Priyadarshan's love for making inspired (or copied) movies continues with TEZZ which can easily be included in the list of director's weakest movies till date. Revolving around the plot of a bomb placed in a high speed train, the film has very less of the train and more of all unexciting and directionless drama going on amongst many Indian and foreign characters vaguely. In fact the funniest part of the film lies in the manner all the western actors are talking in fluent Hindi which looks quite weird and illogical as per the concept and grandeur of the product is concerned. (May be they have a different version to be released overseas.)
The plot of TEZZ has no novelty and neither has its execution which looked quite promising in its promos. Indian viewers have already seen this before in a far better and entertaining movie called "The Burning Train" (1980) which was made more than 3 decades ago but still remains a much more enjoyable fast paced thriller than the current TEZZ. In the World Cinema there are more than one references of films made on similar subjects from where B. R. Chopra's 1980 film was also inspired. In 1975, there was"Shikansen Daibakuha" or "The Bullet Train" made in Japan (from which TEZZ copies many exact sequences) followed by "1 2 3 Monster Express" with a speeding bus made in Thailand in the year 1977. Before it there was "The Cassandra Crossing"which revolved around a disease spread in a speeding train, released in 1976. In 1985 it was "Runaway Train" having two escaped convicts trapped on a train with no brakes. In 1994 Keanu Reeves was there to stop a fast speeding bus with a bomb in "Speed"and most recently there was "Unstoppable" released in 2010 wherein Denzel Washington tries to stop a speeding train without a driver.
So after reading the above references the first question which comes to my mind is that what was the need of making this movie which had nothing new to tell or show the audience in the first place? The attempt would have been justified if it had some worth watching actions sequences or graphical representations converting the old plot into a worth watching one. But sadly the film has nothing to offer in that department too and is a totally uninteresting watch for particular the viewers who have seen at least one of the above mentioned movies in the past.
The screenplay is unexciting and so are the performances from the veterans as they are given nothing in the script to showcase their talents. The unwanted songs and deliberately added half baked love angles further ruin the project completely accompanied by a quite badly written and laughable climax (which cannot be revealed here). In short the film really makes you wonder that what really forced reputed actors such as Anil Kapoor, Ajay Devgan and Boman Irani sign this film after reading its script (assuming they were given one before signing it). Now I have not included Mohan Lal in the names above because I know he must have done this project purely due to his years long relations with the director, otherwise there was nothing for him to do in the entire film at all. The ladies are all there decorating few parallel running story tracks which could have been avoided easily. As a casting blunder it also has a girl posing as a child artist who at present is playing 'The Elder Bahu" in an ongoing serial on TV. Frankly speaking, what more can be written about a film called TEZZ which actually has very few exciting high voltage sequences involving 'The Real Train' and just keeps wandering in the places outside the train for most of the time.
Summing up, I would like to ask all the readers here that, What do you think has to be the most important aspect of a film titled TEZZ based on the plot of a speeding train with a bomb waiting to explode? Just try to give it a thought before reading further.
Yes, the script has to be there, the content needs to be there along with a great execution on the screen and yes the performances also have to be there to support the concept. But what's most important in an exciting chase thriller such as TEZZ is its"Background Score" which should make your heartbeat run faster and should be capable enough to bring the viewer on to the edge of his seats.
Unfortunately, TEZZ has one of the weakest Background Scores not complementing the actual theme of the project in any way. A racy soundtrack doesn't only mean increasing the BPM (Beats per minute) on the mixer. But it should have a great composition too which can make you feel the tension and danger being shown on the screen involving the lives of so many people.
So failing to meet this very first requisite of making a fast pace chase thriller involving a ticking bomb, for me TEZZ has no Tezzy (Speed) in it as per its name and its just like a years old wet cracker trying to explode loudly. And if you really want to know what I mean by the musical point mentioned here then do watch Denzel Washington's UNSTOPABBLE and see the difference what Background Music can cause to a project of this nature.
