TE3N Review – Dont be so keen to watch Teen

Rating: 2.5/5

Critic Rating: (2.5/5)

When a movie with a fantastic star cast releases and hits the bull’s eye, most of the junta goes gaga over the actors neglecting the efforts of the writer and director. The sad part is when the movie bombs, only then the writing and direction department come into limelight for their poor delivery. Exactly that happens in the case of TEEN, where we have a stellar cast of Amitabh Bachhan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vidya Balan, but the film fumbles because of its bad writing.

TEEN is a thriller set in the good old city of Kolkata. This Sujoy Ghosh’s produced film is also about a search, an investigation and a past like his directorial Kahaani. Even this one has Vidya Balan plus Nawazuddin. However Vidya is on the other side of investigation. Nawaz again plays a cop. Actually it’s an ex-cop turned priest. A cop turning into a priest is definitely something very unique. Amitabh Bachchan is the protagonist who’s in the quest of the truth and the seeker of justice in this film.

A still from Te3n
A still from Te3n

Mr. Bachhan plays an old man (John Biswas), who is deeply shattered by the kidnap and murder incident of his granddaughter. He is helpless but still with a strong determination to get the justice for the fatal incident of his granddaughter. He goes to pillar from post for the justice and is taken granted by the cops. On the other side, there is Martin (Nawaz) who was a cop during the kidnap. The incident changes his life also and makes him turn as a priest. But, why he transforms is kept under the wraps till later. Strangely, a similar kidnap happens after some years which has the traces of exactly what happened to the little girl. This brings Vidya Balan to the screen and she starts the investigation. Parallelly, John is hell-bent on his own investigation and keeps gathering the clues trying to figure out the puzzle.

The biggest problem with the film is its writing. Every now and then you can easily sense the loopholes. With many flaws, the movie also becomes bothersome with its length. The movie seems very long and the two hours sixteen minutes seem like the double of it. With such bad handling, a supposed to be an edge of the seat thriller becomes a boring affair. The best part of the film is no doubt Mr Bachhan with his impeccable body language. He immaculately portrays the helplessness, the will, the suffering, the pain and all the required components of the crisis John Biswas is going through. He is also greatly supported by Nawaz who is again very convincing. Vidya Balan gets a relatively less screen time than Bacchan and Nawaz. However she seemed to the scope of her character. She was also fantastic and very real. The other supporting cast also seemed pretty good.

The art, costume and production department also have done a good job.

All in all, the movie is a fantastic opportunity lost with a magical cast but a script with crippled logic.

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