Aakash Rana (Ajay Devgn) is an illegal immigrant who is deported from the UK – causing him to lose his money, his assets and his wife, Nikita (Kangna Ranaut). Four years later, he returns to the UK to reclaim his life – which he does by planting a bomb in a train and demanding ransom money for it. He is helped by Aadil (Zayed Khan) and Megha (Sameera Reddy), while railway security officer Sanjay (Boman Irani) and anti-terrorism officer Arjun (Anil Kapoor) try to find him and diffuse the bomb.
As the title suggests, Tezz is supposed to be a fast-paced action thriller with an impressive star cast. The question is – does it live up to its name?
For the most part, it does. Despite a few dips, especially in the first half, the film manages a decent pace that will keep the audience engaged. The action sequences are gripping and well-executed – stunts, chase sequences and hand-to-hand combat scenes have been done well and should please fans of the genre. Most memorable are Sameera Reddy’s chase sequence on a bike and the underground fight scene between Ajay Devgn and Anil Kapoor.
The film takes a hit, however, in characterization – the motivation of characters are not immediately obvious. When it seems like Aakash Rana’s main purpose is to be reunited with his wife, going through the ordeal of planting a bomb and demanding ransom seems pointless – his desire for the money never seemed convincing enough. Also, while we understand that Aadil and Megha feel somewhat indebted to Aakash, the bond does not seem strong enough to warrant them risking their lives in what is essentially Aakash’s plan.
Dialogue, too, is another weak point of the film. One would expect hard-hitting dialogues in such a movie, but they range from unimpactful at best to cringe-worthy at worst (I’m talking about lines like, “I’ll blow your head off!” and “Jaana toh hoga tumhe… magar jail!”) More impactful dialogues would have certainly added value to the film and taken it to another level entirely.
As for performances, everyone holds their own. Ajay Devgn is brilliant at balancing both the action and emotional elements of the film – you will see pain flash across his eyes one moment, but in the next he’ll be fighting his way out of a sticky situation. Boman Irani is fantastic and proves that he can handle serious roles artfully; he definitely does not need to be typecasted into comedy roles. Anil Kapoor does well, it’s not one of his better performances but nonetheless he carries his role nicely. Sameera Reddy stuns in her chase sequence – and looks totally hot to boot! Zayed Khan does a decent job and Kangna Ranaut does well despite her limited screen time.
The cinematography is excellent – it must not have been an easy film to shoot, but the end result is great! Priyadarshan does a good job with direction and works especially well with the action choreographers in putting up those scenes. Editing is crisp, I especially liked that backstory was interwoven into a song sequence (the one thing that seemed out of place was Mallika Sherawat‘s item number, but we know why that was included). Music by Salim-Javed is highly listenable.