Movie Review: Tezz is a heady maze – all action, no drama

Tezz, true to its name is a fast-paced action thriller. Fifteen minutes into the film and you have flashcuts, an item number Laila which has a pirouetting Mallika Sherawat and the cast comprising Akash Rana (Ajay Devgn), Nikita Rana (Kangna Ranaut) Adil Khan (Zayed Khan) leading you into the first of many slick action sequences in the film. . Tezz is a maze—a maze of heady action and no drama. Akash faces deportation charges from the UK due to illegal residency and is separated from his British born wife, Nikita. Thankfully, Nikita does not have reams of dialogue in the film because she would sound less British Indian and more Kangna, with her affected enunciation of words. By the time she gets to spouting lines in the film, you forget she’s a British national and then, it really doesn’t matter. It is when Akash returns to the UK after four years that things begin to shake up in the country, thanks to a bomb planted by him, Adil and Megha (Sameera Reddy) on a London-Glasgow train. You will have to deduce the reasons yourself on why he engages in such extreme acts when you see the film because it is a bit of a loose end. Sanjay Raina (Boman Irani) who is the Railway head is mortified as his teenaged daughter, Ria (Avika Gor of Balika Vadhu fame) is on that train. Through the entire length of the film, Sanjay answers the bombers’ calls as he tries, along with his team, to stop the bomb from going off. And there comes in, Arjun Khanna (Anil Kapoor) who has retired from the anti-terror squad but is brought in to solve the mystery of the bomb on the train. [caption id=“attachment_290778” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Ajay Devgn and Anil Kapoor at the Buddh International Circuit. PTI”]  [/caption] Arjun is an accomplished in his field with 23 years of experience but it definitely makes you wonder why he would tolerate being called an amateur and a nincompoop in so many words by his grim, Brit boss. The character doesn’t quite add up in the way it is introduced at Arjun’s farewell party on his retirement from the job. But Anil Kapoor makes it happen with his convincing portrayal of Arjun, despite the sketchy graph of his character. The sequences involving the train are slick – aided by visual effects of course. There is an exceptional action sequence with Megha where she rides a bike and outdoes the men chasing her down. It is like a video game coming to life, with the must-have thrills and chills. When she wears the helmet and pulls down the visor as she kick-starts the bike, the visor is black and you can’t see her. But then, suddenly when she turns around, the visor is clear glass, and you can see Megha’s face. A minor alteration done to possibly ensure audiences know it’s Sameera playing Megha, especially in the bike chase, and not some body double. The plot zooms along the London skyline into one heightened chase after another. It feels like the action scenes were planned and the ensemble cast chosen to play out the parts, without really bothering about their characterisations and the plot line. The train scenes somehow remind you of those annoying Mathematical questions in high school like - Two trains, each 100 m long, moving in opposite directions, cross each other in 8 seconds. If one is moving twice as fast the other, what is the speed of the faster train? Well, at least Tezz gives you the answers to the trains speeds and crossing each other x times in the film, replete with charts and diagrams. You will begin to wonder at some point what the connection between deportation, illegal immigration and planting bombs in trains is - why Akash is so disgruntled with the UK authorities and what his deal with Adil and Megha is. Every character is surrounded by many ifs and buts with no real clarity about their backgrounds, and the relationships between the central characters themselves aren’t well defined either. You just sort of go along with the presumptuous aspect of the plot that is racing ahead on screen in the form of trains, bikes, cars, armed bombs, choppers and what have you. The premise of the film is weak, as are the emotional threads and links, but the pace and well-constructed action scenes make Tezz an entertaining ride. Ajay Devgn plays the tormented Akash Rana in the brooding style that is his quintessential trademark now. Zayed Khan plays the illegal immigrant Adil Khan just right and is exceptional in the Parkour action sequence. His acting skills seem to be improving with every film. Kangna Ranaut and Mohanlal are completely wasted in their miniscule parts in the film. Boman Irani is just fabulous and does serious just as well as he does comic. Mallika Sherawat’s Laila number is no Sheila or Munni in terms of picturisation, choreography, costumes or a chartbusting track. She looks fabulous, and her body shimmies way ahead of other Bollywood heroines. Priyadarshan has directed an action film in Hindi after successful comedies like Hera Pheri and Garam Masala— and Tezz is impressive in its production scale and ensemble cast and crew, with its action being a clear winner, the story not so much. Rating: ***