Tejasvini

Tejasvini review :

Like Pratighaat (1987), Tejasvini was also a South remake directed by N Chandra with a women centric subject. Vijayashanti played the titular role of a tough cop who takes on the evil goon turned politician Amrish Puri.

The treatment and execution was quite raw and hard hitting like Chandra's earlier hits like Ankush (1986) and Pratighaat (1987) but still, Tejasvini wasnt that successful at the box office even though Vijayashanti's performance was much appreciated.

The film also featured a cringe-worthy rape scene where a young Urvashi Dholakia is brutally violated by Amrish Puri's son played by Arif Khan even as his friends keep cheering him to commit the gruesome crime.

Amrish Puri was his usual best as the main villain while Charan Raj was convincing as the corrupt cop on his payroll. Deepak Malhotra ("Pallo" fame from Lamhe (1991)) played role of an embittered street ruffian quite similar to Nana Patekar in Ankush. Urmila Matondkar had a cameo as a college student set afire in class which was inspired from real life incident in Mumbai.

N Chandra's direction was competent but somehow, Tejasvini, arriving nearly a decade after Ankush and Pratighaat, couldnt wow the audience the way it should have. A decent watch, nevertheless!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.