Tejas Review {2.0/5} & Review Rating
TEJAS is the story of a brave officer. Tejas Gill (Kangana Ranaut) is a wing commander in the Indian Air Force. She and her colleague Arfa (Anshul Chauhan) are about to get suspended after they save an officer Vivek (Kashyap Shangari) from a prohibited area in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Vivek is thankful to Tejas and asks her out for a date. Tejas agrees but is still under the trauma of losing her parents and boyfriend Ekveer (Varun Mitra) during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. One day, news comes in that an engineer named Shikhar Ali has been captured by terrorists in Pakistan. They ask for Kashmir in return for his release. Videos of Shikhar being nabbed are viral on the internet. Tejas sees his videos and realizes that he’s none other than her batchmate, Prashant (Vishak Nair). She also realizes that he has used Morse code to send his location, which is Mir Ali. Tejas informs about it to the IAF chief R K Panicker (Ashish Vidyarthi). She also requests him to allow her to go to Pakistan and rescue Prashant. Panicker agrees. What happens next forms the rest of the film.
Sarvesh Mewara’s story has all the trappings of a blockbuster. Sarvesh Mewara’s screenplay, however, is silly. The narrative is riddled with scenes of convenience and also gives a deja vu of films DUS [2005], CAPTAIN PHILLIPS [2013], MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, TOP GUN: MAVERICK [2022] etc. Sarvesh Mewara’s dialogues are just fine.
Sarvesh Mewara’s direction is not upto the mark. To give credit where it’s due, some scenes are well executed like the sequence of the tribals and the 26/11 attack. He also packs in a lot in 118 minutes.
Sadly, the minuses outweigh the plusses. The film defies logic and how. After a rocking intro scene, the film falls when it’s shown that Tejas is the only one in her class to know about the Tejas aircraft. But the fact is that any IAF aspirant would know these basic details. Later, Tejas is the only one among all the defence officials in the country to guess that Prashant has used Morse code to send his location. When Tejas tells her senior that she wishes to go to Pakistan, we assume that the latter will have some hesitation. Instead, the senior officer straight away agrees as if infiltrating into Pakistan is akin to a cakewalk! Then the manner in which Tejas hides the aircrafts at the Pakistani airport is a smart idea but looks childish on screen.
Kangana Ranaut delivers a fine performance but looks quite stiff in scenes where she’s supposed to look rough and tough. Anshul Chauhan lends able support and also raises laughs. Ashish Vidyarthi is dependable. Varun Mitra is lovely while Kashyap Shangari gets no scope. Sunit Tandon (Academy teacher) leaves a mark. Vishak Nair is okay. Rohed Khan (Sarqalam), Rio Kapadia (RAW Chief) and Mohan Agashe (Prime Minister) do well. Mushtaq Kak (Khatooni) hams.
Tejas Official Trailer | Kangana Ranaut | Sarvesh Mewara | Ronnie Screwvala
Shashwat Sachdev’s music fails to register. ‘Jaan Da’ and ‘Aag Udi’ are the best of the lot while the rest of the songs like ‘Dil Hai Ranjhana’, ‘Reh Jao Na’ and ‘Ishq Hai Ranjhe Da’ are forgettable. Shashwat Sachdev’s background score is uplifting.
Hari K Vedantam’s cinematography is appropriate. Harpal Singh Barda, Vikram Dahiya and Amin Khatib’s action is entertaining. Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray’s production design is passable. Rohit Chaturvedi’s costumes are realistic. After Studios and Creative Doctor’s VFX is tacky and very poor. Aarif Sheikh’s editing is fine though it could have been crisper.
On the whole, TEJAS suffers due to a lack of logic and too many cinematic liberties. At the box office, it is likely to meet with a disastrous fate as there is hardly any buzz or excitement around the movie.
