TEEN PATTI
BHEJA FRY AT THE LEENA’S BORESINKI
by Vishal Verma

A Hinduja Ventures Presentation of a Serendipity Films production.

Producer: Ambika A Hinduja
Writer: Leena Yadav and Shiv Kumar Subramaniam
Director: Leena Yadav
Genre: Thriller
Target Audience: General


Starring

Amitabh Bachchan...... Prof. Venkat Subramaniam
Sir Ben Kingsley...... Perci Trachtenberg
R Madhavan...... Prof. Shantanu Biswas
Raima Sen...... Shivani Mukherjee
Dhruv Ganesh...... Bikram Ashwin Dhar
Siddharth Kher...... Siddharth Bajaj Aka Sid
Vaibhav Talwar...... Abbas Sheikh
Saira Mohan...... Mrs. K
Sharadha Kapoor...... Aparna Khanna Aka Apu
Ajay Devgan...... Special Appearance
Jackie Shroff………Special Appereance
Mahesh Manjrekar………….Local Don
With Tinu Anand, Shakti Kapoor, Meeta Vasisht and Ranjeet in one scene each




Technical Analysis

Oh Baby…. You got all your cards wrong darling need a ‘goodluck’ to go home after a booze my dear?. Needless to say that I just used a black jack type jargon used in gambling joints in India and I bet the writers are unaware of this.

Anyways ‘Teen Patti’ is a huge corporate blunder but what is more disturbing is to see two stalwarts of acting Big B and Sir Ben Kinsley coming together on screen and absolutely doing nothing for the viewers and more depressing is to see Sir Ben Kinsley doing a mere listening act.

Money money its so funny ahha…. Anyways Leena Yadav’s ‘Teen Pattti’ coming after ‘Shabd’ which made many go ‘speechless’ after watching it maintains its insanity giving a perfect example of a movie which by calling it bad is an understatement ‘probably’ unnecessary should be the right word.

The shocking point is the writer helmer Leena along with her writing partner Shiv Kumar strangely believe that they are into something compelling and original. Movie like this has been made in this 21st centaury of the same name ‘21’ starring Kevin spacey but that was on a true story whereas ‘Teen Patti’ is of course indianise. No its not a copy but it does takes some vital elements from it.

Movies centered around gambling has been a routine in west, Bollywood has had it stories on playing cards like ‘Baazi’ and ‘Shree 420’ but they where not thrillers so a good movie about card sharks should be far more plentiful than they are. Because card playing is not as inherently visual as, say, other games. Still, you'd think that, with all the TV hours devoted to housie, pehchan Kaun, poker and other things, some enterprising filmmaker would figure out a way to make it all work for the movies in India.

So what Leenaji does? She delivers a mess from a premise which had all the ingredients of a thriller cause the helmer is all gloss if only the director Leena and her partner in scriptwriting (you can also read crime) Shiv Kumar Subramaniam had not opted for glitz, then they could have opened some avenues for their producers who could have played it for some higher stakes.

With all prefabricated stereotypes characters, the movie also misrepresents genius.
Card counting, after all, is not the same thing as mastering superstring theory – an autistic savant with a low IQ, can be a whiz at it. The film doesn't even do a good job of explaining how card counting works.

Big B can use his snaky charm and the great baritone voice to sell almost anything, but here he is reduced to a weirdo mathematician who keeps talking to Newton and other great mathematicians in his room.

Mahadevan is in element but what ‘karz’ is he in and how much money he has to pay our makers don,t seem to bother. The newcomers Dhruv Ganesh, Siddharth Kher, Vaibhav Talwar and Sharadha Kapoor are decent and have potential.

In the original, the card game was made interesting to watch by use of sign languages but here nobody understands the theory as it is vaguely explained with those floating formulas, numbers, spades, diamonds and what not adding to the confusion.

On the mundane suspense part that who is the guy and all, it miserably fails to register any thrills.

Those addas, joints appear so fake that even makes us wonder whether he was the original Jackie Shroff showed in one of the joints.

The sexy number ‘Teri Niyaat Kharab hai’ is okay but the fact is the ‘neeyat’ (intention) of the movie is not Kharab but sadly the entire movie is.

Its glossy been shot and Big B trying his best to fill the vacuum but its becomes quite a task for him also resulting in the movie in scoring one point of five.



The Story

The reclusive genius Venkat (Amitabh Bachchan) has cracked a theory that could redefine the principles of probability and randomness. Venkat is encouraged to test his theory in the real world by professor Shantanu (Madhavan), an ambitious colleague of Venkat.

Although Venkat has no interest in the money that could come from practicing his equation to crack 'Teen Patti', which could rake in all the moolah, he eventually succumbs to Shantanu's charismatic persuasion. Soon, with the help of a few students, they explore the underground gambling dens of Mumbai.

But what starts out as an experiment between a charismatic young professor and an eccentric older one soon descends into a game neither of them can control.



Promotion

Promotion had been decent but the movie leaves a lot to be desired.



Business Analysis

Playing all the wrong cards, ‘Teen Patti’ is a huge loss.



Other Credits

Cassettes and CD's on T-Series. Singers: Sunidhi Chauhan, Naresh Kamat, Salim Merchant, Sonia Saigal, Abhijit Vaghani, Anushka Manchanda, Joe Alvares. Lyricist: Irfan Siddique, Asif Ali Beg and Ajinkya Iyer. Music Director: Salim Merchant And Sulaiman Merchant. Cinematography: Aseem Bajaj. Choreography: Ashley Lobo. Editor: Kaushik Das and Hughes Winborne. Screenplay: Leena Yadav and Shiv Kumar Subramaniam. Sound: Andrew Belletty. Dialogue: Leena Yadav and Shiv Kumar Subramaniam with Ben Rekhi. Costume: Ameira Punvan. Media Awareness: Imagesmiths. Reviewed at Cinemax, Versova, Mumbai on February 25, 2010.

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