Toofan movie review: Ram Charan Teja delivers a punch!

Though the film is watchable, it is no match for the 1973 Amitabh Bachchan starrer Zanjeer

 

One thing you must do if you’re going to derive maximum enjoyment from Toofan is to decide not to compare it with the 1973 original, Zanjeer, which remains a classic till date. Amitabh Bachchan as the angry, young cop is a hard act to follow, but to Ram Charan Teja’s credit it must be said he’s turned in a powerful performance in an action-packed role.
Comparisons with the original are not quite relevant also because director Apoorva Lakhia has tweaked the screenplay so that Toofan is contemporary. ACP Vijay Khanna, played by a fit and handsome Ram Charan Teja, is a cop with high integrity who wants quick results. He’s your quintessential angry young man. Naturally, he crosses swords with the powerful and the corrupt and is targeted with several punishment transfers.
One of these transfers sees him land in Mumbai, where he is called upon to investigate the murder of a deputy collector. A powerful oil mafia, led by Rudra Pratap Teja, played rather clumsily by Prakash Raj, is behind the murder. As it happens, an NRI, Mala, played by Priyanka Chopra in her first outing in Tollywood, is the sole witness to the murder. As ACP Vijay closes in on the crimes, Teja unleashes his clout and Vijay is suspended. Enraged, he sets out to take down Teja and his empire, with the help of Sher Khan, played by Sri Hari, and an honest crime reporter Jay Dev, played by Tanikella Bharani.
Smart editing and a compact running time keep the movie taut and entertaining. Ram Charan Teja’s performance is definitely one of the high points of Toofan. He impresses, right from the action-packed opening scene to the well-shot climax and even in the song sequences. Priyanka adds oodles of glamour to the film, while Mahie Gill as the gangster’s moll verges on the risqué.
If you do end up comparing Toofan with the original Zanjeer, you’ll find it lacks the intensity of the Amitabh Bachchan hit. That’s probably because the plot is rather predictable and the Vijay-Mala, Vijay-Sher Khan relationships are not as well-etched as in the original.
So, leave the comparisons behind and you will enjoy this cop drama, which has Ram Charan Teja in a role that is different from his usual mass hero avatar in Tollywood.