In my invented craze to watch Hindi movies off late that come up with a different outlook and some inborn novelty in story and presentation much different to the usual mundane masala and SRK type love tales of Bollywood which i have never watched, I got up with this refreshing Entertainer produced by Ramesh Sippy 'Taxi 9211' starring John Abraham and Nana Patekar directed by Mithun Luthria . Idiom 9211 is a slang type usage in Hindi to refer to somebody who runs away. The best thing about the movie is its novel story with a comic touch and director never diviates from the main theme. This way the movie would be rated above many such endauvers where film makers charged by criticisms from film critics (like me?) that Bollywood without coming out of its traditional Hero - Heroine - Villan and love , dance, item song and etc (old wine in new bottle kind of stuff) can not woo a larger mature audiance(like me?)(may be Western viewers) towards it, try desparately  to come up with some new story and presentation and though novelty exists to some extent, but everytime end up somewhere somehow finding it difficult to resist thier inborn urges find themselves forcibely drawn n tempted towarsds squeezing in a irrelevant love song screaming Diwana Dil Dil Le gaya Hoto pe Dil  (the same old words) or fighting or cabret dance etc.

The story is about the comic collision between two persons of contrasting extreme personalities. Raghav Shasthri played by Nana Patekar is a short tempered taxi driver who after an array of frequent job changes finally resorts to driving a taxi. But he lies to his gullible wife that he is an LIC Insurance agent. Jai Mittal played by John Abraham is a rich spoilt brat son of a dead buisnness tycoon who feels his father has cheated him by rewriting his will in complete favour of his old friend Arjun Bajaj at the time of his death. Accompanied by his greedy Girlfreind (Sameera Reddy)  whos interested only in his health  he sets out in court to proove that the second will is false and all his property should belong to him as per the first will.



The main scene starts with Jai Mittal going to court to show the first will which would be in his favour. On the way he needs to pick it up from a safe locker. He boards the taxi plated 9211 driven by Raghav Shastri. Jai demands that Raghav drive very fast and they end up meeting in a accident. There starts the collision course between the two dudes. While Jai looses the safe locker keys in the confusion (which are picked up by shastri), shastri lands up in jail. Jai is desperate to get the locker keys from shastri cause the time is running out for him in court. Shastri anagered by his plight cunningly hides the keys from Jai eyes in Jail. Then Shasthri escapes from police.  Jai goes to his house telling Shasthri's wife about the incident. After knowing the truth that her hubby was lying to her about taxi, Shastri's wife angrilly decides to move out to her mother's.  Then mayham breaks loose between the two. They destroy each other, leaving one another hopeless and defeated. At the end as a sudden twist of events, both realize thier folly and help each other which brings back everybody's smile.
 
So one has to say the story is very well wooven and prooves to be both reality and entertainment worthy. Both Nana Patekar and John Abraham perfectly fit to thier roles and have done a commendable job. Also subtle humours like making Sanjay Dutt narrate the story in his typical mubaiyya style accent and Shastri's son's silly drawings hung over in his cab and chunk old filmy style  'love at first sight' scene at the end etc add suitably to the comic health. Music and singing by Adnan Sami fits well to context. Overall a really cool refreshing entertainer. Though it seems like a simple entertainment flick, I see it as real signs of Indian Cinema coming off age and gradually coming out of its inbuilt clutches of old style polulist mundane masala entertainment and love stories's influence, so that it can draw attention of wider audiance across the globe. I rate it on par with similar entertainment flicks in Hollywood.
But the best thing i liked about the movie was that the heroine Sameera Reddy had a very less significant role in the movie and most importantly she was not 'made up' to look good:P. These are good signs that direction is getting entirely focussed on the story rather than ir-relavantly putting some stuff to glorify one induvidual's stature or popularity. It is a unwritten cluase in Indian Cinema that no matter how out of context and remote it might seem in terms of story, there has to be scene where heroine smiles showing all her teeths and its closeups, she has to dance with Hero or sing with her arms wide staring at the sky!!!