'Te3n' review: Amitabh, Nawazuddin, Vidya Balan's whodunit fails to stay with you

Movie: Te3n 
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan and Sabyasachi Chakroborty
Directed by: Ribhu Dasgupta

What it's about:

Eight years have passed but John Biswas (Amitabh Bachchan) has not been able to move on from the kidnapping case of his granddaughter Angela Roy. The inspector on the case Martin (Nawazuddin) has since left his job and become a priest. But John is not ready to give up. He continues going to the police station every day to find out if there has been any development. Everyone seems to have lost interest in it. Till another child is kidnapped using the same MO. John, Martin, and a new inspector Sarita Sarkar (Vidya Balan) now try to solve this case.

What's good:

Te3n is a remake of the brilliant Korean thriller Montage. For those who have not seen the original, it is a great suspense movie. You don't see the mystery solve itself, till it does on screen. Te3n boasts of a wonderful cast even though not a single performance stays with you. In case you are wondering about the title, it is about the three characters, each with his/her own reasons for being to be interested in the case

What's not:

I don't understand why a filmmaker would buy the rights of a great film and then add his own interpretation to it make a mess of things. The problem with Te3n is that it tries to manipulate your emotions.  For starters, in the original, the mother is on the hunt for the kidnapper. In this film, an aged, frail and helpless grandfather has replaced her. Add a wheelchair-bound grandmother, a cop who embraces priesthood and father who blames the grandpa for his daughter's death completes the  melodrama. A simple and effective whodunit becomes a wannabe tear-jerker so that the director can show his creative touch. Sadly, it just backfires. The film should have been about its integral plot and not about fans that don't work, scooters that don't start and some old property that needs to be sold. The original film was all about the cop on the case and the mother. It didn't need all this masala. All the Kolkata portions keep reminding you of Kahaani and Piku. The pace of the film is testing on the nerves. There's no urgency or tension on the screen to hold your attention.

What to do: 

If you want to see a really good suspense film, see Montage. But if you are allergic to subtitles and in the mood for a Hindi film, then maybe go see this.

Rating: **