Movie: 8x10 Tasveer

Jai(Akshay Kumar) wakes from a bad dream to receive a phone call. He works for an environment agency and is summoned to hunt down a poacher. When he returns to his office after arresting poacher, Jai finds two women waiting for him. One of the woman is an old acquaintance and Jai had helped her in finding her daughter. Now, the woman requests Jai to help her friend. Her friend had lost her husband when they went on sightseeing trip.

Jai accompanies the women. Once reaching their home, he looks at the last picture of the man taken using a cell phone. Jai also starts a stop-watch to measure the time. Jai stares at the photo of the lost husband and in a short time, he is transported to the time when the photo was taken. Now, he sees the events from the eyes of the lost husband. The lost husband had slipped and fell off the cliff. Now, he is injured and waiting to be rescued. After finding all the necessary information, Jai wakes up tired and weak. The police is informed while Jai recovers.

Jai has the unique ability to see the events that had happened by looking at the photos taken. But he cannot be looking at the events (or be in the photo) for a very long time as this exercise drains him out of energy. This exercise also leaves him tired and weak.

When Jai returns back after helping the women, his girlfriend, Sheela(Ayesha Takia), intercepts him. Jai’s father, Jatin(Benjamin Gilani), suffered an accident while on a boating trip. Jatin went on a fishing trip along with his wife, Savitri(Sharmila Tagore) and his three friends – Anil(Girish Karnad), Sundar(Anant Mahadevan) and Adit(Rushad Rana). While they were touring, Jatin slipped from the boat and fell into the water.

Jatin dies soon. Jai and Savitri mourns his death. After the death, Savitri receives all of Jatin’s properties. Savitri tells Jai about his dad’s last wish. Jatin wanted to leave the entire estate for Jai’s environmental agency. But he did not get sufficient time to change his will. Jai had been living an estranged life and had cut himself away from Jatin a while back. On the day of accident, Jatin visited Jai and requested him to accompany him on the boat as this was a very important day. Jai was not too keen and he repents it now.

Soon, Jai gets a visit from Happi(Jaaved Jaffrey). Happi is a detective with weird traits. He forgets things easily and is also bad at communicating. Happi suspects foul play in Jatin’s accident and subsequent death. Jatin does not believe it. But, Happi also informs Savitri’s decision against an autopsy on Jatin!

Now, Jai wants to get to the bottom of this mystery. He uses his powers dangerously which takes him to close to death many a time. He is also not sure on whom to trust.

Nagesh Kukunoor has directed this movie. He has succeeded in delivering an engrossing movie with superior technical finesse. CG has been used extensively to show the “picture gazing” scenes and it has been handled well. Nagesh succeeds in telling the story in an interesting manner although he uses a slow pace, which is characteristic to his movies. He disappoints us slightly when the killer is revealed.

Akshay fits the role of Jai as the role requires athletic agility. He succeeds in bringing the energy required for the role. But as a son who is searching for the truth behind his dad’s death putting his on life in danger, he fails to emote well on many occasions.

The eccentric detective played by Jaaved is a departure from his other portrayals of eccentric characters. Here, the director has reined in his buffoonery.

Overall, the pace of the movie is slow. But still, this is a good thriller to watch.

Genre: Thriller

Rating: ***

Picture Courtesy: Bollywood Hungama

Tags: Movies,8x10 Tasveer,Akshay Kumar,Ayesha Takia,Benjamin Gilani,Sharmila Tagore,Girish Karnad,Anant Mahadevan,Rushad Rana,Jaaved Jaffrey,Nagesh Kukunoor,Thriller