Another thriller hit cinemas this month, TE3N. Based on a Korean film, ‘Montage’ TE3N is a tale of a grandfather. TE3N’s storyline advances with a quest of a senior citizen, searching his lost granddaughter. Surrounding the viewers with the familiar musty smell of old Kolkata, director Ribhu Dasgupta tells a story of attaching missing links.
The movie revolves around John Biswas. His life shattered when his granddaughter Angela Roy has been kidnapped. It has been eight years, but still John comes to police station daily to check if they have found out anything new on his Granddaughter’s abduction and murder case. For other’s it’s just a waste of time, but John (Amitabh Bachchan) is determined. It’s a mission of a lone elder person for whom everything is a struggle from remembering names to starting his erratic scooter. It’s a story of a dejected and desperate granddad.
When it comes to portraying senior person on screen, Amtibha Bachchan is the ideal choice. He has mastered every behavioral attributes of a senior citizen. Looking over the rim of the spectacles, mouth-agape expression everything is so convincing that his performance will drag you to a world of strong intention and will power.
Not only Amitabh Sir’s superlative acting will draw you into the essence of the film but Vidya Balan and Nawazuddin Sidiqqui’s performance is equally effortless.
After abducting and killing John’s grandchild eight years ago, the kidnapper strikes again. So what’s happen next?
The investigating officer of Angela’s case, Martin (Nawazzuddin), is now a father of the church. He closed Angela’s case eight years ago as there was no further links to follow.
Vidya as usual slips into her character of huffy but courageous policewoman. After eight years of Angela’s kidnapping, now Sarita (Vidya) is facing challenge with a similar case of abduction, as this case also doesn’t have any solution in sight like Angela’s.
A Fight or flight effect in you will be cofounded by these three’s tight acting, but not only this. There are other aspects of the film which will hit the right place of your grey matter. Ribhu dasgupta has woven a poignant tale of age as well as time. The plot will carry the flavor of old Calcutta. It will carry Kolkata’s cacophony, its people, their mentality and even their struggle to stay standing. This struggle becomes yours after half an hour into the film, specially the struggle of John Biswas’s. With him you too eagerly wait for justice, which seems to be long after sometimes, as the storyline progresses in a lazy pace.
The performances will make you to sit in the theatre, but the sloppy editing of the film will make you lost track of the story. Initially the film starts with good pace, but after sometimes you lose track of what’s happening because sometimes so much is happening on the screen and the other time there is nothing happening at all. The natural flow of the storyline has been compromised due to poor handling of important events.
At 2 hours 16 minutes, the film advances in a sluggish way, as the weakest aspect of TE3N is its writing and editing. The super class, effortless performances and a well groomed cinematography compensate a little bit. Tushar Kanti Ray’s lens captures the old-age charm of the city of joy. The glory of this crumbling city, its idol immersion, shabby by lanes, all these monochromatic pictures of old Kolkata makes TE3N enjoyable.
Music and background score blends smoothly with the story, but makes no long term impact. Many of us thought it would be a sequel of 2012’s blockbuster thriller Kahaani. It’s not, but due to the shady and mysterious portraiture of Kolkata TE3N is a reminiscent of Kahaani.
Although it’s not even close to Kahaani’s tight storyline, but it worth watching because of brilliant acting.
