Swarnim Global Services Pvt. Ltd.’s The Taj Story (UA) is the story of a tourist guide in Agra who files a PIL in court to know the truth about who built the Taj Mahal. Vishnu Das (Paresh Rawal) is an accomplished tourist guide in Agra. His father was a tourist guide and so is his son, Avinash (Namit Das). One day, Vishnu Das files a PIL in court to know the true story of the Taj Mahal — mainly who had built it. It is Vishnu’s strong belief that Shahjehan had not built the Taj, and that historians, educationists and text books were misrepresenting the facts. Representing the state is advocate Anwar Rashid (Zakir Hussain). What happens in the court forms the crux of the story.
Tushar Amrish Goel’s story is interesting, more so in today’s social and political climate where Hindus have started to assert their importance. Tushar Amrish Goel and Saurabh M. Pandey’s screenplay is quite engaging and some courtroom scenes also evoke laughter for the satire. Although the arguments in court get very technical at several places, the overall courtroom drama is quite entertaining. The first half is crisp but the same cannot be said of the post-interval portion which is both, lengthy and boring at times. Another minus point is that several important characters in the drama disappear for long intervals, giving the impression of lopsided writing. The inconclusive ending is the weakest part of the drama because it doesn’t give a feeling of fulfillment at the end to the viewers. Tushar Amrish Goel and Saurabh M. Pandey’s dialogues are nice, some of them even clapworthy.
Paresh Rawal excels in the role of Vishnu Das. He performs naturally. Zakir Hussain is good as advocate Anwar Rashid. Namit Das is natural as Avinash Das, but his long absence in between seems like a matter of convenience. Sneha Wagh makes a lovely mark as Avinash’s wife, Sushmita. Latika performs ably as Avinash’s sister, Tarasha. Siddharth Bhardwaj makes his presence felt as Manoj Rathi. Srikant Verma acts realistically as Vivek Dubey. Amruta Khanvilkar makes her mark as documentary filmmaker Harsha Patel. Anil George is lovely as Nawaz Khan. Abhijit Lahiri is very good as judge Subrato Chatterjee. Atul Bishnoi hardly gets any scope as judge R.K. Kushwaha. Akhilendra Mishra has his moments as Vibhooti. Brijendra Kala is endearing as advocate Shashikant. Shishir Sharma is realistic as archaeologist Dr. Shrinivas Patel. Pankaj Berry is alright as Rehan Habib. Flora Jacob has her moments as Urmila Bishnoi. Aashit Chatterjee lends fair support as Usman Beg. Binu Jha (as principal Ritu Deewan), Swarnim Jha (as Kittu), Sarvagaya Jha (as Bittu) and the rest are adequate.
Tushar Amrish Goel’s direction is quite good but could’ve been better. Music (Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dev Nath) is functional. Lyrics (by Amal Donwaar and Vikram Choudhary) are okay. Sushma Suman’s choreography is ordinary. Rohit Sharma’s background music is fairly nice. Satyajit Hajarnis’ cinematography is alright. Action and stunt scenes have been quite well choreographed by Irfan Khan. Production designing (Abinash Pandit) is of a fine standard. Himanshu Tiwari’s editing is reasonably sharp.
On the whole, The Taj Story is a thought-provoking film and entertaining, too, in parts. It will do average business in the big centres mainly.
Released on 31-10-’25 at Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Cinepolis India. Publicity: dull. Opening: okay. …….Also released all over. Opening was so-so at some places and dull at others.
