Tevar isn't a film gone wrong. It's a sensibility gone wrong. The maker, an ad-director in the past, makes a calculative error of munching up a pizza in an Irani café. The atmosphere is unnecessarily all-class, in the bask of visual poetry when it should have been all-brash and raw energy. The pauses are for the moments of photographic bliss here. No issues but why ape the treatment of Abhishek Kapoor for a script that demands a no-holds barred Prabhudeva in the fray ? The colours, the clothes and the backgrounds are what you can exactly recollect in Tevar, a typical Bollywoodised remake of a live-wire Telugu film Okkadu, that should have been a solid action package with some juicy masala moments in store.
May be that's where excessive budgets, scale and grandiosity are a curse. The opportunities are only utilized to showcase the re-stylized action stunts of one-punching-an army in slow motion camera shots. What does this do? You start to look at this film with a touch of realism, which is a complete contrast to the purpose for which it was remade.
The inner details in this film appeal but how long can a show run with visuals, without emotion in three hours that seem an obvious excess? The chemistry between the lead pair is non-existent, save for a beautifully designed track Joganiyaan, the quirks are only in parts. Kabbadi is just a quality-addition, the Taj Mahal, an Indian tourism initiative and the film is just that. The elements are in place, but they don't mean much or add to the film.
Instead of a clichéd villain-kidnapping-heroine sequence, the director brings in a pant-nikal-gayi idea with sound aesthetic sense. When Arjun Kapoor rubs in a red colour on Sonakshi's face during a Holi scene, the wonderful shot gives you an impression of the guy applying sindhoor on her face. The only madness or energy that you can grab hold are the parts when there's a Romeo-Juliet reference where Manoj Bajpayee first proposes to his lady love, followed by a Kora Kaagaz Tha background when she's coming in a rickshaw.
Tevar doesn't allow the viewer to settle into any state. The jumps come at the wrong places, such as the chases. The mood is always hush-hush. Arjun Kapoor isn't exactly cut-out for emotion or close-in expressions. When he shouts after an outburst with the antagonist in the climax, it gives you ideas of his tiredness and not angst. Manoj Bajpayee feels predictable and isn't at his best and at most, repeats the histrionics of his roles in Prakash Jha's films. You miss a Prakash Raj here. Too much style to garnish thin air!
One and a half star Review by Srivathsan N. First published in Cinegoer.netOther Related Posts
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Tagged as action, Amit Sharma; Arjun Kapoor, Manoj Bajpayee, Okkadu Hindi remake, Okkadu Tevar, Raj Babbar, Rajesh Sharma, review, Review of Tevar, Shruti Haasan, Sonakshi Sinha, Tevar, Tevar Review, Thriller
