Tevar

Tevariffic is what the campaign building up to the movie said.  A nice play on words and a decent campaign leading up to a decent movie.  But barely there.  If there was any way to pay tribute to Bollywood to begin a fresh year, Tevar is exactly the way it should be.  Music, Masala, Action, Drama – almost everything that you could expect from B-town and all reasonably packaged.

Set in Western UP between the cities of Mathura and Agra, Tevar is all about Rambo, Terminator and Salman Khan blended together to give you Pintoo Shukla (Arjun Kapoor).  He first wins a Kabaddi Semi Final (the Final never happens and I wonder why), saves a damsel in distress and then goes on to proclaim himself as Superman in Wajid’s voice.

Enter our villain Gajendra Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) who is the State Home Minister’s (Rajesh Sharma) brother.  He tends to get his way more often than not and tries to do the same when cupid strikes at a local dance that seems as far away from Mathura as fathomable.  Radha did dance in the form of Radhika (Sonakshi Sinha) but the music was playing loud in Gajju’s heart.

Gajju tries to get his way through sincere methods but Radhika doesn’t budge.  Gajju murders Radhika’s reporter brother as well.  Gajju is in the process of dragging Radhika through Meerut Bus Station when in walks Superman aka Pintoo who is blissfully unaware of the most dreaded politician in the area – he doesn’t watch TV or read newspapers you see.  The chase begins.

Tevar is a remake of a Telegu movie.  Actualy it is the mother of all remakes.  Okkadu (Telegu - 2003), Ghilli (Tamil - 2004), Ajay (Kannada - 2006), Jor (Bengali - 2008) and now Tevar (Hindi - 2015).  7 years after the last remake of the original Okkadu with a story that is over a decade old but manages to stay afloat thanks to some decent stuff.

The cinematography is really good to begin with.  Some great camera work props up the stale masala story.  Sonakshi Sinha is refreshingly restrained and doesn’t make as much of an ass of herself that she is normally used to.  Arjun Kapoor is actually pretty good as Pintoo Shukla.  He is able to carry off the role of a self-proclaimed “Superman”.  Manoj Bajpayee is of course the best there is.  

There are of course gaffes galore but if you are interested in a brainless masala flick, Tevar is actually not too bad.  Decent performances prop up a tried and trusted storyline.  The music is also quite good barring a couple of forced numbers.  A one time watch on TV will be sufficient.  Nothing worth spending a few hundred bucks on. 5 on 10.

Watch the trailer on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvMpWn2CNzs