TE3N

     The trailer of TE3N showed us Kolkata, Vidya Balan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui & the Kolkata Police rushing here and there. Except for the addition of Mr. Big B, the trailer looked like a thriller, set up in the back-drop of Kahani. Plus it is a Sujoy Ghosh presented film. 

     TE3N, though it has a name of Sujoy Ghosh; it is directed by Ribhu Dasgupta. With a thriller-drama film 'Micheal', directed in 2011 and working with Bachchan Saab in a TV series on Sony called Yudh, which was presented by Anurag Kashyap, Ribhu Dasgupta makes a very mature film.

     TE3N, is a thriller-drama again. John (Amitabh Bachchan) is an aged husband struggling to solve the ignored case of the kidnapping & murder of his only grand-daughter even after 8 years of no lead in the case. Sarita Sharma (Vidya Balan in a guest appearance) is the head of the police department who sympathizes John and is asking him to forget the past. She is there as a replacement of the officer who handled John's case 8 years ago, who resigned and is now a priest in the church. Leaving everything behind Martin (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) chose the path of God to get away from his failure. A persistent efforts  of all three of these, to get to the roots of facts, begin when 8 years later another kidnapping takes place in the city of Kolkata, in an exactly similar method of action.

     Brijesh Jayrajan and Suresh Nair have written a fair adapted screenplay. Being a remake of Korean Film called Montage, putting the references in the Indian and Bengali context does take a lot of study and understanding of the medium, which is done very well by the writers. Dialogues by Ritesh Shah are not too filmy or dramatic. They needed to be precise and certain and to some extent they are.
Story wise, it is a little confusing. But you let it go.

     The film is shot extensively and its carried out very well. Tushar Kanti Ray frames the film very artistically and still keeping it real and inside the city. Music is impactful.  Having a catholic background for two main characters, the choir specialist Clinton Cerejo gives us some good sound tracks. Not like the music stays with you, you don't even remember the songs later, but for the part playing on the screen the tunes complements it.
 

     Editing is the most powerful element of this film. The screenplay being a little non-linear, the editing had to be smart. And yes it is. The meaning of word MONTAGE goes close to EDIT in French and thus it can be a good respect paid to the title of the original film. 100 marks to Gairik Sarkar, the editor, from my side.

     Performance wise, all TE3N of them have done their part of jobs well. Except, with all due respect to his seniority and age, Amitabh Bachachan doesn't seem to come out of his Piku hangover in his body language. His character is supposed to be struggling and tired and he portrays it by being a little bent by the burden of life and walking like an ape in some shots. Apart from that Nawaz is too good. His eyes and his body-language speak a lot. All the supporting characters have also played their part in an appropriate way.

Production Design is at par. A perfect set up for a film of this genre.

     Over all, TE3N has a very few things to complaint about but you don't ultimately understand the worth of all the effort. You don't understand what John got from all this, what is it that the characters of the film get at the end of it. Is it satisfaction, is it justice and what role those superficial emotions play for making it to the end? Why John's wife is on the wheelchair in the present and why she was walking in the past is still the question. Though verbally all the explanations are put forth something still feels unexplained and a little pulled over to be factual and real.
But as I said, You Let go!

Verdict - 7.3/10