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Starring: Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Takia, Benjamin Gilani,
Sharmila Tagore, Girish Karnad, Javed Jaffrey, Anant
Mahadevan
Director: Nagesh Kukunoor
8 X 10 Tasveer has an
interesting idea - that a guy can look at a photograph
and travel back in time to when the photo was taken.
The film is an exciting tale around a person Jai Puri (Akshay
Kumar) who is naturally gifted with psychotic powers to
peep inside people's past gazing through their
photograph for a minute. But this power is very risky as
it can even take his life after that dreadful minute.
Jai is a forest ranger in the woods near Alberta, Canada
and lives in a cabin with his girlfriend Sheila (Ayesha
Takia). He has been estranged from his parents, Jatin
Puri (Benjamin Gilani) and Savitri Puri (Sharmila Tagore).
Jai’s father is the CEO of a privately held Canadian oil
company whose oil exploration causes environmental
damage, which is the cause of tension between father and
son.
Once Jai stares at a person in
the photograph, with his supernatural ability of
transporting his soul back to the past, he cannot
manipulate events as experienced by the body he's staring
out from, and neither stay there for more than a minute,
since the transportation brings about some severe
weakening of his physique, almost risking his life.
He had used this power a few times back to help someone
recover her husband who was found miraculously alive stuck
in a crevice in the mountains.
Now Jai has to do it for his father. And each individual
in the photograph has to be scanned which would make him
weaker and weaker.
Cast
Jai Puri - Akshay Kumar
Sheila Patel - Ayesha Takia
Jatin Puri - Benjamin Gilani
Savithri Puri - Sharmila Tagore
Anil Sharma - Girish Karnad
Hapibullah "Happi" Pasha - Javed Jaffrey
Sundar - Anant Mahadevan
Aadit - Rushad Rana
Nurse Sally - Pia Shah
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When Jai's father dies due to an accident, one Inspector
Mr. Happi (Javed Jaffery) thinks otherwise. This leads Jai
to look at his dad’s picture which was taken before he
died as he wants to check the past about how his father
died.
The accident appears mysterious, and it Jai doubts
everyone in the picture, including his mother who was at
the time of the accident which took place in a yacht and
Jai's father drowns under mysterious circumstances. His
father was aboard his own boat, and was accompanied by his
mother; his uncle Sundar (Anant Mahadevan), longtime
friend and lawyer Anil (Girish Karnad) and Adit (Rushad
Rana)..
The only clue Jai has is an 8x10 photograph of the four
men, which his mother shot a few moments before his father
fell off the boat and had a heart attack.
But he is determined, and tension builds up as events
unfold. There after it leads to the climax which has an
unexpected suspense.
Akshay acted very well, while Ayesha’s performance is just
average. Sharmila Tagore has acted well. Cinematography is
top notch quality and the open countryside of Canada is
exploited well. Javed Jaffrey as Happi - ‘happy with an I’
is brilliant. Hope Javed appears in some more bollywood
films now onwards.
Its a classic whodunit with some very riveting moments,
and a brilliant mix of supernatural with a near perfect
murder mystery.
- Aniz Filmvala
Credits & Crew
Director: Nagesh Kukunoor
Production house: Percept Picture Company & T-Series
Producer: Bhushan Kumar
Co-Producer: Elahe Hiptoola
Original Music by Bohemia, Salim Merchant, Neeraj Shridhar
Story - Nagesh Kukunoor
Music: Salim-Sulaiman, Bohemia & Neeraj Shridhar
Music label: T-Series
Lyrics: Sameer, Bohemia & Irfan Siddique
Art Direction by Abid T.P.
Stunts coordinator - John Smith
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