‘Tejas’ (2023) Movie Review - Incomplete and Rushed Patriotism

Tejas is about Indian Air Force Officers Tejas and Aafia rescuing an Indian spy from Pakistani soil. Sounds like something you’ve seen before? Well, it is almost the same apart from the second half’s last minutes.

Tejas, an Indian Air Force Officer volunteers to save her batchmate Prakash from Pakistan and for the same, Aafia (her friend from IAF Academy) is her partner. There’s nothing much to tell about the plot as the minute details don’t matter. What I’ve left is how Tejas’s daus were during her training, a brief romance, and the ending.

The movie Tejas shines in the last twenty minutes only. What is the obsession with showing Hindu Muslim animosity and the evil acts of Pakistan’s terrorists? Bollywood has cashed on the same idea for so long that now it feels that if you want to show patriotic films or series then, there are certain other countries as well which could be shown in place of Pakistan. It is always the same scenario, the Pakistani terrorists planning to attack the Indians specifically places like temples. Bollywood needs to move past this plot and feed the audience with some new ideas.

Initially, Tejas appeared to have copied a point or two from Uri: The Surgical Strike, a massive hit starring Vicky Kaushal. Be it Tejas losing her family in the attacks or her entering Pakistani soil. There’s even a dialogue about how New India will enter the enemy nation and kill the terrorists. This all is inspired by Uri and the Surgical Strike conducted by the Indian Government in 2016. If these two films are to be compared then, Tejas shouldn’t be even a contestant.

For the first half, Kangana seems to have been inspired by Vicky Kaushal’s role in Uri: The Surgical Strike. Tejas's movie is dull and the majority of the 112-minute film is chaos. It appeared to be directionless. Just 30 minutes in the film and we already had a love story, which wasn’t even explored much. I appreciate the fact that the love story wasn’t given much importance because that would have been a deviation from the topic.

The writing of Tejas had scope for improvement as it failed to hold the attention of the audience. Typically a patriotic film gets you goosebumps and wakes up the patriot inside of you. The film only had one or two scenes where I felt that the makers made an effort for their audience to feel these emotions.

Kangana Ranaut as Tejas underperformed and she could have done so much better. There are several scenes in which her acting appears forced like the way she laughed or delivered dialogues. The way the actress talks about her being a super-talented actress, I think that if she had put half of that effort into her acting, the film could have been better by 20 or 30%. The rest of the work had to be done by the writers.

You’re showing a film about a terror attack and although it was the same India Pakistan, still you need to maintain a level of curiosity. There were no such things and things were mostly over dramatic. Even the lines that were meant to be powerful sounded like nursery rhymes. If we remember Vicky Kaushal’s dialogue delivery from Uri and look at Kangana’s, it turns out to be a huge disappointment.

In the beginning, there’s a scene in which Tejas gets a picture of the inside of an aircraft. The way her eyes were twinkling in that scene and how her eyes shined when she sat in her class were the only ones worthwhile. Maybe the shine was just in Kangana’s eyes and not in her acting.

Anshul Chauhan as Aafia shined in Tejas. She was able to maintain a perfect balance of sarcasm and patriotism. I liked her dialogue delivery and the effort she has put in is wonderful. To be honest, I didn’t expect much from her, but she has shined the brightest.

The scene in which aircraft were scene was good, but there were a lot of opportunities to improve. Yes, they did look good, but as an audience, I wasn’t left mesmerized or stunned by these. Much better visuals and sound effects should have been introduced.

In all, Tejas doesn’t qualify as a worthy film and is better left untouched. I suggest that you watch Uri again if you’re in the mood for this genre. The movie doesn’t touch your heart or soul and what is a patriotic film if not these?

Final Score – [3/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
Follow @_riyasinghhh_ on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times