Star cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Akshaye Khanna.
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Plot: Akshay Kumar is a con man who bags a contract to carry out the biggest con of his life. He has to loot a train which contains antique pieces worth crores of rupees, right under the nose of the police. He thinks up a plot to do the job. Impersonating a Hollywood director, he signs Akshaye Khanna for the role of an Indian revolutionary and asks him to carry out the train heist as he shoots the sequence. Helping Akshaye Khanna in the ‘film scene’ are inhabitants of Dhule where the train robbery is taking place.
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What’s Bad: Too much of farcical comedy; lack of emotions; over-the-top characters; unbelievable script.
Verdict: Tees Maar Khan is definitely a disappointment; but it will bring back the invested money and a bit more.
Loo break: A couple of times in the second half.
Watch or Not?: Watch it if you are prepared for a crazy, over-the-top comedy; if you are looking for any sense, this is surely not for you.
Hari Om Entertainment Company, Three’s Company and UTV Motion Pictures’ Tees Maar Khan (UA) is a farcical comedy. Tabrez Mirza Khan alias Tees Maar Khan (Akshay Kumar) is a con man for whom no con job is impossible. His gang comprises Dollar (Dharampal), Soda (Vijay Maurya) and Burger (Ali Asgar). He has a girlfriend, Anya (Katrina Kaif), who is an upcoming actress, trying to make it big in films.
One fine day, international antique smugglers, Johri Brothers (Raghu Ram and Rajiv Laxman), assign Tees Maar Khan the biggest con job of his life. Their loot of antiques has been seized by the police, and they want Tees Maar Khan to rob all those antique pieces while they are being taken by the police, in a train.
Tees Maar Khan thinks up a plan to execute the train robbery. Impersonating as a Hollywood director, he signs Atish Kapoor (Akshaye Khanna), an Oscar-obsessed actor, to star in his film about pre-Independence India, convincing him that he’d bag the Oscar award for the role. Atish is supposed to play a revolutionary in the film. Tees Maar Khan readies him to participate in a train robbery sequence, wherein he would loot a train with antique pieces because they belong to India but are being taken away by the Britishers. Since the train is to pass through Dhule in Maharashtra, Tees Maar Khan ropes in all the people of the town to play like-minded revolutionaries. There is also Anya who would play Atish’s love interest in the film.
How does Tees Maar Khan execute the train heist and succeed in his mission to loot the train? What happens to the people of Dhule after the operation? Do the Johri Brothers play fair with Tees Maar Khan?
Script and Screenplay
Heavily inspired by the Hollywood film, After The Fox, this one is completely farcical and over the top. Shirish Kunder’s story doesn’t boast of originality because there is too much similarity between Tees Maar Khan and After The Fox. Ashmit Kunder and Shirish Kunder’s screenplay is an assemblage of gags, some of which are funny, some hilarious and some others dull. Logic doesn’t have any place in this drama, and this point becomes evident quite soon. The characters in the film speak so loudly that it often gets on the audience’s nerves.
As the main plot of the film is about the train robbery and that, too, is farcical, the audience does get irritated when it goes on and on. That is to say, the second half of the film bores at several places because it crosses all limits of madness. However, to be fair to the writers, they have added some funny scenes intermittently, which serve to evoke laughter. Prominent among these are Anya’s dumb bimbette act, the scene referring to Aamir Khan’s telephone call to Tees Maar Khan, the use of Manoj Kumar’s Mere desh ki dharti song while the train is being robbed etc. Here, it must be added that references to personalities like Steven Spielberg and Manoj Night Shyamalan will evoke laughter from the class audience whereas a large chunk among the masses would not even get the joke. There are several other subtle jokes which will be lost on the masses. So, it would be a queer thing – the classes would disapprove of the loud and often crazy drama but the jokes would hold appeal for them; on the other hand, the masses may be more receptive to the loud and often crude drama but they would not be able to comprehend several jokes.
Another drawback of the drama is that everyone is super-charged and super-energetic in the film, whether it is Tees Maar Khan, his cronies, his mother, the police, the CBI officers hot on his trail, actor Atish Kapoor, the inhabitants of Dhule, the Johri brothers etc. All of them speak loudly and very animatedly and they can become dumb whenever necessary for the scene.
The climax is very tame. Actually, the train robbery sequence seems like the climax, and everything thereafter (which comprises the climax including inhabitants of Dhule watching Tees Maar Khan’s film; your Editor, Komal Nahta, commenting on Tees Maar Khan’s film; courtroom drama; Tees Maar Khan confronting the Johri brothers) looks unnecessary. The scenes mentioned in parentheses need to be deleted. Dialogues (by Shirish Kunder and Ashmit Kunder) are witty at several places.
Star Performances
Akshay Kumar does well in the title role. He gets into the skin of the character but, unfortunately, it doesn’t offer him scope to do too many different things. Still, he is in his element. Katrina Kaif, looking hot and sexy, does a fantastic job. She plays starlet Anya wonderfully and makes people laugh with her vanity. Her dance on the Sheela ki jawani song is out of the world and it is hard to believe that Katrina can dance so gracefully and so very energetically. Akshaye Khanna overacts beautifully, as is the demand of his character. He is superb. However, it must be added that there will be a section of the audience which will be put off by his overacting. Sudhir Pandey is excellent as Atish Kapoor’s secretary. Arya Babbar is quite good. Apra Mehta does a fair job. Murli Sharma and Aman Verma’s comedy is hardly funny. Ali Asgar is splendid. Dharampal and Vijay Maurya lend decent support. Sachin Khedekar does a fair job. Vijay Patkar tries to be funny but barely succeeds. Raghu Ram and Rajiv Laxman fill the bill. Salman Khan makes his presence splendidly felt in the Wallah re wallah song-dance. Anil Kapoor lends star value in a special appearance. Avtar Gill, Anjan Srivastava, Shashi Kiran and Chunkey Panday (special appearance) pass muster. Sanjay Dutt’s commentary adds to the drama.
Direction and Music
Farah Khan’s direction leaves something to be desired. For one, the film’s decibel level is just too high. Also, too much of farce without even a hint of emotions and with barely anything believable in the drama makes the film far less enjoyable than what it could’ve been had these points been taken care of. Vishal-Shekhar’s music is very good. Sheela ki jawani is a super-hit song and its picturisation (Farah Khan) is sensational! ‘Wallah re wallah’ is also an entertaining number. The title track (composed and penned by Shirish Kunder) is interesting. The other songs are good but should’ve been better. Lyrics (Vishal Dadlani and Anvita Dutt Guptan) go with the mood of the film. Shirish Kunder’s background music gets repetitive as there is an overdose of the title track and music in the background, all through the film.
P.S. Vinod’s camerawork is very nice. Editing (Shirish Kunder) is alright. Production and technical values are of a good standard.
The Last Word
On the whole, Tees Maar Khan is a disappointing fare although it is funny in parts. Nevertheless, it will do more than average business because of its absolutely bumper initial, the absolutely fantastic ‘Sheela ki jawani’ song and dance, enhanced admission rates in many cinemas, the holiday period, and lack of big releases next week. Farah Khan will have to be prepared for brickbats from the audience together with the bouquets (in the form of bumper collections in the first week).
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