For a filmmaker, who is renowned for churning out remakes of Malayalam classics and, some, Hollywood films, it’s not surprising that his Bollywood return, two years after his “Mississippi Burning” lift-off - “Aakrosh”, is yet-again Hollywood inspired. In fact, Priyadarshan appears so enthused by the Keanu Reeves-starrer “Speed” that he even titled his latest after the original, only he translated it into Hindi – “Tezz”.
Despite the inspiration being pretty obvious, this is not a copy. It is, however, a mish-mash of many Hollywood thrillers, which have post 9/11 played up the hostage situation to cinematic glory. But, Priyadarshan steers away from the “terrorist” stereotypes by pitching another motive, one that’s, unfortunately, flawed in logic and cannot warrant anyone from going on a rampage.
Although the title would implore that the narrative is set at a pace that’ll give us an adrenaline rush, it just doesn’t. Instead, it plods along unhurriedly, leaving us rather impatient. Barring two fantastically choreographed chase sequences by action greats Gareth Milne and Peter Pedrero, there is nothing that is remotely exhilarating. And, at a little over 2 hours in reel time, that’s a glaring gap.
“Tezz” documents how a disgruntled UK-reject Aakash Rana (Ajay Devgn) returns to the country, four years after they mistreated him, to take revenge and find his “missing” wife Nikita (Kangna Ranaut). And, with the help of his cronies Megha (Sameera Reddy) and Aadil Khan (Zayed Khan), he holds the country, responsible for his supposed destruction, to ransom by targeting a London-Glasgow passenger train.
He’s fairly on target, until, retired-yet-back-on-duty counter-terrorism officer Arjun Khanna (Anil Kapoor) is hell-bent on clearing his community’s “notorious” reputation and putting an end to the terror situation. And, he’s got train controller Sanjay Raina (Boman Irani) to help him navigate through the rough patches.
Priyandarshan, however, fails to pull it all together and bungles miserably at the end.
Dialogues, especially the English lines, written by Aditya Dhar are hard-hitting and notable, but appear far too few. Barring Mallika Sherawat’s item number, which is played in full, the other track is cut to a mere few minutes, to avoid jarring the narrative, which is a rarity in Bollywood.
Among the actors, it’s Boman Irani who is the most genuine. While Ajay Devgn, who is disallowed to showcase his action-hero histrionics, is made to wear a broody image throughout. His ladylove Kangna, on the other hand, isn’t credited with much screen space, but for the few minutes that she’s on, she’s being coy or talking in a thick Indian accent, strangely unbecoming of a Brit-born Indian. Zayed and Sameera are surprisingly sombre and controlled.
Mohanlal’s few-minutes-long guest appearance is nothing exceptional. Why would an actor of his calibre want to take on bit roles, in a language he is not comfortable speaking, is incomprehensible. Surely, his best bud Priyadarshan should ensure he doesn't underplay superior talents like him, ever.
On the whole, this is fairly a good attempt at an original thriller, but it just doesn't have enough substance for us to applaud.