Tevar Movie Review: A bland cine concept as old as Paleolithic era
Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Manoj Bajpayee
Director: Amit Ravindernath Sharma
Rating: *1/2
Over the years one fact has conspicuously proved its presence in Hindi cine world that our Bollywooders have
literally run out of cine ideas. And surfacing or rather re-surfacing of Southern remakes is one of the indubitable
proof of the same. Now call it the fascination of our Bollywood cine literati or the lack of zeal to think
out-of-the-box because of which they seldom add any new aspect to these southern blockbusters and just serve
them as it is with a thorough fabrication in casting front.
Now with the onset of 2015 another name which is added to this list of official remakes is that of Arjun Kapoor,
Sonakshi Sinha, Manoj Bajpai, Raj Babbar starrer "Tevar" which is un-spinned Hindi edition of southern money
spinner "Okkadu" starring Mahesh Babu and Bhumika Chawla.
As stated above that nowadays fiddling with remakes is the easiest and safest bet for some our Bollywooders.
But this habit of going ahead with the southern cine concepts seems to be taking the shape of an epidemic in
Bollywood, where many a times our cine literati doesn't even realize that this idea of re-tailoring any cine
chronicle may look easy enough in thoughts. But in reality it is something way to difficult because while
re-crafting any existing cine cantata one has to put in tremendous effort to make his fabricated edition look
somewhat better than original. And as far as "Tevar" the official remake of "Okkadu" is concerned then it
thoroughly disappoints, because of the quality and quantity of cine condiments which have been poured in it to
charm the cineastes.
Anyhow, a bleak overview of premise first... Plot of "Tevar" narrates the story of an "Agra Ka Launda",
Ghanshayam aka Pintoo(Arjun Kapoor) who besides being a self proclaimed "Superman" of his burg is also the
son of an IPS, Satyapal Shukla (Raj Babbar). Besides, he is also a kabbadi enthusiast who is chivalrous and
doesn't mind bashing and castigating the baddies who dare to disrespect the women or tries to outrage their
modesty.
In a somewhat parallely running plot it's Radhika (Sonakshi Sinha) dealing with a notorious "Baahubali" goonda, Gajendra Singh (Manoj Bajpai) who wants to marry her at any cost. But then with story proceeding ahead the two sub-plots merge and begins the real game where Pintoo crosses Gajendra's path in order to save Radhika, that too without knowing about the notorious credentials of Gajendra. So what follows next when a "Salman Ka Fan" locks horns with "Mathura Ka Gunda".To know you have to watch this re-tailored cine chronicle of Amit Ravindranath Sharma.
Well as far as success rate of southern remakes in Bollywood is concerned, then it's a sort of mix bag where a few of the movies like "Ghajni", "Wanted" etc emerged as the mammoth blockbusters. But on the hind side there is another harsh reality which shows that there is huge sack of such remakes too which couldn't even fetch a recognition for themselves at BO. And as far as "Tevar" is concerned then there is every possibility that this cine chronicle will end up being in the latter ilk.
Well don't know whether Gunasekhar (who wrote also Okkadu) should be blamed for this substandard story idea or the makers of "Tevar" who after declaring it as an official remake of Okkadu literally donned the robe of a slipsho, and never bothered deploy even an iota of innovation to make it look better or somewhat different from the original. It won't be wrong to say that the narration of "Tevar" is so lackadaisically knitted that it couldn't even near the engrossing potency which its southern version had. As far as scripting is concerned then on that front certainly "Tevar" has a somewhat better stance to vouch about. But with a flimsy plot flowing underneath even this aspect could not fetch much benefit for the movie.
But yeah, there is no denying the fact that in screenplay front Amit has put his best foot forward. Though the "Tevar" has bland and ramshackle cine concept at its roots, but in spite of that it's the beauty of Amit's detailing that you somehow manage to keep yourself seated till the culmination. By large screenplay of "Tevar" is quite neat (from detailing perspective). But it's that slow pace of narration, obtruded elongated monologues and strategically misplaced aural chunks which up till great extent test the patience of those sitting in front of the celluloid.
In fact, about songs it won't be wrong to say that except "Superman" track rest of the songs were incorporated in the movie either to justify the cost of the audio CD or to prove that Sonakshi has worked really hard on her jiving skills. But if we look at the hind side then despite having some of the redundant elements in it "Tevar" could have emerged as a better end product had movie's editor, Dev Jadhav have utilized his professional skill in a more apt and unbiased manner. Because keeping in view the excessive prevalence of some of the redundant condiments in the movie, its length could have been chopped a bit more in order to make it more palatable for the viewers.
Well it's not that screenplay of "Tevar" has a predominance of flaws only, besides them it has certain positives perspectives too. Like be it capturing the Agra Mathura milieu, lingo or capturing the spirit of Brajbhumi everything is so adeptly done by Amit and Shantanu, that despite the prevalence of a Deja Vu feel in it the movie manages to grab a portion of viewers' attention. Choreography of Remo and Ganesh Acharya is certainly good, but time looks not in sync with the spirit of the movie. Action sequences of Sham Kaushal are good enough but lose their charm when they are stretched unnecessarily.
Decorated with lyrics of Kausar Munir, Danish Sabri music of "Tevar" is not that Tevar-rific but in spite of that "Superman" song and "Joganiya" posses a high recall value and will be admired by the cineastes.
As far as performances are concerned then there is no denying the fact that Arjun has certainly tried to liberate himself from the grip of "Typecast Phantom which mounted his shoulders after "Isshaqzade" and "Gunday". And up till great extent he has succeeded in doing so, but as far as that ability of towing any cine flick on his shoulders is concerned then for that matter he still needs to work a lot.
If we talk about Arjun's better half Sonakshi, then she is barely noticeable and different in "Tevar". And after seeing her performance in the movie I have no compunction in saying that there is something seriously wrong with her and if she really want to secure an identity of a versatile performer, then she needs to come out of her comfort zone, because reprising the similar character time and again that too without an iota of variation is now becoming simply unbearable for even her die-hard fans. Seasoned performer Manoj is simply marvelous as Baahubali Gajendra Singh and same goes for Raj Babbar who remains under-utilized up till great extent but inspite of that succedfs in making his presence feel. Besides, rest of the supporting cast comprising of Dipti Naval, Rajesh Sharma Subrat Dutta et al are good enough in their respective parts.
To sum up, though remakes are considered to be one of the safest bet in this age of Indian cinema, but unfortunately there is another fact which no one can deny and that says that, "one glove doesn't fit every hand" and at times if you really want to be doubly sure about the success of any remake then either you have to tag it on the shoulder of some big Bollywood titan as it was in case of some of the blockbuster remakes of Bollywood or you need to deploy some amount of innovation to make them a pleasurable cine experience for the viewers.
