TE3N

Film: Te3n
Director: Ribhu Dasgupta
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan

One of the reasons to pique my attention of this film is the way the title is written. Another surely is the star cast. It is not every day one get to see three good actors sharing screen space. The movie is inspired by the Korean movie "Montage".

John Biswas (Bachchan Sr) lives in Kolkata with his wheelchairbound wife. He visits police station every day to find out about the kidnapper to whom he lost his granddaughter, Angela 8 years ago. Now he suddenly stumbles upon a clue that may lead him to the culprit. He goes to Father Martin Das (Siddiqui) for assistance who is a police office-turned-priest and the one who handled the Angela's case 8 years back. He is not thrilled about it, however, goes along with John as a mean of pacification.

In the meanwhile, another child is being kidnaped almost in the same manner as John's grandkid. Saritha (Balan) is in-charge of the case ans she seeks Martin's help because of his experience with prior case. Both the investigation runs parallel with flashbacks in between.

Performance by lead actors are solid. Vidya Balan's name is credited as guest appearance, though she has more presence than that. Has she done this film for free? Bacchan's performace is superb. It is nice to watch him in a very ordinary, middle class role. He is a man consumed by guilt of not being able protect his grandchild. His unwillingness to move on is a feat to watch. Siddiqi is natural and spendid as he usually is. 

I'm presuming title is for three people, a grandfather (who lost his granddaughter to kidnapping 8 years ago), police- officer-turned priest, and police office coming together to nab the kidnapper.

First 30 minutes of the film is tad bit slow. It gives an insight into how John and priest are interlinked with same tragedy.

Though I can give myself the credit of finding out "Whodunit" in the end I dismissed it and that is the beauty of a thriller. You keep speculating and proven wrong until the very end. The excitement, curiosity, and intruge will keep you glued to the seat. I loved Bachchan's performance; however, could not shrug off comparing his role in Wazir, which is almost same.