Life Etc Etc

I always felt the movies which I watched with the least expectations were the ones I liked the most. Te3n once again confirmed my theory. The story of an old man hunting for the individual who cost his granddaughter's life could have been woefully depressing boring us (the audience) with its unending melancholy (Read Talaash ).  But fortunately Te3n's deft screenplay ensures the movie rumbles along at a brisk pace. So here are three things which make Te3n an engaging watch apart from the screenplay (read on there are no spoilers ahead): Te3n The Performances: Amitabh Bachchan , Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vidya Balan breathe life into their characters. Amitabh plays a feeble old man run down by the scars of time and punctuates his role with a steely resolve. Nawazuddin Siddiqui turns in a restrained performance as a cop turned priest while Vidya oozes toughness as a no non-sense police woman. They say great actors convey emotions through their eyes. Amitabh, Nawazu

The road to my 25th post had to go through Vera Cruz . Nothing fuels one's imagination quite like a rivalry between two evenly matched foes. As a kid I often wondered who would win if Superman squared off against He-Man and Batman took on Spider-Man. The quest for engaging rivalries and unique match-ups took a life of its own when I discovered sport. Who would win a rematch between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer ? Can Manny Pacquiao KO Floyd Mayweather ?  Will Justin Gatlin ever outrun Usain Bolt ? Whenever a match-up lived up to its potential (See Bibo V/S Kumar ) it became a memory to treasure. Magical rivalries however are not limited to sport and comics alone they have a unique place in movies too. Vera Cruz takes that rivalry to a brand new level by pitting an ultra-aggressive Burt Lancaster against an ice cool Gary Cooper  (both of them incidentally are in the Top 25 actors list of AFI ). But before going into the intricacies of the film we should explore the background