BIRDMAN OR [THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE]: A cinematic bliss! Extremely Heartwarming!![4.5/5]

A Critic from The Times is all geared up to knock down one’s first tryout at theatre-production with a bad bad review. She hasn’t even been to any of the previews yet. The actor-director gives her back a hard time for being impolite, uninformed and ruthless about one’s massive efforts behind it. And then, comes the concluding line of the heated conversation, “you aren’t an actor. You are a movie-star.” The man at the receiving end is a washed-up actor famed & framed in typecast for playing a superhero all his life and now, his next move is to make a thriving comeback with a Broadway adaptation of a seasoned short-story. The invited struggle was supposed to be for breaking one’s comfort zone and making him easily placed in mainstream but it turns out to be a clash of ego, self-centric image and mental baggage of past riding on head.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s BIRDMAN OR [THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE] is a smart, witty, sharp and awesomely entertaining journey of a faded superstar trying to search for a new identity in the changing times. Riggan [Michael Keaton] was the most popular in 90s. His movies where he would lock up himself in a bird suit to create Birdman- the superhero have been in the list of all time top-grossers but today, he’s hardly there. He holds no Facebook page. He doesn’t know how to handle a Twitter account. His last hope to survive the struggle to exist is the Broadway production he’s acting in and directing.

BIRDMAN OR [THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE] is filled with dark humor coming from left, right and center. Smartly written dialogues are performed with such ease and with barely any hint of pre-conceived realization that you need to be on your toes all the time to not miss any of the punches. Film is edited sharply and astutely in such manner that the whole film looks like a one continuous shot film. It amazes you with the kind of precision one could only imagine while writing, shooting, acting and editing such flawless film. Film has a certain mysterious outlook with added surreal elements of a fantasy flick and the grasping music by the celebrated drummer Antonio Sanchez perfectly adds complementing flavors to that.

As an overtly enthusiast and an actor craving for perfection in his performance till the levels of madness, Edward Norton gives us the most unpredictable yet reliably most entertaining character in the film. Beware! As to make it look more real, he has just tried to have real sex with his on-stage co-actor [Naomi Watts] in a full-house theatre. Emma Stone plays the rehabbed daughter to Riggan efficiently. Zach Galifianakis’ role of the play-producer is a controlled performance with its own share of giggling moments. Naomi Watts, Amy Ryan and Andrea Riseborough too mark their presence felt but the one who gives it all is unquestionably Michael Keaton. As an actor torn and tattered between his successful past and almost non-existing present, Keaton wears the pain and the pun both on his expressive muscles with a powerful performance. This is my pick at the Oscars for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.

With invariable mentions of Hollywood celebrities, cleverly witty remarks on them, settings of stage-rehearsals, inter-personal conflicts between actors sharing the same platform, inhibitions, insecurities, identity-crisis and the undying urge to be on the front page and not on the third, BIRDMAN OR [THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE] is a perfect Hollywood film, set in Hollywood and about Hollywood. DO NOT MISS IT as Inarritu gives his best shot, so does Keaton! A Masterstroke, extremely heartwarming!! [4.5/5]

HAWAIZAADA: Get some air! [1.5/5]

As defined on the ‘know-it-all’ Wikipedia online page; coffee table books are an oversized art & literature piece, positioned best in the shelf to inspire conversation. Subject matter is predominantly non-fiction and pictorial. Nothing changes if you dare to compare the same with debutante writer-director Vibhu Puri’s highly ambitious HAWAIZAADA. Both can make you mesmerized with their picture-perfect, magnanimously shot visuals in its in-detailed presentation but that’s it. There is hardly any room for content there. So, keep flipping the pages till you find the levels of your enthusiasm fading down to minimum. And then, leave it for another. These days, they have plenty in stores for you.

Despite having great possibility of being a well-intentioned period drama-cum-thrilling biopic, HAWAIZAADA offers nothing but plain air sure more than what you buy in your favorite wafer pack at the shop around the corner. Before Wright Brothers could go beyond imagination and invent an airplane, there was an enthusiastic Indian named Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who deserved all the respects for being the real pioneer. A plot fascinating enough for a motion picture, no second thoughts on that! But then you have to see what Vibhu does with that further.

Take inspirations from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s extravagant Victorian era-inspired hugely unbelievable sets; make your leading character as dynamic, animated and charming as if he’s not from a historic background but out of a fairytale and then put plenty of gloss in everything that comes in your way. It has been a confirmed Midas touch for Bhansali’s fictional outings. Vibhu, one of his worthy successors tries the same with a biopic and fails miserably. You are left in constant doubts as to appreciate the efforts of such gigantic talents of the industry or to mourn the opportunity getting wasted on such large scale.

Rajesh Khanna says in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ANAND, “Yeh duniya ek ranmanch hai, jahaanpanaah…aur hum sab iski kathputliyaan” (The world is a big stage, my lord…and we all are nothing but the puppets). I have never seen a biopic so theatrical that you just want to remove the disclaimer and enjoy it as a fictional drama. This Bombay of 1895 never looked so decked up. Shastry [Played by Mithun Chakraborty] as a cranky scientist lives in a dumped ship on the shore and it is barely any lesser than a well-established museum.

On the performances, Ayushmann Khurrana charms with his trademark flirtatious looks and killing smile. I hoped to see the compliments like ‘Awww, how cute he is!’ getting up the next level with ‘Wow, how good he acts!’ but looks like I have to wait a little more. Pallavi Sharda of BESHARAM fame is better than her last. Mithun repeats himself but doesn’t fail at all. For the rests, it’s the child actor Naman Jain and Jameel Khan who show some kind of believability to their characters.

Having said that, HAWAIZAADA does have some of the most impressive efforts on the set-designing & writing front [dialogues & lyrics never fall short of expectations] but the completely off-track romance, bumpy screenplay, lack of much-needed realistic approach and the overtly dramatic Broadway like production-style make it a droning, dull and monotonous watch. [1.5/5]             

DOLLY KI DOLI: An enjoyable ride! Short & sweet!! [2.5/5]

Marriage is a box full of surprises. You never know what comes next and in what shape, each & everyday. Sometimes, you keep waiting for one all your life and it never happens. But few are really the luckiest to have it experienced the very first morning. At least, for the on-screen grooms and their families in Abhishek Dogra’s con-comedy DOLLY KI DOLI!

A fake, cheat and single-minded bride is on loose to con filthy rich grooms. She [Sonam Kapoor, too fragile for a con artist] makes the target fall in love with her, marries him, drugs the whole family on her very last of the ‘first nights’ and runs away with all their shitloads of money and jewellery. In her victims, there is Sonu Sehrawat [Rajkummar Rao] a Haryanvi flashy boy and a desperate mumma’s boy from Delhi [Varun Sharma of FUKREY fame]. Picture this; when they meet each other appreciating the fact that Dolly is the one married to both, Varun asks naively, “bhai, iss hisaab se humara rishta kya hua? (Bro, what kind of relationship we are in now?”. Giggles come with guarantee at such cases and there are many in DOLLY KI DOLI, no doubt on that.

Based on a real chain of events and a crime-story of ‘Looteri Dulhan’ in northern India, Abhishek Dogra’s DOLLY KI DOLI works because of the humor in the script that comes easy like one after the other and the characters who despite being the typical ones, charm you endlessly. Rajkummar Rao is in top form. Watching him dancing like there’s no one to care in an item number with Malaika, is a treat. His Haryanvi is perfectly portrayed and wins your heart by the simplicity in the character and the sincerity in the performance. Sonam plays Dolly with total ease yet she doesn’t look very convincing as a con artiste. Varun is cute, indeed. He, in a sense continues his FUKREY performance. So, if you had liked him earlier, have another slice of the same. Pulkit Samrat as the cop after Dolly’s capture definitely had Salman Khan’s Chulbul Pandey in DABANGG as his acting reference. Taking cues from Salman’s dialogue, “hum yahaan ke robin hood hain”, he even possesses the name Robin.

And then, my favorite track in the film. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub [of RAANJHANAA] plays the fake brother to Sonam’s Dolly and at one point; he declines to play her brother anymore as he has romantic feelings for her. This alone has so much potential in creating comedy and drama both. Alas, it wasn’t treated well. Film’s biggest strength is the length. In its crisper than masala papad 107 mins of total duration, film could have been a laugh-riot but it comprises with being just an enjoyable watch; and the culprit here is the uneven screenplay lacking the power to convince. Film hurriedly tries to justify Dolly’s reasons to go for fake marriages after she fails in one. In today’s times, can you imagine a courtship of more than a couple of months and there is no ‘kiss’ happening between the two because of the stupidest of all ‘yeh sab shaadi ke baad’ excuse? All because, we can’t show our bad girl being so bad! Black is here not so dark. I wish writing in Bollywood gets mature soon.

At the end, DOLLY KI DOLI is an enjoyable ride you won’t regret much after leaving theatre. Rajkummar Rao ensures most of it. It’s short & sweet unlike Indian marriages. [2.5/5] 

BABY: Not so-smart but well-made! [3/5]

An anti-nationalist tries to intimidate our hero by making a declaration like, “Beware! We write MUSLIM as our religion in the column marked for so in all government forms”; and our hero-an undercover agent gives him an equal back, “We are more submissive towards our nation as we write INDIAN in the said column”. I am not sure how many times the officer in question would have faced rejection of his forms at the respective offices and counters but for the screen, it does create an impact; an impact more Bollywood-ish but substantial for a nationalistic film made for entertainment.

Writer-director Neeraj Pandey has proved himself earlier with his similar approach in A WEDNESDAY & in SPECIAL CHABBIS (26). His latest BABY is a gripping but easy espionage-thriller filled with fast-paced action, impossible-looking anti-terrorist missions, men under cover, race against time situations, mellowness in melodrama and more notably Akshay Kumar playing his age. So, you might miss him hitting the dance floor on some vodka & short-skirt girl obsessed Yo Yo Honey Singh number but I enjoyed it more.

Not many years passed when Bollywood has restrictions not to take ‘names’ while referring our neighboring country but now, we are liberated enough to come up with lines like, “+92 [country code of Pakistan] lagao, mujhe aazad karao”, a terrorist flounders in prison. Fondly christened for its short term, BABY is a 5-year trial program where 12 undercover agents are trained & unfastened to fight terrorism freely with a clause that Indian Government would never claim their identity as an Indian in worst case scenario. BABY- the film is the last mission of BABY-the program.

Headed by Feroze Ali [Danny in an identical role of his ATS chief in Mani Shankar’s 16 DECEMBER], Ajay [Played by Akshay Kumar] & his team [schemer Anupam Kher, muscle-man Rana Daggubati and the trained martial art expert in salwar-suit Taapsee Pannu] are chasing down the terrorist movements in various parts of India to terminate their lethal plots. Their prime targets are Bilal Khan [Kay Kay Menon in a shorter role] who wants proper attention & treatment at par Kasab would get, and Maulana- a Pakistan based religious leader-orator & mastermind modeled on Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and believably played by the Pakistani actor Rasheed Naz.

BABY acts immature as a juvenile when it comes to be a smart thriller. It never actually shocks you with a more feasible approach than being a tough nut-to-crack thriller but the pace, no non-sense songs, believable acting performances, brilliantly shot sequences and an underlay deadpan humor throughout. Though it is one such film that believes a mustache can make a hero look more real, BABY tries a lot to break the norms Bollywood is known to fall for. So no more ‘on-time’ wire-cuts while defusing a bomb! No more melodramatic cries over personal/professional losses! And more importantly, no breathing space for item numbers [one comes at the end-credits, you can ignore that easily].

As the final verdict, Neeraj Pandey’s BABY has his trademark patriotic touch with absolute mass appeal but lacks the punch in emotions he showed in ‘A WEDNESDAY’ and what’s also a miss is the smartness and the unquestionable precision in the screenplay as his SPECIAL CHABBIS (26) excelled in. Still, it’s a well-made thriller that doesn’t lose its steam despite being 2 hour 40 min long…and that says a lot! [3/5]

AMERICAN SNIPER: War in the head! Cooper’s career-best! [3.5/5]

On the losing side or on the winning side, no matter where you are; war takes a mouthful bite from your life without making much exemption. The real war-zone is never out in the geographical field measured by and directed as the degrees of longitudes and latitudes but is your conscience. The perfect illustration can be seen in a situation where Bradley Cooper playing US military’s deadliest shooter-sniper Chris Kyle is in wrestle with his own mind whether to pull the trigger or not. The target on the other side is an Iraqi kid with a grenade-launcher. The heart skips a beat or two and the tension in those fractions of a second makes the air hotter, for the scene and for a watcher too.

Veteran Clint Eastwood directs Bradley Cooper for his career-best performance in AMERICAN SNIPER, a war-drama based on the autobiography of Chris Kyle- a lethal sniper with a title ‘the legend’ for taking more than 160 targets down officially, in his term of more than 1000 days in Iraq. Kyle is; strong, unshaken and sure as his shots and shaky, uncertain and panicky as any family guy. Whenever at home, he’s never at peace. The ambiguity and the anguish of the war are slowly but steadily entering into the relaxed zone of a regular married life. The targets have changed to his wife [Sienna Miller] and the kids.

Besieged by the ruthless war-events, Kyle is looking at the blank TV screen with gunshots being played in the background. You don’t need to be a certified psychiatrist to read the chaotic mental status of a soldier. Eastwood does it for you brilliantly and Cooper plays it with equal conviction. Cooper not only shoulders a firm base to his killing machine but gives his best shot as a performer too. His silence echoing in the conflicts of mind can kill too. His ease at the job and the struggle at home are a pitch-perfect performance.

AMERICAN SNIPER is thrilling, moving and psychological that makes you restless many a times. The counterpart of Kyle is an Iraqi sniper who was once an Olympic medalist in shooting. Who wouldn’t sink in deep after learning such irony? The complexities and the conflicts of a war-hero in a story that is not exceedingly great but portrayed, pictured and performed well. Worth-watching! [3.5/5] 

क्रेज़ी कुक्कड़ फैमिली: उबाऊ, नाटकीय, नीरस! [1.5/5]

बाप तीसरी बार कोमा में है, और अलग-अलग शहरों और विदेशों में रह रहे बेटे-बेटियां उन्हें मिलने-देखने आने में हिचक रहे हैं. 'पिछली बार की तरह इस बार भी नहीं मरे, तो आने-जाने का फिर खर्चा ', पर वसीयत में  कऱोडों की प्रॉपर्टी भी तो मिलने वाली है. जाहिर है सारी जद्द-ओ-जेहद अब इस सोने के अंडे  देने वाली मुर्गी को हथियाने-हड़प कर जाने की है. हालाँकि लालच में सर से लेकर पैर तक डूबे ऐसे दोयम दर्ज़े के लोगों और टुकड़ों में बँटी उनकी फैमिली की कहानी बॉलीवुड के लिए नयी बिलकुल नहीं है, पर 'क्रेज़ी कुक्कड़ फैमिली' उसे एक मज़ाकिया चोला पहनाने की कोशिश जरूर करती है! कई बार कामयाब भी होती है पर इसे एक 'पूरी तरह मजेदार' फिल्म कहना बड़ी ज्यादती होगी. अपने औसत दर्जे के लेखन-निर्देशन की वजह से सिर्फ 105 मिनट की फिल्म भी ज्यादातर उबाऊ, जबरदस्ती थोपी हुई और नीरस लगती है!

पुश्तैनी हवेली और करोड़ों की प्रॉपर्टी के मालिक बेरी साब कोमा में हैं. पूरा परिवार इकट्ठा हुआ है पर सबको जल्दी है तो वकील साब से मिलने की. नौकर याद दिलाता है, "बाबूजी से कब मिलेंगे?". बड़े बेटे [लेखक एवं गीतकार स्वानंद किरकिरे, प्रभावशाली अभिनय] को पैसे चाहियें, एक दबंग नेता से अपनी जान छुड़ाने के लिये। छोटा भाई [कुशल पंजाबी] ग्रीन कार्ड के लिए नकली शादी का ढोंग कर रहा है. 'मिस इंडिया' न बन पाने का मलाल लिए बेटी [शिल्पा शुक्ला] अपनी झूठी सोशलाइट ज़िंदगी जीने में मशगूल है और सबसे छोटा बेटा अपनी समलैंगिक शादी के बाद लिंग-परिवर्तन के लिए पैसों का मुंह ताक रहा है. फिल्म पैसों के पीछे भागती और पैसों की जरूरतों पे अटकी ज़िंदगी दिखाने में काफी हद तक सटीक है. जहां कुछ बहुत ही मजेदार किरदार फिल्म में उत्सुकता बनाये रखते हैं, वहीँ कुछ प्रसंग बहुत ही नाटकीय लगते हैं. फिल्म के एक दृश्य में जब दबंग नेता [किरण कर्माकर] स्वानंद को बेघर कर उसका सारा सामान खुले आसमान के नीचे रखवा देता है, स्वानंद की नींद सुबह सोफे पे खुलती है और वो बिना किसी भाव के आदतन उठ कर सामने रखे फ्रिज से पानी की बोतल निकालता है. इसी तरह दिन भर पत्नी के दवाब में घुट-घुट कर रहने वाला पति [निनाद कामत] जब रात को उसी की नाईटी पहनकर उस पर जोर चलाने का अभिनय करता है, हंसी के लिए थोड़ी जगह बनती दिखती है! काश ऐसे मौके और भी होते!

हालाँकि संवाद और कहानी में नयेपन की झलक भी नहीं दिखती, पर परदे पर जब भी स्वानंद आते हैं, उनकी सहजता-सरलता बेबस आपका ध्यान अपनी ओर खींचती है. अभिनय में ये उनका पहला प्रयोग है पर स्वानंद किसी तरह की झिझक की भनक भी नहीं लगने देते। शिल्पा शुक्ला बनावटी हैं पर अपने किरदार की हद में!  एक दृश्य में जब उनके पति निनाद कार के टायर बदलने में देर लगते हैं, शिल्पा उनपे टूट पड़ती हैं, "harmonal changes हो रहे हैं क्या??". अन्य कलाकार भी कमोबेश ठीक ही हैं.

अंत में, रितेश मेनन की 'क्रेज़ी कुक्कड़ फैमिली' ढेर सारी उम्मीदें तो जगाती है पर उन्हें पूरा करने की हिम्मत नहीं उठाती। असफल वैवाहिक जीवन से कुंठित पति और समलैंगिक शादी जैसे गैर-मामूली और नए विषयों पर काफी कुछ किया जा सकता था लेकिन उन्हें सिर्फ चौंकाने के लिए ही फिल्म में डाला गया है. इसी तरह, फिल्म के अंत में सभी किरदारों और ज़िंदगी में उनके रवैयों को सही साबित करने का सारा ताम-झाम बहुत ही आसानी से सुलझा लिया जाता है. फिल्म के शुरू में पैसों के पीछे भागती फैमिली अचानक ही हाथों में हाथ डाले 'हैप्पी एंडिंग' का गीत गाने लगती है, देख कर असहज महसूस होता है. खैर, इस 'क्रेज़ी कुक्कड़ फैमिली' में कुछ क्रेजी किरदार तो जरूर हैं, पर इनके पीछे भागने की कोई जरूरत नहीं! अच्छा होगा, कुछ मजेदार पल घर पर ही बिताएं...अपनी फैमिली के साथ! [1.5/5]

‘I’: Thriller thrills! Romance sucks! Disappointing!! [2/5]

Bigger is not always better. Sometimes you do wish it to be in control, to be in its own limits. Shankar’s magnum opus in technical brilliance ‘I’ is one such effort that doesn’t bother to take charge of things going loose in the very beginning. And by the time you realize to pull the strings together, it’s already 2 and ½ hours wasted. So, the only takeaways from the film are the fast-paced, thrilling and concluding 30 minute-long climax [yes, it is a 3 hour 8 min long experiment] and the power-house performance of Vikram. Sadly, ‘I’ doesn’t meet the level of expectations and remains an average romantic-thriller worthy of mentions only for Chiyaan Vikram’s extreme physical transformations, dedicated performance and earnest efforts.

Lee aka Lingesan [Played by the awe-inspiring Vikram in his most ‘toned’ avatar] is a bodybuilder eyeing for Mr. India Title in his career. The only other obsession in life is the poster-girl of Advertising Industry Diya [Amy Jackson] who can blow his mind so so much that he starts hallucinating her in probably all the electronic devices he uses. Destiny helps them meet and soon Diya encourages Lee to join her as the leading model for a big brand campaign. Things happen as it does in love but in the meantime, Lee also ends up making evil rivals in his contemporary model John [Upen Patel], a transgender stylist and a Malya-looking flamboyant brand-head. Rest is a revenge drama full of action but without much needed freshness in the plot.

As a genre, ‘I’ could be placed in the section of romantic thrillers but the problem is Shankar endorses romance for the most part despite it being the least exciting and fascinating aspect and chooses to keep the most thrilling part for the last. At first, film romances with the chiseled body, beefy shape and powerfully built muscles of Vikram. Then comes, the outdoor location romance between Lee and Diya with old-fashioned tricks and tracks of love fitting into hearts and place! Meanwhile, songs irritate because of the absurdly written lyrics. Dialogues make you cringe. Cinematography is absolutely first-rate and gives you something to hop on. Visual effects and make-up excellence marginally work only over some of the most de-shaped, terrible and shocking physical appearances made on & for screen.  

With a non-linear pattern in the narrative, Shankar does succeed in generating some kind of curiosity but the bad and the loose hand at the editing table doesn’t keep it for long. He even tries a quicky montage of one of the most significant part on the lines of the ones in Guy Ritchie’s films but when it’s not working, it’s not working. If ‘I’ is watchable at all, it is only for Vikram. As a rowdy-loud-rustic bodybuilder, he enthuses the sparks of energy on screen. Later as an ugly-looking hunchback with a past, he earns respects as an actor as well as your sympathies for the character. Amy Jackson has nothing more to show off than her all burning whitish looks. Upen Patel is just average.

In a scene, Lee harshly discards the romantic proposal of a transgender stylist and the poor soul bursts into crying plentiful of tears after the heartbreak. It was the most painful moment in the film, for many reasons. Suspicious of pesticides being used, Lee rejects to endorse a cold beverage brand in the film but doesn’t dare to show same amount of sensitivity to the transgender, it hurts more. Same goes with Shankar’s story-telling. He dares to involve technical brilliance in the story but forgets to base it on a gripping one. And it hurts. Disappointing, boring and tiring! [2/5]      

TEVAR: Stinking old, rotten & formulaic! ‘Manoj-Arjun’ does the repair! [2/5]

Remaking an 11-year old Telugu super hit doesn’t really sound a bad idea at first, as masala entertainers are the safest option in Bollywood to hit the jackpot of the 100 Cr club. First timers Sanjay Kapoor [being the producer] & Amit Ravindernath Sharma [the admaker takes a leap by directing a full-fledged feature film] try the same with showing their jam-packed confidence in family-boy Arjun Kapoor and the adeptly assured actor-performer Manoj Bajpayee in a negative role. Still, TEVAR suffers the stinks of being old, rotten and formulaic, mostly and mainly at the plot part.

In the murderous land of Northern Uttar Pradesh; where power rules and male-chauvinism takes hold of the dice in the game, you don’t really meet a Pintu Shukla [Arjun Kapoor] very often. Though he is a Salman Khan fan and wears same attitude as well and effortless as his trademark aviator shades, he can also be seen harassing an eve-teaser for giving him back what he was doing to a teenage girl, moments ago. He also cares for the girl’s presence while mouthing not-so-smooth verbal expressions. Now, that’s rare. Rare for a Bollywood movie which also could have Salman in the place! I wished it to have more of such attitude!

The drama soars high when a bigheaded, haughty and powerful scandalous brother [Manoj Bajpayee] of an influential politician starts feeling for a local girl doing her obvious best like dancing and attending drama classes. Who else but Sonakshi in real, and in reel? Pintu accidently crosses the path, beats the villain, meets the girl and takes it as a mission to save the girl from the lecherous. Don’t allow me to judge your intelligence about what comes next and in the finale! And it all happens with a plentiful of high-octane action and songs of every kind, alternatively and frequently.

The part where Amit Ravindernath Sharma scores big is the treatment, authenticity of the locations, characters that can easily charm the audience in mass and drama that never actually lacks the punch. He is confident for sure but it hurts to see such talent trembling all over a plot which could have been best in the year of 2005 but never a promising in 2015. Arjun Kapoor’s energy never runs out of charge. He CAN be as charismatic as Salman. He CAN beat the goons too, at beats. He CAN also lip smoothly the most absurdly written dialogues using slangs of male-organs. Only if the script had provided him more space and viewers some kind of novelty to stick around, it would have been a pleasant surprise!

Though not in full form; Manoj Bajpayee does his part well in the most theatrical manner. He successfully uses his corrupt, sinning and wicked eyes for the most. Don’t expect a GANGS OF WASSEYPUR from him but he’s better than the repetitive Prakash Raj any day. Sonakshi does what she’s been doing for ages now, and I really want to write more about her abilities as an actor but then, there is hardly anything new. Raj Babbar, Dipti Naval & Rajesh Sharma don’t disappoint.

With a tiring duration of 2 hour 39 minutes, age-old plot and mindlessly put songs, Amit Ravindernath Sharma’s TEVAR is an average action-entertainer saved hugely by Arjun Kapoor’s earnest & energetic performance and Manoj Bajpayee’s engagingly villainous character. Watch it if you are a fan of both, though it is not their best at all! [2/5]