Written by: Shirish Kunder
Directed by: Farah Khan
Starring: Katrina Kaif, Anil Kappor, Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna
Tees Maar Khan–the most awaited movie in the Hindi film industry in 2010 from the time it was announced in early January 2010–finally hits the screen. This was news for quite a few reasons: a major one being Farah Khan directing a movie without Shah Rukh Khan for the first time after their extremely successful and fruitful association previously in Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om. The hype and buzz surrounding Tees Maar Khan has reached unimaginable heights thanks to the sexy sultry super-hit item number “Sheila Ki Jawaani” featuring Katrina Kaif.
But now, coming to the movie itself: it’s supposed to be a comical heist film. With Farah Khan known for making “Masala entertainers” and king of comedy Akshay Kumar in the lead with his lucky mascot Katrina Kaif (with hit music as well), one surely expects nothing short of a complete fun-ride. But the film blows both hot and cold.
[ad#longpost]The movie is about a con-artist/wanted robber Tees Maar Khan (Akshay Kumar) who takes up a new assignment of robbing a train carrying tonnes of national treasure. Tees Maar Khan (TMK) comes up with an idea of making a patriotic movie, which has a scene in which a train belonging to the British is robbed. TMK gets to know that the train passes through a village, and sets up the shooting there–then he gets the entire unsuspecting village to work in his movie. Also, he gets his girlfriend, a wannabe actress, Anya (Katrina Kaif), to be the lead along with the superstar Oscar-hungry Aatish Kapoor (Akshaye Khanna) so that no one gets even a slight hint of doubt on the actual plan. How he manages to pull off the heist is depicted through the movie.
Farah Khan, who had written her previous two movies exceedingly well, this time falters with the script (by Shirish Kunder) selection. The story, inspired by the 1966 Peter Sellers film After the Fox, is wafer-thin in its Indian adaptation. However what almost makes up for the lacking storyline are the gags, which keeps one entertained most of the time. Farah Khan does well in getting the best out of Akshay Kumar as this is a role tailor made for him. Most of the roles in the movie require quite a bit of overboard performances from the actors, and Farah ensures she gets that from all, including Katrina. Farah Khan’s choreography stands out as well, for the ultra sexy sultry “Sheila ki Jawaani’ song”
The movie is Akshay Kumar’s show all the way; he delivers and does not disappoint. His acting is quite over the top, which is the required of the character. Katrina–well, she looks like a goddess. She plays the role of the aspiring actress perfectly and matches Akshay for the level of performance. “Sheila ki Jawaani” is going to be her claim to fame for a very very long time to come! Akshaye Khanna as the Oscar hungry, top Hindi actor Aatish Kapoor is amazing–he is hilarious and displays his comic skills well. The three sidekicks of TMK deliver also. The music (by Vishal-Shekhar) is top class, with “Sheila” already a chartbuster, with the title track quite catchy, as are “Bade Dilwala” and “Happy Ending.” Salman Khan’s guest appearance in “Walla Walla” is perfect. The background score is also great. The dialogues are crispy and Akshay ensures they are delivered with the right impact!
The movie starts off well and continues with full steam till interval, after which things stagnate and slow down considerably. The jokes begin to fall flat, the thin plotline suffers and everything drags. Overall, it’s a light-hearted “masala movie” with logic and reasoning thrown out of the window. It had everything it needed to deliver and then some: excellent and over the top performances, great music, pretty-looking Katrina Kaif and some truly hilarious scenes (with lots of silly ones as well). If only more attention was given to the script, it would have been everything we had hoped for.
