Tekka

When a movie establishes its own rules, only to break them later, and still manages to make every prior event work in context-only few films manage to pull this off satisfyingly. *Tekka* is one of them.

It's been a while since a film had my jaw hanging down to the floor. Srijit Mukherji expertly crafts a series of events that feels like a well-executed magic trick, leaving you in disbelief.

The tension is palpable, with sharp dialogue exchanges and standout performances. The set design immerses you fully. Madhura Palit, the Cannes-winning cinematographer, uses minimal yet powerful techniques to shoot the same location through thousands of lenses. The script is tastefully witty, with almost every joke hitting its mark.

However, Mukherji seems to hold back, perhaps intentionally to cater to the commercial Puja crowd. Some plot points are deliberately dumbed down for accessibility. There's a bit of spoon-feeding in the exposition, along with a few jarring editing choices and camera angles that feel out of place. The sound design also feels unpolished-dubbing is often out of sync, and sound effects are not properly panned across the theatre. The score weirdly mimics Nolan's Tenet, with one section lifting the chord progression directly from Ludwig Göransson's "Rainy Night in Tallinn" unchanged.

Despite its few but present flaws, *Tekka* is an exhilarating ride. Avoid spoilers and trailers-going in blind is the best way to experience this. Highly recommended.

Unless the climax part. It was a hostage comedy. The climax was also somehow predictable, following a similar pattern to other movies of Srijit- "chotuskone" "baishe shrabon" etc. The pattern - 90 % of the movie will be slow, you can leave it at any point without any further interest in watching and then you would have a good climax- okay.

Rukmini never looks like a police officer, let's assume she is a "mindhunter". But the problem never seems too tough which needs a great solution.

The screenplay was inadequate in many places. For example, The security forces came out of the police van, with a great drill from outside of the building to meet inside with the police officer. SO WHY YOU NEED TO START WITH A DRILL FOR THAT?

In the first scene where dev and his child were eating together, it describe he can't afford his children's school fees. Now after the climax, this looks illogical.

Both Dev and Swastika were watching TV News during the hostage situation. I can't even imagine this unless it is a comedy.

Hostage thrillers generally thrive on palpable intensity, which can be cultivated through a compelling and sophisticated screenwriting.

Regrettably, 'Tekka' falls short in this regard.

Pacing is lethargic and the narrative is riddled with occurrences that starkly contradict logic and rationalities. Furthermore, the underlying themes; class discrimination, communal hate interfaith marriages, corrupt politicians; all, undeniably critical, yet the execution feels heavy-handed and moralistic, lacking the emotional resonance one would hope for.

While the performances, particularly that of Dev, and the end twist provide a glimmer of redemption, they are not enough to elevate the film from the pits of mediocrity.

This is a good thriller film based on a hostage situation. The film starts with showing the self respect of Iqlakh Alam (Dev), who works as a janitor on contract basis at a corporate office in Kolkata. Suddenly his job is snatched away by the service manager of the office as Iqlakh protested on the event of passing some communal comments to him by some employess in the lift.

On the next day, Iqlakh kidnaps a kid from a nursery school makes her hostage in the same office where he used to work. The baby girl is the daughter of Ira (Swastika Mukherjee) an employee of some other office.

To rescue the babu girl, CP (Kamaleshwar Mukherjee) of Kolkata Police gives responsibility to ACP Maya Khastogir (Rukmini Maitra).

ACP Maya tries her best to rescue the child by having continuous conversation with the kidnapper. But on the other hand, Ira kidnaps Guddu (son of Iqlakh) and makes him hostage at the same building.

We see Bristi (Sreeja Dutta) & Tintin (Aryan Bhowmik), reporter-camerman duo of Sky News, recording some exclusive footage of the hostage scenario by hiding somewhere in the floor. They play a pivotal role in the later part of the story.

We also see Anubrata Adhikary (Paran Bandyopadhay) as local politician cum business tycoon in a very cunning attitude.

The climax of this film is totally unexpected. It turns the plot 180 degree suddenly.

Talking about the technical aspects of the film, Rukmini & Swastika is fantastic in their respective roles. Dev is also brilliant as lower middle class helpless person.

Sreeja Dutta & Aryan Bhowmick have shown some good bonding of their friendship throughout the film.

Sujan Mukherjee as TV channel editor-director is good in his role.

Paran Bandyopadhay is also very good with his expressions. His vast experience in acting helps him to play this role effortlessly.

Tota Roy Chowdhury is also fine in his role of Mr Sanyal (husband of ACP Maya). But his screentime is very less.

Kaushik Sen as Altaf Alam is good. His character was totally unexpected as that wasn't mentioned in the trailer. Although personally I think Kaushik Sen could be placed as elder brother of Iqlakh.

The BGM & songs support the screenplay of the story. They don't hinder the progress of the story.

Camerawork & screenplay is very good.

Throughout the film, there are subtle comedy punches.

I can definitely say that Srijit Mukherji has cooked in Tekka and he probably has extracted the career best performance from Dev. Best thing was hearing Dev cussing, it was paisa wasool for that reason alone. Rukmini and Swastika were great as well. The film jumps straight into the action and maintains the pace & tempo keeping us on the edge. And that twist, I seriously wasn't expecting it dayumn. The climax was brilliant and concludes the film perfectly. There were a few massy elements ft Dev as well which was cool. And the way it tackles several social, religious and political issues without being preachy was commendable. In fact the message of communal harmony was very impactful. The film has everything to become a blockbuster this Durga Puja.