by Andy Hillenburg, who purchased Rockingham Speedway months after its release and provided the stunt drivers, as many ARCA Re/Max Series drivers participated in the filming (ARCA Re/Max Series stickers can be found on the cars in the movie; Hillenberg trained stunt drivers, along with letting some film stars take turns driving).[6] Some cars that can be seen in Ta Ra Rum Pum display high resemblance to cars specifically created for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (except featuring modified sponsorship decals) as Hillenburg provided cars for that film as well. The title song of Ta Ra Rum Pum is a 4-minute animated endeavour with all the main characters of the film and 4 other animated characters. This song was performed by Walt Disney Studios as part of their 3-film deal with Yash Raj Films. Ta Ra Rum Pum was released on 27 April 2007.[7]
The music of Ta Ra Rum Pum was composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar and Javed Akhtar penned the lyrics.[8] The soundtrack of the film contains 7 songs. According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 10,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's fifteenth highest-selling.[9]
In its first week, the film collected an impressive Rs. 43.7 million in Mumbai,[10] and did well at the multiplexes but moderately at the single screens.[11] The overall gross for the first week in India stands at Rs. 114,392,260.[12] The release of Spider-Man 3 caused a drop in collections, but the film has continued to do well in Mumbai and Delhi.[13]
The three main markets overseas – the UK, USA and Australia – saw a similar opening. Ta Ra Rum Pum collected during the weekend and debuted at #9 on the UK film chart which was a good opening.[14] In the United States, the film collected $425,102 which was a fair opening. In Australia, it collected $90,000.[15] Though the weekend figures were good, the collections were below expectations for a Yash Raj film.[16][17]
In its sixth week, the film had collected Rs. 377.0 million and was declared a hit in India.[18] Overseas, the film has collected $2,000,000 in the United Kingdom.[19]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 8 critics reviews.[20]
Taran Adarsh of Indiafm.com gave Ta Ra Rum Pum a rating of 3.5 out of 5. He praised the performances of Khan and Mukerji, saying "Khan is extremely likable. He conveys the varied emotions with complete understanding. Mukerji enacts the role of the mother proficiently".[21]
It is inspired by Days of Thunder (1990) and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), though film critic Rajeev Masand pointed out that "the plot has been borrowed generously from films such as Life Is Beautiful (1997), In America (2002) and Cinderella Man (2005)."[22]
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