Movie Review: 8 X 10 Tasveer
Banner: Percept Pictures Company
Producer: Shailendra Singh
Director: Nagesh Kukunoor
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore, Javed Jaffrey, Girish Karnad, Anant Mahadevan, Benjamin Gilani, Rushad Rana and Utara Pawkar
 8 X 10 Tasveer, after churning out mammoth news in the media all over, hits the screens near you today. With the star cast including the names like Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore, Javed Jaffrey, Girish Karnad, Anant Mahadevan, Benjamin Gilani, Rushad Rana and Utara Pawkar, the film was being awaited hugely, as the previous release of Akshay Kumar, Chandni Chowk to China flopped badly at the box office. Made under the banner of Percept Pictures Company, it is directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, who is popular mainly for making films on sensitive subjects.
Nagesh Kukunoor is amongst those Bollywood filmmakers, who are known for quality cinema. If you look back at his previous ventures, you will be expecting something great this time around again. But with his latest offering, ‘8 X 10 Tasveer’, he fails to register an impact on the viewers. The big flaw is ofcourse writing, which happens most of the times in the failures of the films. This major flaw’s credit goes to the director Nagesh Kukunoor as well, since he is the writer of the flick.
Nagesh’s subject of a suspense thriller is undoubtedly entices a lot and his choice of stars attracts as well. He gets the viewers glued to the seats but post interval portion in particular the penultimate portion (last 30 minutes), which should be really catchy, interesting and nail biting for a whodunit flick, destroys the whole film in a jiffy since it has been handled very badly and carelessly.
Admit, that the concept, he has brought in, is fabulous and the atmosphere Nagesh creates in the film is one thing one should praise for and the mystery element is great since it deepens with each passing minute but where Kukunoor falls flat is the last portion of the movie. For a film based on the theme of whodunit, the interest element should alive till the last reel, but sorry to say, it does not appear as required. The reasons of killing the people by the murderer look not convincing at all. They look like childish and one starts thinking what happened to this luminous filmmaker, who is a good writer as well? Has he forgotten the skills or was he in a hurry to complete the film? Anyway, he disappointed the viewers hugely. The cinegoers, when exit from the theaters, go back home with many questions in mind. This Tasveer has no focus at all.
Jai Puri (Akhay Kumar) works as a forest ranger in Canada. He has a live in relationship with Sheela (Ayesha Takia) for over a year. He stays separately from his parents – father Jatin (Benjamin Gilani) and Savitri (Sharmila Tagore) because he does not like his father’s dealings. He has a great supernatural power. Through this, he can slip into a picture and go right into that moment when it was clicked. His life is shattered when he gets to know about his father’s death. It appears as an accident because his father slips down from his yacht and gets a heart attack while falling into the cold water. But he was not alone on the yacht. His wife, his business partner cum brother Sunder (Anant Mahadevan), business associate Adit (Rushad Rana) and good friend cum lawyer Anil Sharma (Girish Karnad) were present on the yacht when he drowned into the water. Habib aka Happi (Javed Jaffery), whimsical ex-cop bumps into Jai and lets him know that this could possibly be a murder. Initially Jai disbelieves him but when Happy presents some proofs, he starts thinking on it. Now Jai uses his supernatural power to know about the murderer. He has one picture of the incident, which had been clicked just before his father died. Amidst all, two more murders happen and this gets Jai stunned.
Since the film is a suspense thriller, it requires disclosing the identity of the killer at the end or in the ending reels. As far as the identity of the murderer is concerned, yes, it appears shocking but what compels the murderer to kill the people one after one is unbelievable. Here the screenplay looks childish. Once the truth comes out, from that portion onwards, the writer seems to be running of the ink. The answers are not convincing what writer wants to display to the audience.
Nagesh Kukunoor portrays himself as a good technician but not an adept storyteller. The screenplay is faulty in every sense of the word. The film has been shot very beautifully. The breath-arresting locales of Canada and South Africa make it a wonderful journey. The stylish look of the movie appears spongy. Vikas Sivaraman’s cinematography is a great work of art. The music of the film is pretty ordinary. The background score by Salim-Sulaiman deserves marks.
Akshay Kumar delivers superb performance. The actor shows that his class is not fixed only to comedies rather he can enact every kind of role with aplomb. Ayesha Takia is great to watch. Sharmila Tagore looks graceful. Javed Jaffery enacts brilliantly. Rest of the cast fills the bill also.
On the whole, ‘8 X 10 Tasveer’ is not the product, one was expecting. It is disappointing. Watch it for once only.
RS Rating: 1.5/5
- Film Critic: Goher Iqbal Punn
Please let us hear your thoughts on this story. How did you find this movie?
- This film critic is a popular and experienced Bollywood and Indian TV Analyst and laced with a good rapport with both of these fraternities and the people associated with these entertainment worlds. He also shares a good rapport with the celebs of these swanky industries. You may contact him at the e-mails: goheriqbal@yahoo.co.uk, goher.punn@yahoo.com and goher.punn@gmail.com
|
Hi Goher,
you mean Akshay have another flop in a row, and if kambhakt ishq dont make 80crs it will also consider as a flop which will bring down the stars market value to less then shahid kapoors. right??
btw, let me mention this your review on aloo chat was a false. the movie got nothing in it and its a sick movie which u gave 4 stars.
i hope u dont make any mistake with this one. i’ll wait for the dvd. as it is akshays movies aint facinate me
hi goher,
well to start with i saw the movie on the firt day ’cause i didn’t want to be influenced by any review. i found the movie quite entertaining and interesting.the actors were all good and the locales too.me and my family feel it deserves much more than 1.5. its different than usual bollywood fare of song and dance and mindless ent. hope more filmmakers produce variety movies .
The basic premise was good and the film could have been mindblowing had the scriptwriter and Kuknoor paid more attention to the storyline. The identity of the killer was shocking, but the motive was short of logic. Also, the background music could have been more effective. A totally below par soundtrack and half-hearted direction killed all chances for the film. Even the stars were not fully exploited. Mr. Kuknoor should hold himself responsible for the debacle. Hope he learns and pays attention to the script, narration as well as the technique of his upcoming films.