I didn't instantly warm up to his furiously contorted face and arched posture, too mannered, too mindful. There's tremendous objectivity in the manner she approaches her role as a cop in charge of solving a kidnapping case that is suspiciously similar to the one Nawaz handled, nearly a decade ago, while Bachchan's hapless victim endured.Īt the centre of this sentimental mystery - high on loopholes and unusually cooperative kids (considering the circumstances) - is AB's heartbroken grandfather dedicated to seeking justice for his deceased grandchild. But there are moments where Nawaz overcomes the sketchy characterisation - like that immediate impulse to pull out handcuffs from his uniform's back pocket reveals the police officer never left his subconscious.Īs his former colleague, Vidya Balan is in sublime form. Terrific as he is, he cannot hide his own incredulity over said move and the embarrassment only amplifies every time he's made to crack a stupid joke. In his tweaked take on the original, Dasgupta throws in some new characters and addresses different repercussions of guilt - one that afflicts Nawaz so much, he gives up his cop uniform to slip into a clergyman's. Unlike Te3n producer Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani, which accesses Kolkata's culture, quirks and flavours to mirror the inner chaos of, and drama surrounding, his leading protagonist, the imagery here, well shot as it may be by Tushar Kanti Ray, replete with mandatory festivals and landmarks, is purely for effect.Īlso, there's something unnaturally meticulous about Bachchan's overdesigned abode or the ones he breaks into.

The talent involved - Amitabh Bachchan, Vidya Balan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui - do their best to elevate what's on paper whilst Dasgupta's opaque play of timelines injects momentary butterflies into the proceedings. I had the same issues with its dreary source, Montage, another South Korean thriller involving an abducted minor following Seven Days ( Jazbaa) and The Man From Nowhere ( Rocky Handsome), of which Te3n is an official and occasionally superior remake.

Te3n 2016 movie rating