The thing to realise is that while every 'retro' filmmaker instantly picks the cool decades -- the free-lovin' 1960s or the groovybaby 1970s -- Acharya pays tribute to the most bastardised of Bollywood periods, the mid-to-late 1980s where music companies would often dictate how filmmakers should make their movies.

Tashan harkens back to a thankfully-gone era of over-the-top baddies, femme fatales who start off sweet as saccharine, a hapless hero caught unpredictably in the middle of it all, and a way cooler second lead who eventually becomes the star of the film. All it needed was a Viju Shah/Laxmi-Pyare soundtrack, man.

In a fantasy scenario, the Saif Ali Khan role (applause for the names, come on: callcenter employee Jeetender Makhwana who calls himself Jimmy Cliff, like the reggae musician? Wow-some) would have been played by Shashi Kapoor while Akshay Kumar's (the actor amazingly soaked in unlikely, crotch-scratching charisma) Bachchan Pandey is an obvious reference to the awesomest man in Hindi film history -- appropriately straddled with the coolest entry-shot in the last decade, riding in on a scooter accompanied by ten crowned heads and a hitchhiking Hanuman.

The fight scenes are far longer than they should be, granted, but this film is genuinely charming on repeat-viewing -- even if it requires significant indulgence.

Also Read: Showcasing Tashan

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