Starring: : Amitabh Bachchan, Sir Ben Kingsley, R Madhavan, Raima Sen, Dhruv Ganesh, Siddharth Kher.
Direction: Leena Yadav
Music: Salim-Sulaiman
Production: Serendipity Films
Rating 1.5/5

STORY IN BRIEF
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Amitabh Bachchan plays Mathematics professor Venkat Subramaniam who is invited by another great mathematician and magician, Perci Trachtenberg (Sir Ben Kingsley) to a casino in London to discuss his thesis. The film moves into flashback.

Subramaniam, a teacher at B.I.T., does not get along with his dean (played by theatre guru Barry John) and is on the verge of losing his job as his papers are not being published. Dejected, Subramaniam is trying to put his mind back to work, when a pop-up on his computer entices him to play a game of teen patti or black jack.

Subramaniam soon realises that if he applies some math, and knows the cards of any one player, he can predict the winner. He decides that this 'theory of probability' will be the topic of his next paper. He tests it again with a young prof Shantanu Biswas (Madhavan) and a group of students comprising Aparna (Shraddha Kapoor), Siddharth Bajaj (Siddharth Kher) and Bikram (Dhruv Ganesh).

Shantanu convinces Subramaniam to test it on real situations. And so the gang plots and plans their strategy. Each member takes on a different name and disguise for safety. Soon, they start trying out the theory at dingy gambling dens.

But after getting caught in several dangerous situations, Subramaniam decides to put an end to it all. It's a phone call from a blackmailer that makes him continue playing and winning.

Meanwhile, richie rich classmate Abbas Sheikh (Vaibhav Talwar) follows the group. He shows them more money and takes them to high society gambling dens. Caught in the web of their habit, the gang has no option but to keep it on. It's not about the professor and his theory anymore.

Things get murky from then on. Everybody suspects the other, and greed, lies, fraud and betrayal take over their lives. Each of the players gets involved in his or her alternate identity to such an extent that their real identity is lost. This leads to more complexities and tragedies.

ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE
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Two legends of our times Amitabh and Sir Ben Kingsley in ‘Teen Patti’ are more than enough to lure the movie fanatics lining up at the ticket window. This Leena Yadav’s second attempt after the rather confused and controversial ‘Shabd’ has taken its theme from the 2008 hit ’21’.

A mathematical experiment drives a bunch of people into the world of crime, passion, greed, jealousy and deception. And add in some twists and that is what Teen Patti is all about.

Leena has improved leaps and bounds as a director but not as a story teller. The movie had a confusing flow, quite reminiscent to her previous movie. Logical and continuation mistakes were aplenty. The biggest being that the mathematical formula just tells you who will win the game and not a tweak on how to win, and with that Amitabh and Co. winning in crores was illogical. There were many unanswered questions as well. What happened to the killing of the black mailer? Why didn’t the police try to find more about the money that they apprehended? How is it possible to give away 6 crores to someone without a reason? How is it possible that the only punishment for the death of a student is accepting the resignation of the lecturer involved? But the power and greed for money was well shown.

Technically the movie was quite an ace, with Aseem Bajaj’s brilliant work behind the camera, Kaushik and Hughes innovative editing tricks, a spooky background sound by Andrew Belletty and a good musical score by Salim-Sulaiman.

Amitabh Bachchan acts like a King, as a mathematical genius, and seeing him with Ben Kingsley was a treat. The only put off being the dubbed Hindi version of their conversation. Sir Ben Kingsley’s role demanded no histrionics and yet he impresses us with his eyes and body language, a true artist. Madhavan was exceptional as a professor with negative shades and looked every bit convincing. Siddharth Kher, Abbas Sheikh and Shraddha were good in their respective roles. Bikram Ashwin Dhar as Dhruv was brilliant. What were Ajay Devgn and Jackie Shroff doing in this film? At least Shakthi Kapoor comes and voices out a brilliant punch line. Complete waste of talent.

Overall a movie which can be seen as an experimental escapist cinema or just a below average movie with two legends in it.

Newsofap.com advice : Can watch it once

Date : 26/02/2010. News by Newsofap.com