April 29, 2012 Y. Sunita Chowdary
This is a Priyadarshan film and mind you it is a total departure from the earlier films. It ain't a comedy, but a thriller but does it thrill you? Yes not completely, but to the most part but what stares at your face right from the beginning is lack of a proper and a solid reason for three people to turn terrorists.
Tezz has a good screenplay but the director messes it up with a song 'Tere Bina Dil Naiyo Lagda' and what was Mallika Sherawat doing in the midst of some chilling drama? Aakash (Ajay Devgn) is a CEO of a Company, he has no work permit and employs illegal immigrants, Megha (Sameera Reddy), Aadil (Zayed Khan). Each of them have a sob story and when they are rounded by the police and the immigration department, we are expected to feel sorry for them..but it doesn't happen at all.
An audience needs a proper reason to empathise with a character; Here the three are offenders and they plan to take revenge on the Government just because they lost out on money and the people they love. Right from the beginning you take sides and fail to see the humane side or the cock and bull reason that Aakash gives to turn a criminal.
He plants a bomb on the London-Glasgow train, after he is out serving the sentence and is aided by Megha and Aadil. He asks for a ransom and Arjun Khanna (Anil Kapoor), counter terrorism command, is given the charge to diffuse the bomb and rescue the passengers. The most hilarious part of Tezz is Aakash's dialogue, when asked who he is and who Aadil is he says, "I'm a man who's lost everything and he's a man who has nothing to lose."
They portray themselves as people fighting for a cause and the only purpose now left is to ask the Government for money and split it up to make a life. Now the train shouldn't stop or the speed shouldn't drop below 60 miles per hour and there is a time limit before the bomb needs to be diffused, what will happen to the 500 passengers?
The director first tries to project that all Indians are not saints, it is not just Paskistanis there are Indians as terrorists too and an Indian fighting against them in London. There are lots of ups and downs in the narration but despite that Priyadarshan manages to keep it engaging, the tension and thrill slows down after Aadil is blown away. The action scenes are too slick and lives upto the title and the story, you even have Zayed Khan climbing a wall in a scene like a Spider-Man.
Mohan Lal, the south connection, gets a raw deal, he is thoroughly wasted and doesn't have one good dialogue. FYI, while the narration is good one wishes the motive behind placing a bomb in the train and blackmailing the Government could have been a bit strong. Even the emotional quotient is terribly weak, Boman Irani's (traffic controller)'s daughter is too on the train but she is smiling and confident when everyone panics.
Boman Irani does a fine job of keeping his emotions under check and Anil Kapoor is perfect, he gets a right role. Ajay Devgn's character doesn't work as he is not able to portray or convince his reason. He only seems foolish, throughout the story leading two more equally stupid followers. Sameera Reddy never had the grace of a woman so this role of her speeding on the bike, on the boat, the stunts is tailor-made, suits her well. Kangana is just okay.
The entire story looks to be lifted from Bullet Train, even then it could have been a good experience provided the director had something more creative up his sleeve for the criminals. Tezz has speed, some drama but very little thrill.
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