TAXI NO 9211

in the early 60s a hindi movie called nau do gyarah hit the celluloid scenes.i think dev anand was in the lead role and probably the heroine was kalpana karthick or nutan,i don't remember.it was quite a boxoffice success.those days dev saheb was a sure shot.he had the midas touch.the songs were very hummable and lingered in your memory for long.

nau do gyarah hona means running away.numerologically the digits add upto four.and that has got nothing to do with vanishing.perhaps the name had something to do with Raghav Shastri(nana patekar),the taxi driver,who his wife thinks is really an insurance agent.he has hidden this fact from his wife. a dr jekyll and mr hyde. jai(john abraham),the philanderer,is about to lose all his inheritance because his father has willed it to his close associate,fed up with the son's irresponsible behaviour.the will is lying in the bank locker and that is jai's only hope.his car is not working(actually he bashed it up the previous night after a drinking session) and he is already late for the court hearing and he has to get the will from his locker and he loses the locker key in taxi no,9211 which brings him only bad luck.

milan luthria who worked as an assistant to mahesh bhatt in his early days decided to do it on his own a few years ago and came out with a cool and stylish 'kacche dhaage' followed by 'chori chori' and 'deewar'.his latest, taxi number 9211, was supposed to capture the real mumbai by shooting on location("in situ").and i think it clearly failed in this objective.

two men from opposite ends of the social spectrum meet. one is a taxi driver,the other a playboy who is about to lose his fortune.irrespective of their social status there are similarities between them.they are selfish,short-tempered and driven by social acceptability.in their madness they destroy each other and at the end have only their shattered egos in tact.

nana patekar dominates the film with his superb acting.john abraham is just about ok.regarding the rest,less said the better.also poor editing and cinematography very average.there were some siver linings though.priyanka chopra's cameo and sanjay dutt's voiceover narrating the story.