8 x 10 Tasveer (2009)

Tasveer is a superb thriller in all aspects. The cinematography, the BG, the locales everything was just so perfect. Tasveer in its own has set new standards of film-making, esp Hollywood style film-making.

Coming to the movie, it is initially slow paced, but is needed to build up the story. As the film progresses, the pace is very well maintained. The BG music was just perfect to set your mood for a thriller. Its a movie shot very stylishly with amazing locales, added with some breathtaking stunts shot excellently. Nagesh certainly deserves an applause for such high quality direction usually seen in Hollywood movies. Regarding the climax, I didn't feel anything unusual in it. The climax really shock's everyone which is most important in a thriller. The thrill & suspense has been very well maintained till the end, and your curiosity to know the culprit just increases every passing minute.

Coming to the acting part, Akshay Kumar's just amazing for this role. I cannot think of anyone else for this role other than Akshay Kumar. AKshay play's this role with extreme ease & grace and delivers a top-notch performance. Akshay was at his best performing those daredevil stunts, esp. the one where he jumps from the cliff. This film just proves that Akshay can play any role with effortless ease.

Ayesha Takia was fine. Javed Jaafrey as expected was good with his humor. Rest of the cast was up to the mark.

Music was excellent, with just 3 songs. BG was just perfect.

Direction from Nagesh was just top-notch. Would like to see him making more thrillers.

Lastly, Tasveer is a visual treat to your eyes, containing all ingredients of a perfect thriller movie. Highly Recommended!

Fmovies: Nagesh Kukunoor, the director started off brilliantly a decade back and gave some exceptional movies like "Hyderabad Blues", "3 Deewarein", "Iqbal" and "Dor". But his last movie "Bombay To Bangkok" and the current "8X10 Tasveer" stand nowhere close to his own set standards. The same can be said about Akshay Kumar, who seems to be lost in the gigantic hype surrounding himself. After "Chandni Chowk to China" this will be the second setback to his otherwise hit record.

The movie is based on a supernatural theme where Akshay can travel into the past by gazing on a picture and its individual characters. The subject looks exciting enough as we read or write about it, but the execution on the screen is not convincing at all as it lacks all the thrills and edge of the seat treatment required by the plot. Nagesh seems to be interested in making an artistic thriller, with long boring scenes, uninspiring writing and lazy editing.

The story moves slowly with no worth mentioning scenes or sequences. Even the over publicized shot where Akshay jumps from a cliff into the water is amazingly canned but has no relevance at all with the narration or script. Akshay seems to be quite confused and doing his role without any conviction. There was also news of both director and actor facing tough times together shooting abroad. Sadly, that shows on the screen and also in Akshay's recent interviews given for the movie. The time gaps which occurred while making the movie may also be visible to the sharp enthusiastic bollywood fans. Interestingly the main picture in the movie, which has got all the focus gets easily caught as a reworked photograph with background pasted later.

In a suspense thriller, the climax holds the key to its success. The more interesting and shocking the last minute revelations are, more are the chances of movie hitting the bull's eye. Moreover in a murder mystery it is always better that the culprit should be from the characters known to the viewer. If a sudden new entrant is introduced to be the killer then it takes away all the shock value and results in an unimpressive climax. This is the problem with "8X10 Tasveer" where the finale is too lengthy and not powerful as expected.

Acting department has got Sharmila Tagore and Javed Jaffery at their best. Javed should have been given more comic freedom in his expressions by the director as that would have added a lot to the movie. Akshay is not in form as he is always. In many scenes it looks like he is deliberately stopping himself from doing a comedy act. Ayesha Takia looks cute but lacks the depth required for the role. Benjamin Gilani, Girish Karnad and Ananth Mahadevan are OK in their short roles. Cinematography is top rate, specially the chase and actions sequences. But its time our film makers should realize that usually songs are not meant to be there in thrillers and murder mysteries. All the songs are simply unwanted and not worth remembering also. On the other hand Background score is fine as per the demand of the subject.

Now about the Inspirational influences of the movie:

1. The camera view from the inside angle of an eye seems to be influenced from the movie "Being John Malkovich (1999)"

2. Akshay moving into the past and then people ready to bring him back with medical support is very close to the similar sequences in "Flatliners (1990)"

3. The movie poster with Akshay eyes staring in, has simi

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.

8 x 10 Tasveer fmovies. Nagesh Kukunoor was one of my idol directors from India. I had never expected anything so cheap from him. Not only the story is a worthless piece of rat-droppings, the direction is crappy too. Akshay Kumar has done what he could, which unfortunately could not save the movie. This is sad time for Indian directors. The director who is capable of making Dor, Iqbal and Hyderabad Blues should never make a cheap thriller like this. This is not only dumbing down his own work, but the whole Hindi art cinema industry. I would also like to plead to Hindi movie fans that, Instead of trying to increase the ratings, please rate Hindi movies seriously. This will help promote them further. Movies like this deserve low score, which makes other better movies recommendable.

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.

my rating - 8/10. another super performance from the best in the business "AKSHAY KUMAR". akki has a super natural power to go in the past time through pictures , the time whenever those pics were taken... n he uses this power to solve his own dad's murder mystery.. the story is simple but the visual effects r very well done... n the music is outstanding,both songs n background score , n i m glad that there is only one song in this movie.. the length of the movie is also ideal , almost 2 hours...

"u need to see it , go watch the "8 * 10"" (i need the picture , go get the "8 * 10") just hail the king of kings "AKSHAY KUMAR"....