Tevar: Same old violent tevar

TEVAR

*ing: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Manoj Bajpayee

Rated: 6/10

Arjun Kapoor says in this one that he is the mixed fruit juice of Rambo, Terminator and Salman Khan put through a mixer-grinder. He also says he is Superman, Salmanka fan and what not, like mouthing a menacing kabaddi, kabaddi chant before going for the kill! Well, on the face of it, all the above mentioned have enough currency to power a two-and-a-half-hour movie all on their own even if two hours of it are a villain chasing hero-heroine chase. But Tevar, despite Arjun’s earnest effort at unabashed pehelwani mixed with ruffian buffoonery, does not take you in.

Come to think of it, all these South Indian movie remakes are falling apart. This one particularly, perhaps because producer Sanjay Kapoor erroneously decided to remake a way back 2003 Telugu movie as his production vehicle in 2015 when almost everything has changed from those olden times — be it the way you take revenge, or deal with small town baddies and biggies, or also the way you fight, sing, dance or romance. The last one — romance — is mostly missing in this high-brawn maar-dhaar film as the gullies of Mathura and Agra turn bloody red with the Taj Mahal standing serenely white against all the red flowing out of ruptured, beaten veins of  various characters most of them being goonda sidekicks.

The premise is that maha gunda, quite obviously the Home Minister’s brother (now, how many times have we tolerated this awful relationship on screen?) falls in love with a local girl at a dance performance and then all hell breaks loose. She says no, he says ‘no is not an option’ and makes the obvious more clear by murdering her brother bharey bazaar. Now there’s nothing new here but it is Manoj Bajpai, as the totally relentless, inhuman and obsessive baddie, giving new meaning to villainy here so you like to see him script all the atrocities that he does with a poker face and no fear of law or God. He is too good when he promises to not wear his pants till he gets the girl (Sonakshi Sinha) after being disrobed by the hero and sticks to his promise.

But despite Arjun’s fervour, it is Bajpai who powers this needlessly violent love story drawing more blood and gore than romance. Perhaps, Arjun’s uncle Anil Kapoor may have been a better fit in this role even though Arjun fights with passion, tries to do romeogiri with buddies just the way small-town boys do it — on cycles, motorcycles, at playgrounds and on terraces where the belle is washing clothes or drying them on a string! There’s hardly any romance in the film, and definitely not between the lead pair. Sonakshi does what she has been taught to do in her till now short film career and Arjun plays along. On the whole, Tevar lacks the kind oftevar needed to carry such a film on broad or otherwise shoulders.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, January 4, 2015