Despite having a lot of things going for it, “Te3n” doesn’t pass the first test of a thriller – it doesn’t keep you on the edge of your seat.

Te3n serves up enough thrills to hook you on. Director Ribhu Dasgupta’s second movie is just about as good as taut thrillers can be. There’s a directorial control and finesse that make this film engaging and well worth a watch.

It is a measure of Te3n’s strengths that, in the overall analysis, these complaints recede into the background. It is so wonderful to see director Sujoy Ghosh who gave us Kahaani, backing this film as a producer. Ribhu Dasgupta’s Te3n is a strong, entertaining whodunit, so lovely in its sadness and so thoroughly engaging in its observations on old age, escapism, persistence, love and revenge.

Amitabh Bachchan has once again given a sterling performance, and one that stands out sharply in an otherwise passable film. 

‘Te3n’ has plenty of twists, not all of them convincing…

Like any thriller, the money here is on figuring out the perpetrator, hopefully before those hunting the person in the film can.

The climax gets disappointing with its predictable, explanatory touch. As a viewer I like coming out of a mystery with questions on my mind rather than neat resolutions of all the loose ends.

Overall, Te3n is a slow burning thriller made in the vein of classic whodunits but with conscious efforts to neatly package it as a modern day murder mystery. The editing is of the highest quality and immensely adds to the movie’s suspense quotient. Te3n is not meant for causal viewing. For, in case of any lapse in concentration, the viewer will find it quite challenging to follow the narrative. Te3n certainly deserves a better ending but even in its present form it makes for a solid film viewing experience.

Te3n is unable to capture the briskness of Kahaani, whose director, Sujoy Ghosh, is one of Te3n’s producers. Dasgupta’s feature film debut (he has previously made short films and the television series Yudh) shares with Kahaani an attempt to create a Kolkata neo-noir setting in which dread and death lurk in unlikely spaces.