Movie Review: Tum Bin [2001]

Tum Bin was released last year with other heavyweights like Lagaan, Gadar, DCH, so missed out on it. I’d kept it in my “to-watch” list due to the music, as its songs playing on TV became earworms.

Finally watched Tum Bin over the weekend and it was a pleasant surprise.

Melancholy meets mohabbat with a side of snowfall

Shekhar Malhotra (among the most common Hindi movie character names after Vijay, Rahul etc), played by Priyanshu Chatterjee, causes an inadvertent road accident. He decides to seek the family’s forgiveness and tries to help rebuild their shattered lives. Along the way, themes around love, guilt, and moral dilemma take over before the usual Hindi movie melodrama leads to forgiveness and redemption.

Performances – newbies with feelings

I think the absence of stars actually makes the movie work. There are zero expectations from fresh faces, and they mostly perform a notch above that.

Priyanshu Chatterjee has a chunky role and shines in it. He’s let down by some not so great dialogue at times and too much brooding. Restraint and resilience is the essence of his character who is otherwise perpetually apologising or crying.

Sandali Sinha is vivacious and vulnerable in parts. A bit superficial with a not-so-great voice and dialogue delivery. Her expressions seem frozen at times, and often don’t adequately convey the emotion of the moment. Decent performance for a newbie.

Himanshu Malik seemed to take “strong, silent type” too literally and is quite stiff in his mannerisms, and mumbled though his dialogues in many scenes with barely any emotion.

Considering his absence is the essence of the story, Rakesh Bapat’s role was too brief for him to really do much.

Among the other cast, Dina Pathak was her usual effective self, but I thought Vikram Gokhale was under-utilised.

Navneet Nishan, Rajendra Gupta and Vrajesh Hirjee provide a parallel track along with some comic relief. I thought Rajesh Khera (as Shekhar’s friend Bosco) was a bit too loud and often overdid the Punjab da puttar stereotype.

A lovely soundtrack

The film’s soundtrack by Nikhil-Vinay is probably the true hero here, and the reason most folks would’ve watched the movie. Among the dozen or so songs, most of them are quite good with excellent “repeat-listen-value”. Some songs like “Koi Fariyad” by Jagjit Singh, “Tum Bin” by Chithra, “Chhoti Chhoti Raatein” by Sonu Nigam and Anuradha Paudwal, will likely remain popular for years.

Direction, Editing, Cinematography – a mixed bag

As a debutant director, this is a decent effort from Anubhav Sinha. I wish the editing was a bit tighter, especially post-interval where the restraint of the first half gives way to a somewhat loose and rushed climax.

Shot mostly in Calgary, Canada, the locations look picturesque and postcard-pretty. There’s a lovely blend of colours across landscapes with wide blue skies, snowy streets, warm wooden interiors.

Random Thoughts

Vrajesh Hirjee’s (over)acting suddenly reminded me of a character called “Qabacha” in a PTV series called “Tanhaiyan”. This was from the 1980s and I’d watched it as a kid. Several broad ideas/themes in this movie appear to have been copied or “inspired” from there.

The movie was enjoyable along with a reminder that love is messy, complicated, and best accompanied by a ghazal 😉