City Review: Unpretentious thriller

Photo: Agencies

Tevar doesn’t offer anything new but the film’s tempo is just right for a breezy watch, Deepa Gauri writes

The story of the super-hit Telugu film Okkadu is anything but original. In a nutshell, it is about villain meeting girl, boy meeting girl and boy beating villain.

For those who are looking for novelty and contemporary relevance, therefore, the fourth Indian language remake of the film, called Tevar in its Bollywood version, will offer nothing new.

The question then is whether Arjun Kapoor pulls off the oft-repeated story (Tevar is the fourth remake, following versions in Tamil, Kannada and Bengali), and deliver a film that is watchable.

And that is where debutant director Amit Ravindernath Sharma proves he has more promise and talent than some of those ones who got lucky under the YRF banner.

He intelligently confines Arjun’s role as Pintoo to that of a do-gooder who happens to save Radhika (Sonakshi Sinha), the damsel in distress, who has charmed her way into the mind of Gajender Singh (Manoj Bajpai), a local goon who murders her brother and wants her in marriage. For most part, the film has Pintoo and Radhika running for cover and little else.

There are no romantic diversions or melodramatic episodes between the two (until it becomes inevitable) and at no point does Arjun try to be a super-star. He remains a strong kabbadi player who also can take on an army of goons (which calls for what Samuel Taylor Coleridge refers as the willing suspension of disbelief).

Intelligently enough, the director gives more screen time to Manoj Bajpai and he shines. He makes you believe that love can make even the most terrifying goons pliable and weak – and that really is the core of the story.

Bringing a gravitas that was lacking in Prakash Raj’s over-the-top performance in Telugu and Tamil, Manoj is one reason Tevar escapes being another B-grade Bollywood remake of the kind that Prabhu Deva was tormenting us with last year.

Add to it fantastic cinematography (Laxman Utekar) that brings out the colourful hues of Mathura and Agra (the Taj Mahal serving as a silent backdrop almost through the length of the movie reminding us of the film’s romantic core) and crisp editing (Dev Jadhav), a great supporting cast including Raj Babbar, and Tevar becomes a one-time watch.

Arjun gives his best shot, and while it might take many more such movies before he can shed the image of the poorest man’s Amitabh Bachchan (the poor man’s one being Abhishek, whom Arjun so often reminds one of), he proves he can shoulder a movie. Sonakshi does away with her ‘I-am-so-girly and smart’ act and she is endearing; her eyes communicate a lot in the movie and her act is a revelation.

Make no assumption that Tevar is a must-watch movie; no sir, not at all. It is illogical, contrived, irrelevant and formulaic. But it never becomes pretentious.

Following the philosophical high of PK, Bollywood just gets back to what it knows best with Tevar - a mass masala action movie that makes no tall claims. A just-for-fun watch, to be approached with no expectations – that is Tevar for you.