The intent of satiating the hunger of family audience is apparent in the Kedar Shinde directed Toh Baat Pakki but this theme has been explored many times in the past. The plot of the film also looks to be an interesting one while reading or in its narration but looks flawed at the time of watching the movie. It is an age old thing in Hindi cinema to find an eligible bachelor for the young bride and has paid rich dividends to producers and directors but Toh Baat Pakki lags far behind.
The film revolves around the life of Rajeshwari (Tabu) who is happily married to a bank cashier and is looking to find a suitable match for her sister Nisha (Uvika Chaudhary). To her delight she finds an engineering student Rahul (Sharman Joshi) and takes him home and fixes the marriage. But to the dismay of audience and delight of Rajeshwari she finds Yuvraaj (Vatsal Seth) as the more eligible bachelor. Rajeshwari is now determined to fix the marriage to this bachelor as he is a manager and is about to get a bungalow, thus taking only the money matters into account.
The setback to this film is not its aged theme but taking the audience too lightly and presenting them a film which is neither comic nor melodramatic in its essence. The writing is also not efficient and lacks a punch and presumes that a viewer will take all the aspects of the film seriously which s/he never does. It is hard to associate with this script now, more so when we see customary characters of a small town dancing to the tune of forced songs in skimpy clothes around beaches.
The opening half of the film is enjoyable with the unveiling of characters and some nice performances by Tabu and Sharman Joshi but it is in the later stage that the film upsets completely. The motives of Rahul to break the looming marriage of Yuvraaj and Nisha which include dowry, poisoning words against the bride and kidnapping appear perplexing to the viewer.
With this film we witness a sort of comeback from Tabu (last seen in Cheeni Kum) who is one of the finest actresses in Bollywood. It is quite natural to gaze at her talent but at the same time we see her in a clunker called Toh Baat Pakki. At times it becomes difficult for a viewer to differentiate between the character of Tabu and Upasana Singh as both are nauseating and quite loud (might be the demand of the script). Something better was expected from the lady who has been awarded national award two times.
It is not that she has acted poorly in the film but it is her only carrying the load of a film that has nothing new to offer and has an average music and cinematography. She is laudable in portraying in the role of a woman with good intentions for her family and sister, an interesting character on a whole. She lifts up the film with her enigmatic screen presence and we tend to both like and hate her as Rajeshwari. Sharman Joshi has tried hard and looks genuine as Rahul. Post Rang De Basanti his performances are steady and up to the mark.
In a nutshell, Toh Baat Pakki is for the audience who can find total delight in the powerhouse acting of Tabu in an age old film script that has been forgotten by directors and producers 10-15 years ago in Bollywood. Rest of the performances are quite average and are eclipsed by Tabu.
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