That is, not until there’s a second kidnapping eight years later, and this one bears such an uncanny similarity to the first one - same voice issuing muffled threats over the phone, same intricate ransom exchange plan, same sinister B-movie black van - that it seems all but obvious the original monster is back.Īfter eight years of agony, John decides to investigate the original case himself, and he starts to turn up clues. (The perpetrator was never found.) John holds himself responsible, but the police have little interest in re-opening the case.

For the last eight years, John has gone down to the police station almost every day, trying to get to the bottom of what happened to his 8-year-old granddaughter, Angela, who was kidnapped eight years ago and then killed. The central character, John Biswas (Amitabh Bachchan), is a grandfather with stiff limbs, a full head of grayish hair, and heavy-framed glasses, all of which combine to make him look like the soul of senior ineffectuality. Yet if you stick with it, you’ll know what it feels like to watch an extended episode of “Law & Order: Kolkata” in which the powers of law enforcement generate all the more intrigue for not totally knowing what they’re doing. “Te3n” may, in fact, be too quiet to succeed here it’s both pokier and longer than it needs to be. This is an underworld drama in which the excitement of solving crime rarely overshadows the disturbance that crime causes (even for those committing it).

The fascination of “Te3n” (no, that’s not a misprint - the title is pronounced “teen,” which is Hindi for the number three, which refers to the trio of lead characters) is that although it’s a gritty procedural thriller about a kidnapping and child murder, with themes of loss, violence, justice, and revenge, the movie is much quieter around the edges than its American counterpart would be.

Te3n 2016 rediff review