'Tevar' - Masala At Its Best

BENGALURU: Film: "Tevar"; Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha and Manoj Bajpayee; Director: Amit Ravindernath Sharma; Rating: ****

Funny, how more things change, the more they remain the same. "Tevar", which is one of the most engaging Bollywood masala dossiers in recent months, takes us through the crowded 'gallis', 'mohallas' and 'akhadas' of Agra and Mathura in search of that elusive thing called love.

This is a love story where most of the playing-time is devoted to the protagonists locked in a scuffle of the most physical and violent kind. And yet, there's a core of tenderness in the film, manifested in Sonakshi Sinha's melting pleading eyes as she makes a run away from the city's arch-goon Gajender Singh (Manoj Bajpayee, bang-on), who has taken a shine to her.

Mind you, it's not a lecher's lascivious love. It's true love. Bajpayee interprets the besotted goon's character with such intuitive warmth that you almost feel sorry for this vicious uncouth 'katta'-carrying ruffian turning into jelly when love strikes at a dance performance, which incidentally could've been better choreographed.

Never mind. There is no telling about tastes, specially when a man loses his heart while the local lass swirls twirls and unfurls a wave of endless violence that ends at Terminal 3 of the Delhi airport.

Bajpayee's character's love for the spirited Radhika would have made for a more interesting case-study on the wayward ways of the heart than the other liaison between the hero and the heroine. As the love-smitten sociopath, Bajpayee instills inner reserves of wicked unexpectedness in scenes that seem to be written to accentuate the demoniacal duffer's embarrassing attempts to be romantic. Bajpayee takes the character beyond the precincts ofA parodic evil.

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