TE3N (U/A)
Director: Ribhu Dasgupta
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty
Running time: 137 minutes
If you Google “Montage Korean movie”, the top prediction from the search engine is “Montage Korean movie ending”. The 2013 film by Geun-seop Jeong is remembered for its surprise ending, which perhaps is the main reason for Bollywood buying the rights to turn it into TE3N.
But then the characters have been changed, motivations reassigned, timelines altered, presumably to make it a desi experience. And while the ending here too comes as a jolt, it is anything but satisfying. Because you don’t land up there, you have been taken there with a lot of diversions and deviations, cheats and chuckles.
Unlike Kahaani. Why drag that 2012 film here? Well, because when you set up a thriller with a twist in the tail in Calcutta starring Vidya Balan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui (there’s an Amitabh Bachchan song here too), there’s bound to be a strong sense of deja vu. And one of the first names to appear in the credits is Sujoy Ghosh! Albeit as producer.
TE3N’s been directed by Ribhu Dasgupta whose first film Michael with Naseeruddin Shah never got a release and who directed Bachchan in the TV miniseries Yudh. Like that show, this film too has a going-through-the-motions grind. In fact, the scooter Bachchan’s John Biswas rides is symbolic of the film’s struggle — it just refuses to take off!
The first half is also doused in spoon-fed sentimentality as John is seen making trips to the police station and the graveyard. Eight years back, his granddaughter was kidnapped — and subsequently killed — and the perpetrator was never found or brought to book. He also goes to the church to meet Father Martin (Nawaz), who was the investigating cop during the kidnap case and who subsequently decided to serve god to overcome the guilt.
After the never-ending first act, another kid is kidnapped and his grandfather (Sabyasachi Chakrabarty) gets the ransom call. From the modus operandi, the current cop-in-charge, the very matronly Sarita (Vidya), figures out that the same guy from eight years ago is behind this crime. She wants Martin to redeem himself and gets him involved in the investigation.
John is on another trip altogether. He found his granddaughter’s cap on the head of a deaf-and-mute girl on the street and traced it to an NGO and from there to the Hooghly Imambara and from there to the offices of a land firm. With the cops, new and old, of no apparent help, he believes he will singlehandedly unearth the kidnapper.
TE3N’s big manipulation comes from distorting the chronology of the events. They are shown to be happening parallely but as the ending later confirms, one strand clearly had to happen before the other. Also, the investigation itself — by the cops and by the Dadu — gets extremely loopy and monotonous after a point, almost like cracking and breaking and opening endless hard shells for a pinch of crab meat.
Montage was 119 minutes long. TE3N is 137 minutes. Eighteen minutes is like eternity in a feature film. The needless songs contribute to that. Plus the basic pace itself is way too contemplative for a suspense thriller. In the attempt to emotionally invest in the film, TE3N loses motion which it never gets back.
Amitabh Bachchan alone is worth the ticket price, though. Reprising his fine act of the helpless father in Viruddh, his John Biswas first comes across as a broken man constructed with emotive stares and a lost body language. But when he gets the first whiff of a clue, he transforms into a vehicle of hope and intent, absolutely brilliantly portrayed every step of the way.
Nawaz, however, is very un-Nawaz in the film, much of it having to do with his underwritten part. Not only is Martin reduced to a single tone of guilt, but scene after scene he only gets to observe other characters and do or say precious little.
It’s difficult to understand why Vidya is credited as a guest appearance. She’s got quite a few scenes and if there’s any meaning to the title (the alphanumeric spelling clearly inspired from Se7en), isn’t she the third angle? Like Nawaz, Vidya’s character — and hence the performance — lacks purpose and colour.
On the plus side, Tushar Kanti Ray shoots Calcutta with as much panache and passion as he shot Mumbai in Dhobi Ghat. Clinto Cerejo’s background music works better than his songs, which might flow well separately on a playlist but not in this movie.
You know you have watched a great thriller when despite knowing the ending you want to watch the film again and again.
Like Kahaani. But sadly, with TE3N, forget watching it a second time, even reaching the ending seems bit of a stretch.
Unless you just want to watch Amitabh Bachchan ride a scooter on Howrah Bridge or wear a white panjabi and Hawai choti or simply feel so much at home in Calcutta.
Does Amitabh Bachchan alone make TE3N worth a watch?
Tell t2@abp.in
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DO LAFZON KI KAHANI (U/A)
Director: Deepak Tijori
Cast: Randeep Hooda, Kajal Aggarwal, Mamik, Yuri Suri
Randeep Hooda’s third release of the year — after his critically acclaimed acts in Laal Rang and Sarbjit — has the Haryanvi hunk playing Sooraj, a former mixed martial arts champ. Tormented by a brutal past, he finds himself falling in love with visually challenged sculptor Jenny, played by Singham star Kajal Aggarwal. What follows in this under-publicised film, helmed by yesteryear actor Deepak Tijori, is the usual Bolly staple of romance, revenge and rona-dhona.
t2 recommends: Tune in instead to Always, the Korean original on which Do Lafzon Ki Kahani is based, for a fresh dose of love, loss and sacrifice.
