Teen Patti Review

Teen Patti is another film of Amitabh Bachchan released just after a little gap of Rann. This film is produced by Ambica Hinduja under the banner Serendipity Films. This film is directed by Leena Yadav and the casts are Ben Kingsley, Madhvan, Shradha Kapoor, Raima Sen, Siddharth Kher, Vaibhav Talwar, Ajay Devgan, Jackie Shroff, Mahesh Manjereker, Boman Irani, Irfan Khan, Danny Denzongpa and above all Amitabh Bachchan.

There are many films based on gambling such as the Great Gambler etc. in which Amitabh Bachchan was himself the main star. Once again he is in a film based on gambling but this film's reason and start are different.

Teen Patti is based on playing cards and cards is a game which ladies do not enjoy watching. Though few high society ladies do play cards, but the percentage is less. Therefore women may not enjoy the film which they can't understand well. It is really surprising that this film has been made by a lady herself.

Venkat Subramaniam (Amitabh Bachchan) plays a university professor. Such types of roles are very suitable for him at this age. He is an intelligent professor but his colleagues don't recognize his talent. He feels that his talent is ignored by his seniors. Being a professor in mathematics he works on the theory of probability. This is a branch of mathematics where you will find most of the sums based on cards. This might have given someone the idea of making film like this. We can't say that this idea came to its director Leena Yadav because this film is very similar to Hollywood film 21.

Well, while doing some random experiments Venkat realizes that using his application theory of probability he could foresee the cards. This is really exciting thing. Any person who plays cards would go mad to get this power. But since this is not a magic not all can do because mathematics is always considered to be a tough subject except for a few.

Shantanu (Madhavan) is another young lecturer in the same university. When he comes to know what his senior professor could do he wants to take advantage of it. He convinces Venkat to use his power in the real world of gambling and judge what his powers or theory could do. Venkat gets ready to do this reluctantly.

Thus Shantanu puts together a team of his college students Abbas (Vaibhav Talwar), Sid Bajaj (Siddharath Kher), Aparna (Shradha Kapoor, daughter of Shakti Kapoor) and Vikram (Dhruv Ganesh). With their help Venkat enters into the world of gambling.

Just like Venkat Vikram too have some reasons to get into the game of gambling. He needs money to fund his education.

They train themselves to send and understand their signs & signals which could help them a lot in winning the games. So communicating through their body signs Venkat is able to manipulate the card game in his favour. Thus they are able to make money easily.

But as long as they are playing the card game for experiments and adventure its okay but the winning money easily makes some of them greedy and they want to go on earning money using Venkat's unique power.  This is the time when the story of the film begins to take different turn.

They go on playing and winning the games. Everything goes on well till a blackmailer enters into the scene. He blackmails them and demands them huge amount to keep his mouth shut. They get scared because they knew that they were on wrong path and were doing crime (fraud). So police would surely jail them if they didn't fulfill the blackmailer's demand. Hence they go on fulfilling the blackmailer's demand whom they, don't know. The blackmailer just keeps contacting them on phone.

You just have to keep guessing if he was anyone of them or somebody else.

The film has been shown to be moving between India & London.

This is the second film of the director Leena Yadav. She had earlier directed the film 'Shabd' starring Sanjay Dutt. That film was different from the main stream and didn't look practical. Except Sanjay Dutt there is nothing worth to mention about the film 'Shabd'. Similarly, after some time this film may end in the same manner. Except Amitabh Bchchan, you may not find anything worth to remember.

Teen Patti has almost everything, such as thrill, suspense. Yet you will find something missing due to which mass will not get attracted to it.

Of course fans of Amitabh Bchchan will surely watch this film, today or some other day. But it can't be said whether they will watch it in theater or on video. Without Amitabh Bachchan hardly anyone one would remember this film.

Of course another attraction of this film is Shraddha Kapoor who is the daughter of versatile actor Shakti Kapoor. It is her debut film and steals the thunder. If luck favours her, she will make a place in the industry. She has given one scene with her father where their chemistry works well.

There are some other big stars too in this film such as Ajay Devgan, Jackie Shroff etc. But they are not used properly and their talent has been wasted in this film.

Another famous actor Mahesh Manjerekaer too has appeared as guest role and has justified his character.

This film will sometimes remind you Amitabh Bachchan's film Aankhein and Kaante. In Aankhein Amitabh Bachchan is fired from the bank which he too had established. Then to avenge his insult he makes a plan to rob the bank with three blind persons. In this film also he is not given recognition by his colleagues or seniors so to avenge his indirect insult he gets into gambling by using his mathematics powers and by playing cards.

Now let's come to the film Kannte. In that film also some people unite together to rob a bank but one of them is the traitor whom none of them know unless the end comes. Similarly in this film also you will get the same theme and if you have seen both his earlier films, you will not find anything new. 

This film also lacks good romance or any love story. Though it has been tried to show the romance of Madhavan and Raima Sen but it is very weak and you may not find its importance in the film. It was not necessary in the film. The only suspense you can find is Shantanu's two-timing with Saira Mohan. You get to know it only when she betrays him.

Aseem Bajaj's cinematography is of high quality. Even America Punvan has done art direction job well. But except one or two catchy songs Salim-Sulaiman's music is average.

Amitabh Bachchan is once again in his superb performance. But the writer director has not given him the character he needs now.

Madhvan's performance is good too.

Songs penned by Irfan Siddique is average but choreography by Ashley Lobo is according to the songs. Though the editing by Kaushik Das & Hughes Winborne is good the screenplay is weak. Even the dialogues by Ben Rekhi are not so powerful and somewhere it is not clear what the characters want to say.

The film's intention is not clear. Except the beginning you don't know why the film is being made.

Post interval many scenes get repetitive. It seems that the film is being made inside the gambling dens only. But hurry has been shown in climax which any one can feel.

If you want to watch again Amitabh Bachchan giving an amazing performance you may go to watch this film.