Tadka Review: Shriya Saran, Nana Patekar Movie is Cute Until It’s Not

Tadka is a drama film directed by Prakash Raj and stars Taapsee Pannu, Shriya Saran, Ali Fazal, Nana Patekar and Murli Sharma, alongside other cast members. The movie has a runtime of 115 minutes.

Zee5’s description reads:

A middle-aged Gaurishankar is passionate about food and archaeology but it’s a misplaced call from Divya that adds the tadka to his life. While love simmers, Aditi and Sidharth’s story spices up too.

– Tadka Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –

Tadka is such an odd movie. There are two storylines running parallel in the movie until they invariably come together somewhere, and honestly, the movie forces the story forward when it’s not really necessary.

First and foremost, I don’t understand the point of Taapsee Pannu’s character – she plays the same-old character again here and is brash and aggressive and won’t shy away from physical assault. However, her voice is dubbed, and it sounds extremely out-of-place and unnecessary.

All of the characters, similarly, have odd personalities. The pairing between Saran and Patekar feels out of place – that age difference is eye-brow raising. Unfortunately, this odd relationship is what adds some amount of sweetness to Tadka. Without this sweetness, the characters are so annoying.

I feel like Nicole is the bane of my existence every time she comes on-screen; even the others act like immature brats who just go so overboard about everything. Regardless, as we move from the single days to the days of love blossoming, things get rather watchable. The first pangs of love and suddenly finding everything beautiful will remind you of your first love (maybe without the shocking age gap).

Watching Nana Patekar flirting is probably new for me and, honestly, quite uncomfortable, but hey – love knows no age. Apart from that, people have very curious priorities. Most age-shame others and the fact that they are single for no reason. Let’s not even talk about the casual violence that the movie tries to pass off as funny.

Each and every scene, whether necessary or not, are so long and watered down. The romance also loses steam after a while because neither of our protagonists is secure enough to make their own decisions or in themselves. Conflict is a necessary part of shows, but forcing that conflict is a hassle that doesn’t feel genuine and, thus, doesn’t leave an impression.

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Love for food is also one of the pillars of the movie, and people go a little overboard with that love but, to be fair, it’s cute. I think it’s one of the better parts of the movie. It balances out the bad taste that is left in your mouth when adults act like little kids.

Shriya Saran and Nana Patekar are really great. The latter’s monologue, in the end, is honestly so deep and relatable and Patekar does such a great job that your heart breaks for his character at that point. In the end, I am still confused as to why Taapsee Pannu and Ali Fazal are in this movie – Fazal just bounces around for no reason. What an odd choice!

Summing Up: Tadka

Tadka has some genuinely sweet and heartwarming moments – it’s a sweet drama which ends on a high but, in between, falls off the rails quite a bit, leaving a bad taste in your mouth overall.

Tadka is streaming on Zee5.

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