December 27, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): The first thing that will come to mind while watching Tees Maar Khan is that it is so not a Farah Khan film. Farah, one of the few successful female directors, had made a name in the male dominated Bollywood with her unique brand of humor. Both her previous blockbusters, Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om saw Farah churn out a brilliant mix of old school Bollywood with a dash of masala.
Farah Khan misses her much-deserved hat-trick with the box office dude, Tees Maar Khan. Despite having a grand opening, the weak script could not manage to pull enough audiences to the theatres later. The reason is just too obvious. With the change of the writer, the fate of the film took a major turn. We are all left to wonder why Farah decided to dig her own grave by making her husband, Shirish Kunder, the writer of this film. At first Farah just copied the idea of After the Fox by Vittorio De Sica. Later she bought the rights of the film just to play safe.
What Shirish has done with the script of the film, could have been done by a Priyadarshan, an Anees Bazmee or even Farahs brother Sajid. The common factor would only be Akshay Kumar. But they would not dare to make the mistake Shirish did make a 130 minute film about a one minute long promo cutting. TMK is about the con man, Akshay Kumar, who pretends to shoot a film and convinces an entire village that looting a police train is a part of that film. This act was supposed to be the con mans magnum opus. Katrina is the heroine of that fake film, while Akshaye Khanna is the Oscar-desiring hero.
All the jokes fall flat on its face, with no Shah Rukh to give them the much-needed lift. Although SRK is known for having refused historical projects like Munnabhai MBBS, Lagaan and 3 Idiots, for once we appreciate his discretion of walking out of TMK. And this time we know who bore the brunt of this decision.
Farah Khan takes a dig at Bollywood, or should we say at her growing number of enemies? The superstar of the fake film in Tees Maar Khan lets Slumdog Millionaire out of his grasp as his secretary mistook Danny Boyle to be Danny Denzongapa and chucked him out. We do sense Farah hinting at her friend-turned-foe, Shah Rukh. The superstar then longs for the Oscars as he shoots for a film in the village, as that is the only way of getting an Oscar nomination. This time the target was Amirs Peepli Live. The last potshot at the Khan trio involved the man himself, Salman Khan. According to Tees Maar Khan, his girlfriend Katrina Kaif, a makeup-obsessed item girl, might be known to Salman who wants Mannat (the bungalow of Shah Rukh) on Eid.
Akshays luck might have run out in Bollywood, and TMK is just another proof. He has nothing new to offer in this film. Katrina Kaif, again, is mere eye candy and has one song (do we need to mention Sheila Ki Jawani?) and one line (main aur thoda make-up karke aati hoon) to outline her role. The only one who rises victorious from this sunken ship is Akshaye Khanna with his outstanding comic timings.
--Sampurn Wire