Tejas review: Kangana Ranaut's film is too run-of-the-mill to be taken seriously 

You may like her or hate her for her rants on social media but there is no denying the fact that Kangana Ranaut is a good performer. Give her a meaty, well-sketched-out role and she delivers. Be it Gangster, Tanu Weds Many, Queen,or Panga- Kangana delivers well to her part on screen. In her latest Tejas, Kangana sinks her teeth into playing a feisty women fighter pilot who has scores to settle with Pakistan because of personal trauma. And while the actress seems earnest in her effort to play a woman who keeps her nation first, it's a sloppily written script that fails her making Tejas very run-of-mill.

Directed and written by Sarvesh Mewara Tejas is a fictional account of a female fighter pilot who doesn't think twice before going on risky missions. She is a gifted, bright, Airforce pilot who has never been a stickler for rules. The film opens with her breaking rules to save a fellow Air Force officer from a risky tribal area. An inquiry is set up against Tejas Gill (Ranaut) and Afiya (Anshul Chauhan) for breaking the rules to save the officer but the film never shows any investigation on the matter. Instead, the film goes back in time to narrate Tejas' story - how she was named after an Air Force plane, how she bondedwith her family, her falling in love with a singer Ekveer (Varun Mitra), and eventually how she lost all of them tragically.

The story then conveniently shifts gear to another covert operation where Tejas is given the charge to lead 'Operation Tejas' and rescue an Indian spy- an ex-batchmate of Tejas in NDA- who has been captured by Islamic terrorists. The group beheads prisoners in the middle of a desert in Pakistan (but obviously) every week. The whole act is filmed and sent out as a disclaimer to other countries. Tejas and Afiya (both who have broken rules and have been asked to sit out due to an investigation in a similar case previously) are given the daunting task of rescuing the spy in a span of a few hours. The operation was risky and the Indian Air Force seemed to only depend on two female officers with troubled records to carry out the covert operation.

If the plot doesn't feel illogical by this point in time to you, I must assure you that it becomes worse as the film nosedives into a jingoistic agenda and sticks to the narrative that many 'nationalists' seem to throw on anyone wanting to have a healthy debate on the concept of patriotism with a standard line - 'What about our soldiers who are fighting at the border?'.

Taking this catchphrase, Mewara creates an entire narrative in the second half, especially the climax where Tejas talks valiantly about the sacrifices of Indian soldiers and how they go unnoticed by the general public- almost like a discourse that the actress indulges in on social media from time to time.

The climax - full of jingoismand laughable VFX - tries to makeit pacy and gripping with Indian and Pakistan's planes indulging in battle mid-air. The results are thrilling only in parts.

The film reportedly is a female version of the 2019 blockbuster Uri: The Surgical Strike but unlike Aditya Dhar's slick thriller, Tejas fails to create such emotions for the viewers. Even though there are lines on patriotism thrown in throughout, it fails to evoke any sense of national pride.

Uri had also worked because the film was based on a real incident and wounds were perhaps fresh for most Indians. Tejas and its patriotism seem misplaced. At a time when the world is witnessing war and crisis in various parts, most viewers would find the theme of Tejas slightly out of place or perhaps dated. Sure it has a token Muslim character to steer clear of not marginalizing a particular community but it wants us to feel hatred over the neighbour at a time when that country is in shambles. It does not give us anything new. The rivalry and hatred towards our neighbour has been passed on for generations and Tejas only reiterates facts that are well-known about Pakistan. I didn't feel any emotion for Pakistan while watching the film - even when the story was arm-twisting us to feel the hatred.

Tejas ultimately becomes yet another film to glorify Kangana and her beliefs. She is good as the straight-faced Air Force officer, but she alone cannot make the film great. Its lousy writing, shoddy VFX, and erratic plot fail to make this a thrilling film. It, though, leads to multiple eye-roll moments where the makers and the film's lead heroine arm twist you to feel emotional about India and its soldiers just like Kangana's Tejas does.

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