Director Santosh Sivan seeks motivation from two of his best cinematic attempts Halo and The Terrorist and blends their spirit to imagine Tahaan, an innocent fairytale account in a factual setting. As the film proclaims, it has fictitious characters involved in non-fictitious incidents.

TAHAAN is a soothing skill. Also, amidst the story of a child's obsession for his pet donkey, it also opens your eyes to the truth that children can be soft targets for carrying out wicked activities.

Approved, a film like TAHAAN caters to a niche audience. But its unfussiness is its USP. There's another reason to go for it: Child artiste Purav. You can't take your eyes off from this sensational discovery of Sivan.

Tahaan (Purav Bhandara) lives with his grandfather (Victor Banerjee), his mother (Sarika) and older sister (Sana Shaikh) in the peaceful meadows of Kashmir. They all live in the hope that someday Tahaan's father, who's been missing for over three years, will return.

The death of his grandfather prompts the local moneylender (Rahul Khanna) to take away the assets of the family, including their pet donkey Birbal. For Tahaan, bringing his favourite donkey Birbal back home becomes the sole purpose in life. Tahaan is devastated to learn that an old man, Subhan (Anupam Kher) has bought Birbal and taken him across the mountains. He traces Subhan and tells him about Birbal.

Subhan doesn't help Tahaan at first sight, but slowly warms up to this energetic and determined soul whose love for Birbal is overriding. On his way back home, Tahaan encounters a teenage lad ldrees, who convinces him that his efforts would never be enough to get Birbal back. Instead, he promises to get Birbal back for a favour. All Tahaan will have to do is carry a package across the mountains on his next journey. Seeing Tahaan's eagerness, ldrees hands him a grenade.

Tahaan sets off on his second journey with Subhan, the grenade and package tucked away under Birbal's saddle. What is the price that Tahaan will have to pay for Birbal?

Sivan's camerawork is excellent as he captures the beauty of Kashmir valley as never seen before. Moreover his camera moves with the story and doesn't stroll to artistically document the magnificence of the country. While setting the story in the snow-capped peacefulness of Kashmir, the film by default gets an appealing ambiance and the terrorism backdrop simultaneously. Taufiq Qureshi comes up with a mesmerizing score having a countryside flavour.

On the downside, the film runs on a rather lethargic pace. It also pointlessly makes reference of a Kashmiri Pandit in hideout with no relevance to the plot. Rahul Khanna is completely wasted as almost a junior artist while Victor Bannerjee's character is too short-lived. Rahul Bose's character is almost caricaturized.

It's Anupam Kher and Sarika who come up with convincing acts. Certainly the director extracts a natural and notable act from child actor Purav Bhandare along with his donkey companion. Together, the boy and the animal can give acting lessons to several adult actors of Bollywood.

On the whole, TAHAAN is for a niche audience, more for the festival circuit.