These are not ordinary actors - when Amitabh Bachchan says he is sad, we know in our very bones he is earth-shatteringly overwhelmed with sadness. The director, Ribhu Dasgupta, should have trusted the acuity of the audience to join the dots, but it was just content to cement the fact that Bachchan's John and Siddiqui's Martin are empty shells of a man because of the devastating incident 8 years ago. Montage never once had this issue because it has a superb sense of urgency with the statute of limitations for the unsolved case running out. What should have been a relentless ride nearly dissolves into weepy melodrama. One of the major nitpicks we have with Te3n is the lumbering pace in the first half hour. Both have their pluses and minuses, and it is such an interesting activity to see the different trajectories taken by two different types of world cinema. That is how much we love the incredible story.

In fact, we will be re-watching Montage this evening. After it ended our conversations eddied around different aspects of both versions. I know both of us, while being kept spellbound, were unconsciously comparing both versions. It is a film that one can't quite conveniently pigeonhole into the usual boxes. The emotional weight coupled with the gripping narrative and a superb sleight-of-hand play with fractured timelines transcends way above derivative thrillers that barely register a blimp on your consciousness. It plays with an overly familiar premise of a kidnapped child but it weaves such an inventive spin on the genre that it rises up like a phoenix from the ashes. This is a story about a grandfather (Amitabh Bachchan), a priest (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and a police officer (Vidya Balan) coming together to solve a case of a kidnapped child. It is impossible to write a synopsis without unintentionally dropping a spoiler, so I am going to keep it very simple. We already know how everything would pan out but we were still kept spellbound. If you have seen Hindi remakes you would know they can often surprise you with a new spin on familiar proceedings. 4 reasons we are watching this - Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan and finally this is the Hindi remake of only one of the best Korean non-derivative thrillers in recent years called Montage that not many people even know about.

Te3n 2016