Review of Tees Maar Khan (2010) by Niranjanaa R — 29 Dec 2010

Farah Khan is indeed a fun-loving person with a pronounced sense of humour, as has been evident in her earlier films. If Main Hoon Naa had a delightful sense of fun permeating through the college campus where most of the drama unfolded, then Om Shanti Om used Bollywood's favourite theme -- reincarnation -- with a sparkling, tongue-in-cheek tenor that made the implausible end up as uproarious fun. Tees Maar Khan too is purported to be total fun and begins on a promising note, with the actors creating havoc on screen from the word go. Unborn Akshay kicking in his Bollywood-crazy mother's womb, all grown-up Akshay breaking the law and bragging about it in bindaas style, dim-witted Anya (Katrina) doing the Sheela Ki Jawani number with aplomb and basking in her B-grade starlet status, an edgy superstar (Akshaye Khanna) tearing his hair apart for having missed the Oscar to Anil Kapoor's Slumdog Millionaire act...you begin to settle down for loads of masti and dhamaal as the show unfolds.

But post interval, you end up restless. And fidgety. Because nothing really connects. The film maker has always treated Bollywood cinema with a fond irreverence and has laughed at many of the sacrosanct givens of the mainstream formula. But all the jokes and the jibes have been incorporated in a storyline and a screenplay that has always managed to have an emotional connect, like old-fashioned Hindi cinema has. Main Hoon Naa reiterated the bhai-bhai bond and OSO applauded the eternal love story that seems to be staple Bollywood fare. Sadly, Tees Maar Khan begins as a spoof and remains a spoof, till the very end. All the characters end up as mere caricatures and completely fail to build up an emotional quotient in the film. The protagonist, Tees Maar Khan, ends up as a much-applauded character in the film, but you don't feel like putting your hands together for him because even his con act leaves you cold. Katrina Kaif's Anya is the strangest heroine act till now. Completely over the top and completely brainless, she has nothing alluring about her, till the very end. All she does is rant, rave and live up to the dumb girlfriend/item girl stereotype, donning rollers in her hair and declaring `You dirty dog' over and over again. The only exaggeration that seems to work here is Akshaye Khanna. He plays the Oscar-crazy superstar as a hysterical madcap and somehow manages to pull off the joke. A complete surprise act from the generally staid and sober Akshaye Khanna!

The film might have worked if it had buffered its spoof-and-satire stance with some emotional drama too. For there is only this much you can laugh at Danny Boyle becoming Danny Doyle and Manoj Night Shyamalan becoming Manoj Day Ramalan. If the drama fails to touch you, the music (Vishal-Shekhar) doesn't remain with you too long. Of course Sheela Ki Jawani is eye-popping chartbuster fare and adds another definition to the item number with Katrina's explosive rendition. But eventually, fun needs a foundation too and spoofs need some substance to carry them through. TMK has colour, humour, pace but nothing does seem to fall in place in terms of plot and character connect.