Varun Chaudhary Remember that reasonably engrossing Hollywood thriller Se7en, in which two sleuths go looking for a serial killer with a thing for the seven deadly sins?E3N gimmicks its name similarly and gives us three characters in search of a criminal, but it doesn't borrow any of the smarts from the Hollywood film. This official remake of a Korean mystery with a kidnapping and a death at its heart is a sluggish drag for the most part, brightened only occasionally by a scene or a line.Bachchan plays John, an elderly man still stunned by grief, eight years after the death of a little girl. He will continue to search for the person who caused it, despite being dissuaded by people all around him : wheelchair-bound wife ( Padmavati Rao), sympathetic policewoman Sarita ( Balan), and cop-turned-priest Father Martin ( Nawaz). He will persist with his dogged pursuit for justice and truth whatever happens. A fresh kidnapping turns on the spotlight on the old case again, and as new clues come to light, John's search acquires an intensity and purpose, and we sense, as he does, the coming of an end which will lead to some answers and a sort of peace.This kind of dark story with vicious undertones ( whenever a little girl goes missing, a shiver goes down your spine) could have become a terrific morality play. How does a shocking death, especially of a young life, impact the living? Is it living or a counting out the days till your own passing? Is grief something you can ever get past? And how does guilt play out in all this? TE3N is a case of sadly missed opportunities. Because there are rousing actors in here, and there's a real city to play it all out in. Kolkata is a perfect location for a film like this with its atmospheric patches and the iconic Howrah-Hoogly vistas, reminding you of producer Sujoy Ghosh's far more engaging 'Kahaani', but how a man clad in a dark hoody ( in sultry Kolkata) manages to move around those streets so freely remains an unsolvable mystery.Its treatment does both place and characters in, turning everything lackadaisical. In its attempt to be less 'dark', loud background music is added in at each step. The plot has too much fuzz, and the characters are all surface : Bachchan's droopy facial lines, Balan's stolid-cop-stomping—these painstakingly drawn outlines call attention to themselves, but do not afford us inner details. Why is her full-fledged act termed a guest appearance? That mystery too stays unsolved. Only Nawaz's guilt-ridden priest breaks free once in a way, and a few red herrings infuse some intrigue, especially towards the end.

kichdi Te3n is a good movie with fairly good acting by all the 3 protagonists, none of them looked very good but Amitabh was still the best of the 3. It is a story of tit for tat kind thriller. The weakest link was Amitabh's old man voice, I do not know who made him talk with such rubbish voice or it is his own making, his voice is a shame nowadays in movies. Earlier he would talk so clearly & also when delivering old Deewar's dialogues which he is requested to mouth them time and again, he delivers those dialogues so clearly but wonder what happens in new movies he is not a shade of what he was as an actor and for his voice. Nawaz & Vidya's voices were so normal but Amithabh's was never. He is whispering dialogues nowadays.

prateekhemdev Te3n is a movie that happens when Bollywood tries to recreate the magic of kahaani. The first half of the movie is extremely slow and one can't help but feel joy when the story reaches the interval. Once the story unfolds in the second half one doesn't seem to care about the kidnapping and the ending is disappointing to say the least. The acting is the only element that binds it together and Amitabh Sir and Nawaz have given brilliant performances. The chemistry between Vidya Balan and John is totally disconnected. I would go with 4 out of 10 because of the seniority of the actors but for busy working professionals it is better to give this a skip.

scottshak_111 Te3n retains a brilliant narrative style that lets it stay miles away from conventional cinema. It has powerful performances by a stellar cast, with great actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui working wonders for the flick. It manages to swim across successfully despite the movie's painful editing.BREAKING DOWN TE3N Te3n is a reflection of Montage, a South Korean thriller. The plot was well thought of to keep audiences riveted throughout the flick leaving them with their guessing games. Plenty of time is spent on character build-up in the beginning which Amitabh aces to perfection. Vidya Balan, I am afraid, doesn't have anything substantial in her baggage to prove her mettle. Her acting prowess ends up getting overshadowed by the two beastly players. Screenplay is kind of okay but good enough for a thriller.INDIA'S AFFAIR WITH SONGS Music, well, I would like to put it this way: Indian Cinema is still wrapped under the girdles of songs. To make you listen to an entire track, a director would do anything to make you connect emotionally through its lyrics. Wading through a Bollywood movie is like swimming across a lyrical sojourn. Te3n is no different when it comes to packing in music galore to open all your senses. Even though it is a pleasant addition, deliberately done to cater the needs of Indian public, something like that, if prolonged too much, messes with the gravity of the situation. Also, the subtlety in cinema making ends up getting withered. Ribhu Dasgupta tries his best to keep action frames afloat as he painstakingly appends backdrop songs to tingle your emotional quotient. To be really candid, we could have lived without it and the movie could have ultimately become much shorter.DIRECTION Also, if you closely look at the direction of Te3n, there is no subtlety to it. Ribhu takes you for an amateur film-viewer showing every teensy bit till you get it. So, there is a frame for every theory. It is like spoon-feeding the audience. You couldn't help but say, "I get it, get it. Move on please!" Overlooking the apparent, if we look at Amitabh's performance as John Biswas, you have to hand it over to him. He has been giving some of his life's best performances nowadays which is good for the future of Indian Cinema. Standing close by is Nawazuddin's naturalistic blunt yet powerful act that goes on to show that we are finally boldly heading towards progress.A LITTLE SPOILER AHEAD Unfortunately this movie comes at a time when Amitabh had chosen a similar project just months ago, that entailed his granddaughter being killed, in Wazir. Even though how mediocre Wazir turned out to be, it skimmed on a similar story setup. Maybe the next time he signs a thriller, you will be able to guess who the culprit is. So you can enter a movie theatre with a know-it-all smug smile. ;) Anywho, Te3N is a great thriller for a change! Go watch! Read all my reviews here: http://straightfromamovie.com