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Release date:
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June 10, 2016
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Director:
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Ribhu Dasgupta
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Cast:
Language:
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Amitabh Bachchan,
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan, Sabyasachi
Chakraborty, Padmavathi Rao, Aarnaa Sharma, Ricky Patel, Masood Akhtar
Hindi with a little
bit of Bengali
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If you have seen the South Korean
thriller Montage, then you do not
need this cautionary note: Te3n is to
be watched with rapt attention. No loo breaks, no glances at your cellphone.
This Amitabh Bachchan-Vidya
Balan-Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer is an official remake of the 2013 film by
writer-director Chung Keun-Sup, who is acknowledged in the
credits here for the story. The narrative of the Hindi film is firmly rooted in
Kolkata where events unfold over an eight-year period.
Bachchan plays John Biswas in Te3n, an old man whose eight-year-old
granddaughter Angela is kidnapped and killed in 2007. Over the next eight
years, Biswas relentlessly pursues police officer Martin Das (Siddiqui) who
handled his case, determined to persuade him not to give up on finding the
kidnapper whose trail had apparently long gone cold.
Angela’s death had a profound
impact on Das too. He handles his trauma – or perhaps tries to escape his sense
of guilt – by leaving the force to become a Christian priest. In 2015 when
Biswas arrives at his church with a clue to the whereabouts of the kidnapper/s,
Fr Martin Das urges him for the nth time to heal rather than rake up an old
wound.
Biswas is undeterred, of course.
Meanwhile, Fr Das’ curiosity is piqued when another kidnapping takes place and
his old friend, police officer Sarita Sharma (Balan), asks for help with the
investigation because of the similarities between the two cases.
Central to the effectiveness of Te3n is its pace, which serves to build
up a sense of dread and foreboding until the identity of the culprit/s is
revealed. There are no high-speed car chases, screeching tyres and high-decibel
shootouts anywhere in sight. This is not that kind of film. The simmering
treatment is designed to unite viewers with Biswas’ frustration, to help us
understand why he takes so many risks to attain closure. It is almost
impossible to shake off the fingers of fear that grip the heart as he appears
to repeatedly endanger himself in his quest for the truth. And when the big oh
moment arrives without drumbeats and trumpeters, it is hard not to share his
anguish and sense of helplessness.
The star of this film is director
Ribhu Dasgupta’s refusal to step on the accelerator. Dasgupta clearly has a
deep understanding of the film’s milieu and a firm handle on the solid written
material at his disposal.
Suresh Nair & Bijesh
Jayrajan’s screenplay favours minimalism over verbosity. So do the dialogues by
Ritesh Shah. Both add to the film’s atmospherics and unyielding tension.
Tushar Kanti Ray’s cinematography
complements their labours, capturing Kolkata’s chaos and colours sans clichés,
lending shades of gray and a pall of detached gloom to the crowded city. It is
as if, like John Biswas, for the camera too time has stood still while a
bustling city hurries about all around.
The Howrah bridge, those bright
yellow taxis, the immersion of Durga idols – all the familiar indicators make
an appearance without screaming out that they have been dragged in to remind us
that we are in Kolkata. And while none of these visual landmarks is
overwhelming, there are some
refreshing additions that Bollywood tends to not notice: Fr Das’ imposing church and an
equally imposing imambara, both of which are crucial to the story.
Equally to the point, it is nice
to see the way Ray focuses on the three beautiful faces that are pivotal to the
film, without overdoing it as many DoPs have done particularly while working on
Bachchan’s post-2000 films.
The detailing in the sound design
by Shajith
Koyeri and Tanmoy Chakraborty’s production design (especially of Biswas’ home
and the interiors of the spaces from which Fr Das and Sharma operate) also play
an essential role in Te3n’s very
real, dramatic-yet-not-melodramatic quality. So is the action by Sham Kaushal,
who is careful not to hark back to Bachchan’s invulnerable Angry Young Man avatar
of the 1970s and ’80s.
Clinton Cerejo’s music
is apt till the
big reveal, although it is over-used after that point, which is also when the
film carries on a lot longer than it needed to. Still, there is enough
humanity, believability and suspense in Te3n
to put its flaws in the shade.
Beyond the gripping mystery are some
delightful elements that are unobtrusively woven in, indicating the team’s
intimate knowledge of Kolkata, interest in Indian society at large and
disinterest in superficiality, for the most part. For instance, minority
community members are usually featured in Bollywood stories with a specific
purpose: Muslims – secularism; Christians – glamour and exoticism; Sikhs,
Parsis and homosexuals – comedy; Dalits – you’ve got to be kidding, they do not
exist as far as most of mainstream Bollywood is concerned. In Te3n, however, a huge deal is not made of the fact
that two of the three main characters are Christians, perhaps Sharma is too.
And except for the irritating insistence on having them use the English words
“god” and “prayer” instead of “bhagwan”
and “prarthana” though they are speaking in Hindi
throughout, they do not otherwise conform to the stupid Christian stereotype
that dominated Bollywood till the 1990s and has occasionally reared its head
since then. A song and dance is not made either of the religion of the kindly
gentleman at the imambara.
The backroom team of Te3n is ably fronted by sound acting.
Bachchan shrugs off the star persona and
trademark mannerisms that have marked many of his post-2000 films, to deliver a
felt performance, drawing us into Biswas’ grief and silent fury. Siddiqui’s
subtlety as he switches from priest to policeman to priest to policeman
underlines his casual brilliance. And Balan – who is inexplicably cited as a
“guest appearance” in the opening credits – is as sturdy as ever, though hers
is the least fleshed out character of the trio.
Thankfully too, nobody is trying
to ‘do Bengali accents’ here. Seriously, accents are superfluous in such films.
After all, it calls for a suspension of disbelief to buy that characters in
Kolkata would operate entirely in Hindi. If we are willing to go that far,
unless we never ever want a Hindi film to be set anywhere outside the Hindi
belt, why would we needlessly burden actors with accents? This is one of many
sensible directorial decisions that make up this film.
Te3n is not without weaknesses: it
could have done with some snipping at the end, the title does not work and
there are a couple of important loose ends that should have been – and easily
could have been – tied up. For instance, the actions of a primary character
hinge on the extreme cooperation and trust of an individual who is a satellite
player in the story, but we never fully understand why and how that trust was
won. You will get that sentence only after you watch the film in its entirety.
It is a measure of Te3n’s strengths that, in the overall
analysis, these complaints recede into the background. It is so wonderful to
see director Sujoy Ghosh who gave us Kahaani,
backing this film as a producer. Ribhu Dasgupta’s Te3n is a strong, entertaining whodunit, so lovely in its sadness
and so thoroughly engaging in its observations on old age, escapism,
persistence, love and revenge.
Rating
(out of five): ***1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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136 minutes 54 seconds
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This
review has also been published on Firstpost:
Poster
courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/RelianceEntertainment/
Rich talents in display ..gripping story telling ..the final flourish could have been better ..but i loved the entire package ..
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