Tees Maar Khan - Movie Review
Published: March 4, 2011
Starring Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Akshaye Khanna
Don't expect anything groundbreaking from the Queen of Camp, Farah Khan—unless you count what has to be the first-ever in-utero musical number. Yes, Tees Maar Khan actually features a baby dancing with sexy girls in amniotic fluid.
Outlandishness is Farah Khan's trademark, and her latest film certainly delivers on that count: the color, the costumes, the general zaniness. But what's noticeably missing is her muse: actor Shahrukh Khan.
Farah Khan is primarily known as a choreographer—she's worked in that capacity on more than 80 Hindi films and she was nominated for a Tony Award for a Broadway production. She's directed three films; her first two were the box-office hits Main Hoon Na (2004) and Om Shanti Om (2007), both starring Shahrukh Khan. Her style of filmmaking is perfectly suited to his style of performing. The actor doesn't appear in Tees Maar Khan, but he's there in spirit—as the butt of the joke. The two have famously fallen out, and her digs at him seem too personal and mean-spirited to be funny.
Like Om Shanti Om, Tees Maar Khan lampoons the film industry. But Om Shanti Om's good-natured ribbing belies an abiding love of movies, however silly they might be. What's more, the actors in Om Shanti Om make fun of themselves instead of being made fun of by others. In Tees Maar Khan, actor Akshaye Khanna plays a Bollywood star who is clearly supposed to be Shahrukh Khan.
Khanna's character, Aatish Kapoor, is furious that he turned down the chance to be in the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). In reality, Shahrukh Khan was offered the role of the game-show host in the film, and when he said no, it went to Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, who plays himself in Tees Maar Khan. One brief scene with Anil Kapoor celebrating on stage at the Kodak Theater with a bunch of Indian kids hoisting Oscars in the air is hilarious. If Shahrukh Khan had also played himself it might have been similarly funny.
Aatish is approached by a con man, Tees Maar Khan (played by Akshay Kumar), who pretends to be an American director. Tees Maar Khan pitches a film to him that is similar to the real films Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005) and Lagaan (2001)—which was nominated for an Oscar—both of which starred acclaimed actor and Shahrukh Khan-rival Aamir Khan. Desperate to win an Oscar, Aatish is suckered into the phony production and makes a fool out of himself.
This spoof-on-speed is so manic that Kumar actually dials back his normally frenetic energy, and compared to everything else going on in the film, his delivery seems downright nuanced—a word that's surely never been associated with Kumar before. But his attempt to steady the film is inundated by a tidal wave of dumb wackiness.
Tees Maar Khan is rated Skip.
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