Mere mortals are greedy beings who will do anything to achieve their dreams; even if it means cheating and deceiving life. Teen Patti explains how modern man uses science to trick and become wealthy using probability and applying it to the world of gambling. And immediately a problem arises. The educated will understand this deep and mathematical theory, but will the average Desi? Most likely they will not and thus be put off with Teen Patti. Anyhow, director Leena Yadav goes out on a limb with this film. Perhaps she believes that by adding the likes of Amitabh Bachchan and Ben Kingsley to the star cast may add to the star value of the movie. Read on to see if Teen Patti puts forward its ace card or the joker in the box.
Professor Venkat (Amitabh Bachchan), a genius by scientific means, believes he has figured out the inevitable and match theories of probability and randomness. After letting his colleague Shantanu (R. Madhavan) of his findings, he is encouraged by him to test his theory in the real world. They decide to apply this new hypothesis to the card game Teen Patti and gathers a host of college students to try out his conjecture in the underworld gambling dens around the city. Amidst the initial glory of making lots of moolah, things go out of control as each player becomes greedy. There is back-stabbing, lies, deceit and blackmail. Ben Kingsley fits in as a co-narrator to whom Venkat narrates the story of Teen Patti.
Eeeks! Get the drift? Teen Patti is seriously a lost cause. It is as though Leena Yadav doesn’t like her audiences and chooses to torture us…and how! For starters we fall victim to the excruciating badly dubbed conversations between Ben Kingsley and Amitabh Bachchan. You can’t help but cringe at Boman Irani’s voiceover. And then we are hurt even more with a caricature Bachchan who looks totally lost in the film. However, it’s not him to blame but the weak and dodgy screenplay which doesn’t do justice to him. I can almost guarantee you will yawn during the first hour of the film—the pace is that slow. And with the blink of an eye, a suicide occurs finishing the game followed by a long speech by Bachchan brings the film to the climax. Badda-Bing Teen Patti is game over…literally.
Amitabh Bachchan performs with great ease in Teen Patti and while he looks like a lost puppy at certain points in the film, he comes out a winner. Ben Kingsley is an actor par excellence but doesn’t work in this film. Leena Yadav doesn’t use him to the maximum, making him look silly. Madhavan is spot on. His fluctuation between good and bad is fantastic. The rest of the cast, Shraddha, Siddharth and Dhruv do well and create good impressions amongst the big stars. The cameos by Ajay Devgan, Shakti Kapoor and Barry John are forced and unimpressive.
The only song worth mentioning is ‘Neeyat’ which has been seductively choreographed. Besides that, nothing really to talk about.
Teen Patti will definitely not work in India and is really looking for more international acclaim. As a film, it limits itself to an audience which is educated or can understand modern complex theories quickly. On the hold a good try by Leena Yadav, but you’re better off playing a real-life game of Teen Patti rather than watching it.
