Tejas review: Kangana Ranaut's film is a complete crash and a miss!

Tejas review: A hero-centric revenge story wrapped in a mission-impossible trope that is neither a chest-thumping desh bhakti film nor entertaining! 

I miss the days when Kangana Ranaut was a name whose films (Queen, Tanu Weds Manu, Fashion, Pangaa) you'd look forward to because you couldn't wait for what new character and story she'd bring. But these days, it's like she is following in the footsteps of Salman Khan, where the film wears the bhaijaan and not the other way around. To be honestly fair, Tejas is trying so hard to be a Pathaan or Jawan with a female lead, which is an incredible thought but doesn't have the oomph that generally those films provide. 

Tejas (Kangana Ranaut) is an Indian Air-Force fighter pilot who goes on rescue missions and has a tragic past because of the 26/11 attacks, where she lost everything. So when the country needs a brave soldier to rescue their spy from terrorists and stop a major bomb blast in India, Tejas leads the mission, also named Tejas. What is wrong with this story? Nothing really, because it's not what the plot says rather than how it says. The structure of the film is so poor that it looks like random scenes are joined together anywhere to make a piece. This is why the boastful dialogues of a soldier's commitment to the nation or all the aerial action feel bland and bleak. 

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Sarvesh Mewara's ambitious project of making an Indian Top Gun inspired by Uri and sprinkled with nationalism politics and women empowerment is a ride in the air that doesn't take you high on a dramatic or emotional note but definitely makes you chuckle. This is bad because the film is not a comedy but somehow with it all its clutter ends up being one! As all the seriousness of the film, terrorists planning or plotting and hiding inside a milk tank, an attack on Ram Mandir, beheadings, rescuing an injured pilot from tribal lands, and even 26/11 attacks look like a spoof rather than a strong guiding force of the film. 

The filmmaking is poor, the vfx is too cartoonish for any believability, and the worst of it all is acting. I never thought I'd say this but Kangana Ranaut in spite of what her personal opinions are is a solid actor who knows how to deliver. If SRK with specs, a cool background score, and a look could return a hero and walk out of the lift so can Kangana barring that there is enough weitage in the film for us to be enthralled by the whistle-worthy moment. But in Tejas from her large eyes to her laugh, and everything that she is emoting feels like an elaborate joke. For me, the highlights of the film were Varun Mitra and Anshul Chauhan as Aafiya!

It was not that the intention of the film with a hands-on patriotic hero essayed by a heroine that walks and flies in style while taking the onus of saving the nation constantly was bad. Unfortunately, it all just became an unintended joke laced with unnecessary nationalist politics! Maybe that is why the film ends with a monologue lecture that feels much more like a personal rant than a janhit mein jaari message. 

Tejas is currently playing at a theatre near you! 

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