Tadap Movie Review: Ahan Shetty will not disappoint you in this average but watchable film

When fans first saw the trailer of Ahan Shetty ’s debut film Tadap , co-starring Tara Sutaria , they were left with mixed emotions. While some were excited to see how Suniel Shetty ’s son would perform in his first film, others wondered if this is going to turn out like Shahid Kapoor ’s Kabir Singh , which was criticized for glamorizing toxic masculinity. A remake of Telugu film RX 100, the romantic action drama has been directed by Milan Luthria and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala . Well, Tadap finally hit theatres today and as expected, many people rushed to their nearest cinema halls to check it out. While it isn’t exactly an incredible romantic drama, the film is better than what we expected it to be.

Our story begins with Ishana aka Ahan Shetty’s rugged entry-- long hair, scruffy beard, a killer physique and addicted to smoking. This badass intro is followed by a quick chase scene where Ishana ends up beating up a man. Just like the audience, the police is confused about the reason behind this. But the hero is too cool to care, as he replies, “Khurak thi, mita di.” It is then revealed that 3 years ago he met Ramisa, portrayed by Tara. She is the daughter of a politician, who is Ahan’s adoptive father’s friend, and has returned from London. While Ramisa is a fun loving girl, Ishana is shown to be an innocent, emotional man who gets aggressive only when someone tries to harm or insult his father. They fall for one another and Ramisa tells him that she never wants to go back to London. However, soon after they get intimate she begins acting distant and they are separated. Ramisa is married off to another man, and Ishana turns into this overly aggressive ‘aashiq’.

Ishana feels that her father had a hand in this and swears to destroy him. But the shocking twist is that Ramisa only used him as her ‘entertainment’ and wanted to marry her boyfriend of two years all along! While this may not come as a shock to those who watched RX 100, it will definitely be an interesting plot twist for a movie-lover who hasn’t heard of the Telugu film. The story-line is surely interesting and there are times when you even feel a little sympathetic towards Ishana. None of the things he does are justified in the film and his love for Ramisa is so deep that he makes up excuses for her till the very end, which makes it different from Kabir Singh, who practically blamed his girlfriend for everything. Also, Ishana is not just an angry young man. He has a lot of emotions locked up inside, which Ahan has tried hard to bring out on-screen.

Coming to the star cast-- Ahan will not disappoint you with his performance. He has not done wonders but it is surely a good start for him. His action sequences were quite impressive and hopefully in his next few projects we will see him as a more polished actor. Tara, on the other hand, has portrayed the role of a ‘dhokebaaz girlfriend’ wonderfully. Her expressions are mostly on point but in a few scenes she could have toned it down a notch, because she began to resemble an evil saas from a TV show! Kumud Mishra has done a good job as always but the star here is definitely Saurabh Shukla as Ahan’s father Daddy. His one-liners won us over. The background score also deserves a special mention, as it complemented the action, romance and drama sequences.

Final thoughts-- While Tadap is not exactly ‘movie of the year’ material, it isn’t too bad either and is an average, watchable film that you could consider if you don’t have anything else to do for entertainment. But maybe we should wait a bit to judge Ahan as an actor, because he definitely tried hard here. Let’s see what he does next!