Jan 11, 2015 10:02 AM
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It was evident some 2 years ago itself that the trend of remaking masala South Indian films is slowly waning off, mainly because of lack of novelty factor. Yet, it’s shocking that the makers of Tevar went ahead with their venture. And obviously, the film fails to leave a mark mainly because it is extremely clichéd and consists of stuff that viewers has seen in countless number of films.
The story of the movie: Pintoo(Arjun Kapoor) is an Agra ka launda who visits Mathura to attend a wedding. Gajender Singh(Manoj Bajpayee) is the bahubali in Mathura and the brother of home minister Mahendra Singh(Rajesh Sharma), who falls for local resident Radhika(Sonakshi Sinha). Gajender tries to forcibly kidnap her and make her his wife. However, Pintoo, who can’t bear injustice inflicted on women, enters the scene, attacks Gajendra, not knowing that he’s quite powerful, and escapes with Radhika. The aim is to reach Delhi. And obviously, it isn’t going to be an easy task, considering that Gajender’s brother controls the police force in the state.
Tevar begins on an average note with some inexplicable developments. Why is Pintoo late for the kabaddi match? Why is he jumping from one rooftop to another? Why does Pintoo’s father, SP Satyaprakash Shukla(Raj Babbar) always reprimand him for getting into trouble? Why doesn’t he realize that Pintoo is always fighting for a good cause and is doing something that his police force should be doing in the first place?! Things get slightly better after a point, but not great. It’s only when Pintoo attacks Gajendra and runs away with Radhika that the film goes on a high. In fact, this entire escape sequence before the intermission serves as the best part of the film. Even post-interval, few scenes are quite entertaining. Yet, the film overall isn’t satisfying as it doesn’t serve anything new. Viewers have seen similar stuff in films like Mast, Commando – A One Man Army, R…Rajkumar, Chennai Express, Jab We Met, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai etc. Moreover, the film goes on and on and is almost 160 minutes long. There was no need for Shruti Haasan’s item number and the 5-10 minute long scene where Pintoo and his pals are staring at a hot girl on the rooftop.
Performances are sincere and save the film from becoming an ultimate disaster. Arjun Kapoor plays the role quite convincingly. It seems quite believable when he single handedly fights with dozens of goons. Performance wise, he is too good and has that raw, rustic appeal that goes well with his character. Sonakshi Sinha looks charming and gives a wonderful performance. She is often criticized for taking roles that aren’t quite substantial. In that regard, her critics would definitely get silenced as she is one of the principle actors and does quite well. Manoj Bajpayee is terrific to say the least. After Raajneeti, this would count as one of his most memorable performances for sure! Subrat Dutta(Kakdi) impresses with his subtle performance. An actor to watch out for! Raj Babbar tries to infuse realism in his character and it works well. Rajesh Sharma is as usual. Deepti Naval(Pintoo’s mother) is okay but Gunjan Malhotra(Pinky) is quite funny. Bhuvan Arora, Pranav Verma and Tushar Pandey are quite nice as Pintoo’s friends. Shantanu Srivastava(fat police officer) is decent.
Sajid-Wajid’s music is good but won’t have a lasting effect. Superman is the best, undoubtedly. Joganiya also makes a mark especially thanks to the way it’s filmed. Clinton Cerejo’s background score is exhilarating. Laxman Utekar’s cinematography is brilliant. It must have been a challenge for the lensman to film in real, crowded locations but he pulls it off. Sham Kaushal’s action is fine but ordinary. Shantanu Srivastava’s dialogues could have been better but nevertheless, works. Screenplay(Shantanu Srivastava, Amit Sharma) takes the film down as it comes at a point when viewers have seen countless such films. Amit Sharma’s direction is quite nice but with such a beaten-to-death script in hand, there’s little he could have done to make it better. In fact, whenever the makers tried to do something original, it worked. For instance, scenes like Pintoo talking to his hand, Pintoo winning the kabaddi match in the beginning, Gajender proposing to Radhika, Pintoo-Radhika escaping from rooftop at Mathura and at the highway, SP Shukla meeting Radhika and Gajender refusing to wear his pants worked as these were all novel ideas. But the rest of the film is plain ordinary. If the makers had come up with such new, entertaining stuff and if they had kept the film’s duration in check, Tevar might not have been such a disappointing fare!
On the whole, Tevar has its moments but overall, it fails to work as it’s too lengthy and borrows from countless number of films of recent times. It’s quite bewildering why the makers even went ahead with this film considering that it’s evident since the past 2 years that there has been an overdose of South masala film remakes. Tevar would have worked 4-5 years back. But in 2015, chances of its success are remote!
