And...finally, the New Year is here...with lots of promises galore for a 'filmi' year…  

And...finally, the New Year is here...with lots of promises galore for a 'filmi' year ahead. Besides the small and medium budgeted films, 2015 will also see lots of big budget releases. <BR><BR> Starting off this year is Amit Ravindernath Sharma's TEVAR, which is an official remake of the 2003 Telugu film OKKADU (which starred Mahesh Babu and Bhoomika Chawla). TEVAR is Amit Ravindernath Sharma's debut film as a director but does he manage to kick-start the New Year with a bang by hitting a goldmine with this film? Lets' analyze. <BR><BR> The film begins with Agra based Ghanshyam aka Pintoo Shukla (Arjun Kapoor) who is the son of an IPS officer Satyapal (Raj Babbar) and the 'journey' that he traverses to participate in a kabaddi match. Beneath the careless and carefree Pintoo lies a heart of gold which not only knows how to treat women with respect, but also how to punish the miscreants. Meanwhile, in Mathura resides Radhika Mishra (Sonakshi Sinha), who is the sister of Mahesh Mishra, a TV journalist working with 'UP News'. Because of his righteous reporting, he becomes the target of 'Bahubali' Gajendra Singh (Manoj Bajpayee), who happens to be the brother of the politician Mahendra Singh (played by Rajesh Sharma). But the very moment Gajendra's eyes see Radhika, he falls madly in love with her. Wasting no time, he lands up in her college to propose to her at 'gunpoint'. On being refused, he murders her brother in broad daylight. That's when Radhika's parents decide to send her to US so that she can be away from the evil eyes and clutches of Gajendra. And when she is just about to escape to Mathura, the evil Gajendra finds and tries to forcefully take her away. That's when the ever-so-helpful Pintoo accidentally gets involved and helps Radhika in fleeing away from Gajendra. As a result of which, Gajendra and his men start search operation for both Pintoo and Radhika. <BR><BR> Does the villainous Gajendra succeed in finding Radhika, does Pintoo manage to free Radhika from the clutches of the villains and does Radhika ultimately manage to go to the US... is what forms the rest of the film. <BR><BR> Despite TEVAR being his debut film, director Amit Ravindernath Sharma manages to deliver a stunningly decent film. There are many places (read 'situations') in the film which will make you feel that he is an experienced hand at direction. While the first half of the film is gripping enough to make you sit through, the second half is what forms the icing on the cake. Amit Ravindernath Sharma is definitely a name to watch out for in the days to come. Full marks to Amit for having extracted sparkling performances from the stars. While most of the Hindi films always tend to be a bit partial towards the hero, Amit has very beautifully managed to do justice to the characters of both the hero (Arjun) as well as the villain (Manoj). To get a glimpse of the kind of filmmaker that Amit is, do not miss Arjun Kapoor's introduction scene (first rate), along with the chase sequence between Arjun and Manoj, the face to face clash between Raj Babbar and Manoj and the one to one combat between Arjun Kapoor and Manoj Bajpayee. <BR><BR> Amongst the performances, Manoj Bajpayee's delightful lovelorn villainy is an absolute treat. He has played the uncouth rustic ruffian before but in TEVAR his oscillation between a repulsive rogue and a self-perceived-true-lover makes him one of the most interesting negative characters in the recent times. Arjun Kapoor brings in an unbridled honesty to his performance that makes him extremely captivating. Be it the superbly stylised action, romance subtly played through the eyes or the mischievous humour, Arjun is at the top of his game. He shall elicit whistles in the single screen halls at many a juncture. Sonakshi Sinha makes her presence felt through the hugely mounted 'Radha Nachegi'. In an invigorating scene with Manoj near the climax she springs up a wonderful surprise. Subrat Dutt is impressive as Bajpai's sidekick while Raj Babbar is engaging in almost all his scenes. Special mention of the guy who played Arjun's friend Bhatura. He's the surprise package of the film, especially his Ganesh Acharya reminiscent dancing. <BR><BR> The film does enjoy its share of decent songs (Sajid, Wajid, Shafqat Amanat Ali and Imraan Khan) in the form of '<i>Main Superman</i>', while the rest of the tracks help in taking the film forward. The item number by Shruti Haasan could have been avoided. The film's background score (Clinton Cerejo) is one of the major points that act as a driving force in the film. At the same time, one has to give due credit to the film's choreographer Remo D'souza for having brought in some wonderful dance moves. The film's dialogues (Shantanu Srivastava) are effective and leave the desired impact. The same applies to the screenplay (Amit Sharma, Shantanu Srivastava). While the cinematography by Laxman Utekar is first rate, its editing (Dev Jadhav) could have been better by trimming the film by around 15-20 minutes, which would have helped the film in a big way. Full marks to the stunt director (Shyam Kaushal) for having delivering some of the finest action scenes. <BR><BR> On the whole, TEVAR is a stylised masala entertainer that'll give you enough reasons to have a good time in the cinema hall. Yes, the story doesn't have anything new to offer, but the wonderful performances, energetic music score, stupendous action and the fact that it's a clean entertainer makes it a fun watch. TEVAR is worth your time. Go for it.