‘Why can’t we make movies like Hollywood?’

This used to be the favourite carp of Bollywood movie-lovers till a few years ago. Then the times changed. The technology and the trends changed and more than anything the mentality of new film-makers changed. So now we have got such a glut of exactly Hollywood-like movies that one wants to cry out loud that ‘Stop. Enough is enough. Forget making movies that look like Hollywood movies dubbed in Hindi. Create something that truly reflects India!”

Director Priyadarshan’s Tezz is yet another movie that prides itself of being ditto Hollywood-like in look, feel, theme and execution. Apart from the fact that its characters (including all the Goras!) speak Hindi or Hinglish, it is hard to distinguish them from characters from Hollywood movies like Speed or Taking of Pelham 123.

The story takes place in UK. A group of wronged illegal Indian immigrants (Devgan, Khan and Reddy) decide that the best way of getting back at the UK authorities is to place a bomb on a high-speed train and then demand a hefty ransom. Cool- if you believe in their logic that it is an acceptable way of earning respect and starting their lives afresh! Their threat is somewhat similar to the Sandra Bullock- Keanu Reaves thriller. If the train speed drops below 60 miles per hour, then the bomb would explode. Now it is in the hands of a composed railway official (Boman Irani) and a manically driven investigator (Anil Kapoor) to negotiate with the terrorists and save the passengers’ lives! Will they do it in time?

Tezz excels in presenting some high adrenaline on-screen action. But the plot shoots itself in the foot by deciding to make the terrorists ‘Good guys on a wrong path.’ The non-stop action loses a lot of steam since there is no satisfying Good Versus Evil fight to give us a hero to root for and a villain to hate. The back-end stories of terrorists are not that convincing to make us like them and the lame ending adds to the overall disappointment.

It is just another addition to the ever-increasing list of glossy Hollywood-afflicted Bollywood movies, which offer nothing more than a déjà vu feeling!