8 X 10 Tasveer is a
Bollywood film thriller released April 3, 2009, and starring
Akshay Kumar and
Ayesha Takia. It is directed by
Nagesh Kukunour, and produced by
Percept Picture Company. The film features
Sharmila Tagore,
Javed Jaffrey,
Anant Mahadevan,
Girish Karnad,
Benjamin Gilani, Rushad Rana, Andrea Tully, and Pia Shah in supporting roles. As of March 2008, the cast and crew was shooting in
Calgary,
Canada. It was previously called Tasveer, but changed due to the director's insistence that the title was jinxed.
[1] The film's music is composed by
Salim-Sulaiman with a title track by
Bohemia.
Contents[
hide]
1 Plot2 Cast3 Crew4 Production5 Critical Reception6 Response7 Music8 References9 External links//
[
edit] Plot
After a
flashback to a Jai Puri as a child, "?in shock at the edge of a cliff as his parents pull him away, the film jumps to the present day, finding Jai now a
forest ranger in the woods near
Alberta, Canada. Jai lives in a cabin with his girlfriend Sheila, but has been estranged from his parents, Jatin and Savitri Puri. Jatin is the
CEO of a privately held
Canadian oil company, Canoil. That oil exploration causes environmental damage is a great source of tension between father and son.
Jai has a
supernatural or
mutant gift: He is able to enter a photograph and vividly experience the events preceding the time of the photograph. Jai is unable to understand or explain this gift, except to recall that it started when he was very young. Jai tries to use this gift to help people (e.g. find people lost in the woods) despite the risks to his own body. Jai can remain in photographs only for a minute, and experiences life-threatening,
stroke-like effects afterward.
Jai's father drowns in a boating accident under mysterious circumstances. Jatin was aboard his own boat, the Golmaal, and was surrounded by his wife; his brother, Sunder; longtime friend and lawyer Anil; and Adit, Jatin's surrogate son. Eccentric former cop Hapibulla "Happi" Pasha, who suffers from
OCD, and whom Jatin had helped emigrate to Canada and start a life there, believes Jatin may have been murdered, and that everyone on the boat at that time may have had motive. The only clue is an 8x10 photograph of the four men, which Savitri shot a few moments before Jatin fell off the boat and had a
hypothermia-induced
heart attack.
Jai repeatedly uses his gift to enter the photo and experience the incident through the eyes of the four subjects in it. After each entry, Jai picks up various clues from the viewpoint of the subject. Happi follows up on these clues and tries to string together a theory. But Jai his body gradually weakening from the stress of entering the photograph. As well, Sunder is found hanged, an apparent
suicide, and a mysterious party in a black
SUV tries to kill Jai and Sheila. Later, someone makes an attempt on Savitri's life. Happi enlists the help of a nurse, Sally, whom he had left at the altar some unspecified time ago, who though resentful of Happi helps administer medical aide to Jai in order to help him find the killer.
After the knife attack on Savitri, Jai enters the photo one last time, at great risk to his weakening body, to find the final set of clues, and is set upon by his now-grown twin, Jeet — who had been presumed dead but had survived the fall to live a hellish existence — and the unfaithful Sheila. During a tussle, Happi arrives at Jai's cabin and tries to help, but Sheila kills him with an axe. Jeet and Sheila dump Happi's body, as well as that of their betrayed confederate, Adit, into the sea, and attempt to do the same with Jai. Jai ingeniously escapes, and attempts to reconcile with his long-lost brother. Touched, Jeet kills Sheila as she fires on Jai, but her shot kills Jeet. Sometime later, Jai moves in with his mother and they put up pictures of the missing son.
