| Tees Maar Khan | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Farah Khan |
| Written by | Shirish Kunder Ashmith Kunder |
| Story by | Adapted story: Shirish Kunder Original story: Neil Simon Cesare Zavattini |
| Based on | After the Fox byVittorio de Sica |
| Produced by | Twinkle Khanna Shirish Kunder Ronnie Screwvala |
| Starring | Akshay Kumar Akshaye Khanna Katrina Kaif |
| Narrated by | Sanjay Dutt |
| Cinematography | P. S. Vinod |
| Edited by | Shirish Kunder |
| Music by | Title Song and Background Score: Shirish Kunder Original soundtrack: Vishal–Shekhar |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | UTV Motion Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 131 minutes[1] |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹45 crore[2] |
| Box office | est.₹101.89 crore[3] |
Tees Maar Khan (transl. He Who Killed Thirty) is a 2010 IndianHindi-languageheistcomedy film directed byFarah Khan and produced byTwinkle Khanna, editorShirish Kunder andRonnie Screwvala underUTV Motion Pictures,Hari Om Entertainment, and Three's Company. A remake of the 1966 Italian filmAfter the Fox,[4] whose story was adapted by Shirish and scripted by him and his brother Ashmith Kunder, the film starsAkshay Kumar,Akshaye Khanna, andKatrina Kaif in lead roles.[5]Salman Khan andAnil Kapoor make special appearances.[6][7]
Tees Maar Khan was released worldwide on 24 December 2010, onChristmas Eve.[8] The film was a moderate commercial success at the box office, and is today primarily remembered for Kaif's dance number "Sheila Ki Jawani" and Akshaye Khanna's portrayal of superstar Aatish Kapoor, who works with Kumar's Oscar winning director persona. The theatrical trailer and title song of the film were released on UTV Motion Pictures' YouTube channel on 4 August 2010 for promotional purposes. The trailer premiered in theatres withVipul Amrutlal Shah's romantic comedyAction Replayy, also starring Kumar, andRohit Shetty's action comedyGolmaal 3 on 5 November 2010.[9] Featuring music composed byVishal-Shekhar, with Shirish composing the background score and the title track while also writing it, the film was Khan's only film till date to neither be written by her nor feature her frequent collaboratorShah Rukh Khan.
Despite having received negative reviews upon release,Tees Maar Khan has achievedcult status as a classic parody film.[10] The film is also noted for being the only screen collaboration between Kumar and Akshaye Khanna.
The Indian Police Force has successfully busted an operation to smuggle ₹500 crores worth of national treasure. The Interpol suspects that the Johri Brothers, a pair of infamous Siamese twins, are behind this. Due to the possibility that they will try to steal the treasure again, Commissioner Khadak Singh is assigned the task of securing the train that will transport these ancient artefacts, with no stops, back to the treasury in Delhi. Commissioner Khadak Singh suspects that the Johri Brothers will hire Tabrez Mirza Khan, a.k.a. Tees Maar Khan, a cunning conman, to steal the artefacts from the moving train.
Meanwhile, in Paris, Tabrez is arrested by a secret agent from Interpol. CBI Officers Chatterjee and Mukherjee are tasked with the responsibility of bringing Tabrez back to India via air. However, Tabrez tricks the people on the plane and slyly escapes on landing. As expected, he is soon hired by the Johri Brothers, who are desperate to retrieve the antiques.
To perform this feat, Tabrez steals some shooting equipment from a low-budget film and stumbles across Dhulia, a poor, small village that resides by the railway track over which the antiques will be transported. He pretends to be Manoj "Day" Ramalin, a film director and brother ofManoj "Night" Ramalin. Using this identity, he approaches Aatish Kapoor, a superstar who is desperate to win anOscar Award, to be a part of the film he is shooting to gain an edge over the police and control the villagers. After Tabrez narrates an "Oscar-winning" period drama based on India's freedom struggle, Aatish promptly agrees to be a part of the film.
As Tabrez gears up for the heist, the Johri Brothers inform him that the train is delayed by a week due to security reasons. As a result, he is forced to shoot the film titled "Bharat Ka Khazana," meaning "India's Treasure," that he never intended to. During the shooting process, he ends up bonding with the villagers and also manages to, unintentionally, awaken the method actor within Aatish.
Finally, the big day arrives, and Tabrez briefs the villagers that the scene to be shot is that of Indians looting a British train secured by British officers who are stealing India's treasures and eventually taking them back to Britain. He directs them to stop and loot the train, and load all the loot into three trucks. Aatish, completely lost in his character as a freedom fighter, stands on the railway tracks holding the flag of India's freedom fighters. On noticing the superstar and hundreds of villagers, Commissioner Singh is forced to stop the train.
After the trucks are loaded and the train is completely emptied, the Johri Brothers double-cross Tabrez and run away with his share of the loot as well, leaving him to be arrested by Commissioner Singh. The court sentences Tabrez to 60 years in prison; he asks his sidekicks to complete the film and release it.
At the film's premiere, Tabrez is brought under heavy police protection straight from prison. Critics tout the incoherent, disjointed film asFrench cinema that's sure to win an Oscar. However, once the curtains drop and the lights return, Tabrez is nowhere to be seen, having escaped during the screening. He hijacks the Johri Brothers' plane that contains the loot and throws them out, thereby getting even with them. Aatish wins the Best Actor award for Bharat Ka Khazana at the Oscars, thus completing his dream. Dhulia is now prosperous due to the fame and tourists that it gets due to Bharat Ka Khazana.
The film ends with different members who helped make the film getting 'prizes', and the two CBI Officers getting married.
Priyanka Chopra was earlier rumoured to play the part of Aanya,[11] but that rumour was later dropped afterKatrina Kaif was chosen to play the female lead.[12]
The script is penned by director Farah Khan's husband, Shirish Kunder.Sanjay Dutt was confirmed to play the role of the narrator for the film.[13] Farah stated in an interview that she wanted someone with a voice which people can recognise even in their sleep.[14]
An entire train was made and 500m track laid for Rs. 7.5 million to shoot the climax scenes.[15]
The music of the film is composed by the music duo ofVishal–Shekhar and one song from debutant music composerShirish Kunder for the title track. Lyrics are penned byVishal Dadlani,Anvita Dutt Guptan and Shirish Kunder. The music was launched on 10 November 2010. The entire cast and crew travelled on a train booked fromMumbai to Lonavala for the music launch.[16]Sonu Nigam has given 54 voices for the title track of the film.[17] The song "Sheila Ki Jawani" became a chartbuster and fetchedSunidhi Chauhan a Filmfare Award and many other awards.
Tees Maar Khan premiered in the UK,Fiji and Canada on 22 December 2010.
Amobile video game based on the film was also launched byUTV Indiagames.[18]
Anupama Chopra ofNDTV wrote, "Tees Maar Khan, adapted from After the Fox, by writers Shrish and Ashmit Kunder, is disappointingly limp and insistently low on IQ. The film has little of the effervescence and flair of a typical Farah Khan film," giving it 2/5 stars.[19] Aseem Chhabra ofRediff.com, who rated the film 1.5/5, stated, "Even at two hours, the film feels like one long and tedious exercise in bad humour. Some people laughed during the screening I attended in New York City. However, most sat with glum faces, in a sense of disbelief ..... How could a talented(..?) person like Khan make such an unfunny film?"[20] Behindwoods review board gave the film a two out of five-star rating and quoted "So is Tees Maar Khan watchable? Good Question. Very good question. The answer is 'Yes' if you are in the mood to celebrate. But watch it in theatres as the fun is only when there is a crowd laughing along with you. The second half can have you in splits."[21]Taran Adarsh ofBollywood Hungama gave a modest rating of 3/5 in his review and said, "Farah Khan's brand new outing Tees Maar Khan will make the most absurd, bizarre and wacky cinema of yore pale in comparison. Not just your cell phone, even your brain needs to be put on 'switched off' mode at the commencement of this film."[22]Nikhat Kazmi of theTimes of India awarded 2.5/5 stars while commenting, "Sadly, Tees Maar Khan begins as a spoof and remains a spoof, till the very end. All the characters end up as mere caricatures and completely fail to build up an emotional quotient in the film."[23]Yahoo! Movies gave the film 1.5/5 stars.[24]Komal Nahta of Koimoi.com gave it a rating of 2/5 and stated, "Too much of farcical comedy; lack of emotions; over-the-top characters; unbelievable script .....Tees Maar Khan is definitely a disappointment, but it will bring back the invested money and a bit more."[25] Aniruddha Guha ofDaily News and Analysis gave the film 2 stars and remarked, "Even Sheila can’t make Tees Maar Khan watchable ... Though the story is interesting (Neil Simon of After The Fox should ideally get the credit), the writing is so pedestrian and Farah Khan’s presentation so lacklustre that you wonder how the film was greenlighted at all."[26] Gaurav Malani ofThe Economic Times gave 2 stars saying, "To sum up inTees Maar Khan's trademark style of dialogue delivery, Akshay Kumar se zara hatke comedy expect karna aur Akshaye Khanna se kuch bhi expect karna bekaar hain.Tees Maar Khan doesn’t even guarantee thirty good laughs in its three-hour runtime."[27] Kaveree Bamzai ofIndia Today rated it 2½/5 saying, "It's an oddly half-hearted film from a woman [Farah Khan] who is never known to do anything in half measure."[28]Rajeev Masand ofCNN-IBN rated the movie 2/5 suggesting, "If you’re outraged by such low-brow humour, 'Tees Maar Khan' is going to be a long, hard slog for you."[29] Raja Sen ofRediff.com gave a 2 out of 5 star rating explaining that "Tees Maar Khan looks better, is better acted, and provides far more laughs than the standard Bollywood comic project, but judging Farah by the bar she's set for herself, it has to be termed a disappointment."[30]The Hindu in its review said "So there are at least a dozen gags that will make you laugh but the point is from Farah, we expect a lot, qualitatively and quantitatively, more."[31]
Tees Maar Khan took a 100% opening at most multiplexes across India.[32] The film collected₹130.6 million (US$1.5 million) on its first day of business, becoming thesecond biggest opening day grosser of all time across India for Hindi movies afterDabangg. On the second day of its release, the film netted₹135 million (US$1.6 million), taking the two-day total to₹265 million (US$3.1 million) nett.[33]Tees Maar Khan collected about₹380 million (US$4.5 million) nett at the end of its first weekend, thus becoming the second biggest opening weekend net grosser of all time across India for Hindi movies.[34] Despite its initial huge run at the box office, there had been many negative reports about the film.[35]Box Office India reported, "Tees Maar Khan has not matched the expectations from the film prior to release but it is not that bad either as it is not as if the film just collapsed. The opening weekend collections are around 15% lower than sensible expectations."[36]Tees Maar Khan underwent a heavy 65% fall on Monday, its fourth day of business, as it collected₹45 million (US$530,000).[37] The film further suffered a big drop on Tuesday, its fifth day of business, collecting around₹32.5 million (US$380,000) nett, taking the five-day business to₹455 million (US$5.4 million) nett.[38]Tees Maar Khan went on to collect₹490.4 million (US$5.8 million) nett in its first week of release.[39] The film showed an 85% decline in the second week, on its eight-day of business, as compared to its first day.[40] In its second weekend, the film collected around₹80 million (US$950,000) nett, taking the ten days collections to₹565 million (US$6.7 million) nett.[41] The film collected about₹105 million (US$1.2 million) nett in second week, taking the total collections in two weeks to₹595 million (US$7.0 million) nett.[42] The film collected₹12.5 million (US$150,000) nett in its third week, taking the total domestic collections₹610 million (US$7.2 million) nett.[43]
In the overseas market, the film grossed around $2.5 million from its extended weekend, which, according toBox Office India, "is below par for a big film". The breakdown included £320,000 from United Kingdom in 5 days, $750,000 from North America in 5 days, $500,000 fromUnited Arab Emirates in 3 days and $175,000 fromPakistan in 3 days.[44] The nett collections till the end of the second weekend e were: £625,000 from United Kingdom, $1,030,000 from North America, $775,000 from UAE, and $265,000 from Australia.[45]
Even before the film was released, Khan and Kunder had planned on converting the film into a franchise, and Kunder was reportedly writing a sequel, with Kumar again in the titular role. However, after his second collaboration with the couple, the comedy filmJoker, was also poorly received and was dubbed a disaster, Kumar reportedly avoided further collaborations with Khan, and the sequel was shelved.[citation needed]