TE3N 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.

TE3N powered by Mr. Bachchan's flawless act, director Ribhu Dasgupta's (the forgettable MICHAEL previous) Indian adaptation of the brilliant south Korean thriller MONTAGE that deftly crisscrossed between crime, guilt, separation, revenge and the morality of revenge, is a lazily paced 'tricky' suspense thriller that scores high on drama and less on thrills as a film.

Ribhu Dasgupta sets his film in Kolkata tracking the lonely and a painful journey of John Biswas (Amitabh Bachchan) who will stop at nothing to get justice. John's granddaughter was kidnapped and eventually found dead despite trying his best to get her back safely. 8 years and John has not even blinked once in a hope to find the person responsible for his loss who is still at large.

The film starts off with a flashback event featuring Inspector Martin (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and John Roy (Amitabh Bachchan). This is then followed by the religious daily visit of John Roy to the police station to meet Inspector Sarita Sarkar (Vidya Balan), regarding the kidnapping and killing of his granddaughter Angela Roy. The story then oscillates between the past and the present. Amidst all this, there also exists the story of the guilt filled Inspector-turned-Priest Martin Das, the very man who was in charge of Angela Roy's case.

Sujoy Ghosh impressed the hell out of us with his thriller Kahaani and when it was learned that he is producing a suspense thriller based in Kolkata, expectations were bound to be sky-high. The trailer of TE3N starring Amitabh Bachchan, Vidya Balan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, too added to the curiosity factor and seemed to hint at an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Does TE3N prove to be a treat for fans of the suspense genre? Let's talk about it...

TE3N suffers from the quirky disease syndrome. For example, the digit 3 that makes an uncanny cameo in the film's title, despite the fact that it has NOTHING to do with either the plot or premise. Unlike Brad Pitt's stylish thriller Se7en, where the number had a very important part to play in the storyline, the 3 in TE3N is an odd man out. But enough analysis of the title, moving on the film, Ribhu Dasgupta's film suffers from a major Kahaani hangover. Remember that other film with Vidya Balan and Sujoy Ghosh which was also set in Kolkata and earned some rave reviews.

The protagonist of this tale is John Biswas (Amitabh Bachchan), who has lost his grand-daughter in a kidnapping case 8 years ago. Unwilling to give up on seeking justice for his grand child, John is seen replaying the evidence at hand over and over, so as to finally find one more clue into nabbing the culprit. Eight years later, when a similar case repeats itself as another child is kidnapped, the officer in charge Sarita Sarkar (Vidya Balan) and Father Martin Das (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who is a former cop, delve into both the cases.

John Biswas (Amitabh Bachchan) goes to the police station every day to check if there's anything new on his dead granddaughter. Sarita (Vidya Balan) asks John Uncle to stop wasting time at the police station. Angela, John's grandchild, was kidnapped eight years ago. The criminal was never caught. Main investigating officer Martin (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is Father Martin now, infusing wit and humour into the otherwise dry church-talk.

If you have seen the South Korean thriller Montage, then you do not need this cautionary note: Te3n is to be watched with rapt attention. No loo breaks, no glances at your cellphone. This Amitabh Bachchan-Vidya Balan-Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer is an official remake of the 2013 film by writer-director Chung Keun-Sup, who is acknowledged in the credits here for the story. The narrative of the Hindi film is firmly rooted in Kolkata where events unfold over an eight-year period.

A grieving grandfather, a crumbling city and a sarcastic cop-turned-priest: Director Ribhu Dasgupta's TE3N is the sum of this riveting combination, made more powerful by one of Amitabh Bachchan's finest performances. An eight-year-old girl is kidnapped and the police are clueless, because what looks like an ordinary crime turns out to be a meticulously planned abduction.

A chaotic fish market is de rigueur for a film set in Kolkata. Te3n has an entire sequence that plays out in one. A weather-beaten septuagenarian - John Biswas, a man nursing an inner scar and an ailing wife - checks out a silvery hilsa and grumbles about its exorbitant price. The hawker blames it on the impending elections. Hilsa, he says, is being gifted by one of the political parties in the fray to its workers. "Last week you said the price of prawns had shot up because of an earthquake in Japan," John shoots back. "I'll eat fish after the elections," he says as he walks away.

John Biswas' (Bachchan) life is torn apart when his young granddaughter Angela Roy is kidnapped. Though Martin (Nawazuddin), the police inspector who handled the case has quit; John refuses to do so. Eight years after her disappearance, a similar kidnapping puts the spotlight back on the case. John, Martin and a new Inspector Sarita Sarkar (Vidya Balan) begin their hunt for the criminal. What is intriguing is that the modus operandi seems to be similar to the Angela case.