Directed by Ajit Sinha, Wah Taj is a story of a farmer from Maharashtra Tukaram Marathe, who moves to Agra with his family and claims of owning the land where the Taj Mahal is built on. Tukaram Marathe who is a farmer based in a small village of Maharashtra. This action of Tukaram puts the entire nation from common man to the politicians in a state of shock. Soon you will find that there are two parties one is the media who is supporting this guy and helping him to get his rights while on the other side, it is the politicians who are simply hell bent in driving this man out from the city. Lately, the film turns out to be a courtroom drama wherein the man Tukaram played by Shreyas Talpade has to prove about his claim. So, whether he gets justice or not is an interesting thing to catch. The change of the film’s tone from humour to serious seems to be too striking thing in the film. Despite having a fascinating plot the makers of the film have failed to utilize the lead actors in the film especially the talented Manjari.

A social worker will spot a huge bindi and wear well-pleated sarees, politicians are all about giving fire to chaos till they can use it to their own benefit, cops don’t care for crimes and media houses are all about getting TRPs. Sounds like a stereotypical story for a Bollywood satire. Alas, Ajit Sinha’s Wah Taj does not come across as the satire-comedy it aims to be. The film does not pause a bit to build up its characters, leaving the audience totally uninterested. We don’t empathise with the poor farmer couple struggling for the land and we don’t laugh at their smart one-liners because they are too cliched. If we try to find good things about the movie, the intentions definitely come first on the small list. The courtroom scene too, can be there. The judge’s reactions and the lawyers’ arguments are fun to watch. As for performances, Shreyas and Manjari are good in parts, but the melodrama keeps them from being convincing. At scripting stage, Wah Taj could have been a good watch, but what we see onscreen is totally avoidable.

Exaggerated faces, clueless extras and cartoonish sound effects set the stage for something that resembles a sloppy sitcom more than an actual feature film. Debutant director Ajit Sinha might have wanted to make a sincere point, but it’s been made before more effectively, and the lack of a laugh track here — unlike the dated television comedies it borrows its aesthetic from — leaves us with no laughs in the theatres. Shreyas Talpade plays the farmer with a desperate, look-at-me earnestness (which makes sense in context of the film) and is matched well by Manjari Phadnis as his wife. In Wah Taj, the press is the most ridiculous. Assembled to cover a breaking story, they write in notepads while people argue, they posture with microphones even without cameras on them, and they sing bhajans siding with the protagonist. This review would have looked a lot different if they’d written it. How I wish they’d have watched it instead.