8 x 10 Tasveer

Jai (Akshay Kumar) is a Canadian forest officer with an ability to see the past through photographs. When his father gets killed in a boat accident, he is informed about some foul play at work by a detective Habibullah Pasha (Javed Jaffrey). With the aid of a photograph clicked just moments before his father's death, Jai tries to find out whether his father met with an accidental death or whether he was killed? 8*10 Tasveer is one of Kuknoor's finest films that became a flop at the BO. But I am sure it will be regarded as a cult thriller in the years to come. A by-the-book thriller, it has the finesse of a Hollywood film. THe only flaw is the climax where the motive comes across as half-hearted without too much explanation about details. But if you have enjoyed Hollywood movies such as "The Ring" (2002), you will definitely love this movie.

Acting is solid here with Akshay coming up with a restrained and different performance. This is undoubtedly one of his best till date. Those who cringe at his comedies should check this out to know what a great actor he is turning out to be.

Akshay has been ably supported by the rest of the cast, including Jaffrey, Rushad Rana, Ayesha Takia, Girish Karnad, Anant Mahadevan and Benjamin Gilani. It was nice to watch Sharmila Tagore as AK's mother. Music was not good enough except for "Nazaara Hai". However, background score by Salim-Sulaiman is top-notch. Cinematography is excellent. My rating - 8/10.

It's probably a coincidence that the latest Bollywood offerings the last week had to do with photographs. In Aa Dekhen Zara, Neil Nitin Mukesh plays a photographer who discovers the secrets of a camera that has (well, I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag) powers to do with time. And in 8x10 Tasveer (photograph), Akshay Kumar plays forest ranger Jai, working for Environmental Protection in Alberta, Canada, who possesses the supernatural ability of transporting his soul back to the past, assuming the point of view of the person in the photograph whom he's staring at.

Unlike The Butterfly Effect, his abilities are more passive. He cannot manipulate events as experienced by the body he's staring out from, and neither can he linger around for more than a minute, as each transportation brings about some severe weakening of his macho physique, akin to being knocked out by a heavyweight champion. So it's a risk he has to undertake in order to assist strangers who sought him out to help in locating their loved ones, and nothing will prepare him to use this power to solve his dad's murder aboard a luxury yacht.

Akshay Kumar didn't get plenty of love from the box office for his previous kung-fu movie Chandni Chowk to China, which I had enjoyed actually. While I find this suspense thriller an above average flick thanks to Kumar's charismatic presence, one just cannot shrug away the sense of familiarity and deja vu in having watched a version of this film somewhere (someone jog my memory please!). 8x10 Tasveer still contains a decent "whodunnit" storyline that will keep you guessing, but only because it has that rug on standby just beneath your feet, which I think some would cry foul in being thrown an unexpected spanner from the blind side into the works.

Supporting Jai in his quest to seek the truth, even as he subscribes to unorthodox methods, is ex-cop Happi ("Happy with an I") played by Javed Jaffrey (who voiced the villain Charlie Anna in Roadside Romeo), taking an interest in the publicized death just because he was on the receiving end of tremendous assistance given by Jai's father in helping him to settle down in a strange new city (of Toronto!). Happi's an interesting character injected just for some light hearted laughs though, being a character afflicted with OCD and kudos to Jaffrey in having to play this socially awkward character misfit who should have deserved more screen time.

The narrative did feel draggy for a bit, despite clocking just under 2 hours with only one short musical ballad serving as a romantic interlude between Jai and his lady love Sheila (Ayesha Takia). And while you know that at some point Jai will have to perform a brute-force investigation by peeking through the eyes of everyone in a photograph, it just takes a while to get to that stage, before shifting into high gear during the last 30 minutes where you're likely to be surprised with a sudden turn of events. On one hand there was a sudden lift in the lull of the mystery, but on the other you'd feel it's one of those plot developments that felt a little of a cop out. It did answer some questions should you rewatch the film though, but seasoned mystery fans would likely clamour for more than the usual.

And does anyone think Akshay Kumar does look like Nicholas Cage with that hang-dog look and closely crop hairdo? That 8x10 Tasveer poster did make Akshay resemble Cage in that Ghost Rider poster, and this film did feel like one which Cage would have no problems stepping into as well. 8x10 Tasveer is decent, though there's nothing that will particularly make you sit up and exclaim Wow.

Its not bad as it's projected to be. Akshay Kumar's flop-series have resulted in denting the prospects of 8x10 Tasveer. In my opinion, 8x10 is indeed quite an intelligent movie and deserves intelligent audience to appreciate it.

Akshay Kumar:: Delivers a good performance. And yes, special mention to his fresh look. Seems like he is back in shape.

Jaaved Jaffery:: At the risk of being repetitive, he indeed has potential. Pity Bollywood doesn't pay attention.

The rest of the star-cast is adequate.

The look of the movie is very much Hollywoodish and this cannot be refuted. Even the cycling scenes are aesthetically done. Notice the execution when the GMC revves the engines - indeed Hollywood standards. And yes, the execution and portrayal of Akshay Kumar ability is of top standards. The narrative deserves special mention here. At a given point in time, the audience is shown what is warranted thereby keeping the suspense alive. Kudos to Mr. Kukunoor (well, he has followed this format in Teen Deewarien earlier).

I seriously hope 8x10 gets critical acclaim for Mr. Kukunoor for he well-deserves it and indeed catapults him into the big league.

A thriller that will keep one glued to the seat all the way through as it revolves around a man who has the ability to see the past and he uses it to help others, even though it can kill him.

Starring Akshaye Kumar, Ayesha Takia, Girish Karnad, Sharmila Tagore, Anant Mahadevan, Javed Jaffrey, Pia Shah, Benjamin Gilani, Uttara Baokar and Rushad Rana, this thriller genre movie is directed and written by Nagesh Kukunoor.

Akshaye in such genre movies is always good and he has performed well but I must say that some are beginning to find his style a bit of a bore and he should not just stick to similar roles – he is capable of doing other roles and he should do them. Surprisingly, his co – star, Ayesha Takia, who I did not like in her previous movies, "De Taali" and "Sunday," has also performed well as was Javed Jaffrey, who has gone on to perform tremendously well after "Salaam Namaste" and also performed well in "Dhamaal." But what really made it better for me was to see two favourite actors of mine – Sharmila Tagore and Girish Karnad after such a long time. Director Nagesh Kukunoor has also done a good job of this and more so since this is his first thriller genre movie, though he was suppose to direct a movie based on the life of the late playback singer Kishore Kumar. However, I get the feeling that this has been shelved and it would be rather sad, not just because of me, being a fan of Kishore Kumar, but also having watched "K for Kishore" and knowing the amount of time that Nagesh Kukunoor must have spent on the sets listening to the participants and making comments, must have made it difficult for him.

The cinematography and especially the underwater sequence were breath taking and this will make one want to know what is going to happen next. The only negative side to this is that sometimes its quite predictable. On the whole, it is a movie that is worth watching.

This is set in Canada where Akshay Kumar plays a Park Ranger. It seems he has a small psychic ability among his skills. On occasion he can gaze into a photo and drop into trance briefly where he is able to see what happened about the time the photo was taken. He doesn't do this often as it taxes him physically. His father drowns apparently from a heart attack but a former policeman who knew the father believes it was murder. A photo has been taken just prior to the drowning. The Akshay character then goes into the photo a number of times seeking the perspective of each person in the photo at the time. I hadn't been sure about getting it. The cover photo is very dark and references to it make it sound quite violent. Actually we found it was no more troubling than an episode of 'Midsommer Murders'. In fact there are a few more murders after Dad goes down but they are circumspect and not graphic. The description on the back of the DVD didn't even seemed to match the plot of the movie: almost like we'd got a heavily edited version or different one. The emphasis was on the supernatural but really a bit of going into a photo is pretty minor 'supernatural". It says he can touch the past of dead people by touching something belonging to them BUT THAT WASN'T IN THE MOVIE- all he could do was the photo-trance thing! (this wasn't the only inconsistency) The Indian reviewers found the movie left a few questions, and described the revelation of who had done it as 'shocking". We agreed with that we queried some of the plot at the end but not enough to ruin it by any means. Nor were we at all shocked by the revelation of the killer. It isn't a song & dance Bollywood nor is it art-house. The music is in the background. Canada looked picturesque and the plot unfolded at a good pace. Akshay Kumar did a fine job with the character (and we wish he'd skip comedy and stick with straighter movies.) They flirted for a moment with adding a silly side to the former policeman that wasn't necessary but otherwise everyone acted well. This is a movie that didn't do well in India and has received mixed responses) perhaps because it is more Western) but was quite a watchable and respectable thriller/whodunit. There is suspense but it isn't scary, dark or violent.