| Tees Maar Khan | |
| Director: | Farah Khan |
| Story: | Adapted story: Shirish Kunder Original story: Neil Simon Cesare Zavattini |
| Producer: | Twinkle Khanna Shirish Kunder Ronnie Screwvala |
| Starring: | Akshay Kumar Akshaye Khanna Katrina Kaif |
| Narrator: | Sanjay Dutt |
| Cinematography: | P. S. Vinod |
| Editing: | Shirish Kunder |
| Music: | Title song and background score: Shirish Kunder Original soundtrack: Vishal–Shekhar |
| Studio: | Hari Om Entertainment Three's Company UTV Motion Pictures |
| Distributor: | UTV Motion Pictures |
| Runtime: | 131 minutes[1] |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Hindi |
| Budget: | 45 crore[2] |
| Gross: | 101.89 crore[3] |
Tees Maar Khan is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language heist comedy film directed by Farah Khan and produced by Twinkle Khanna and Ronnie Screwvala under UTV Motion Pictures, Hari Om Entertainment, and Three's Company. It was written by Ashmith Kunder and producer-editor Shirish Kunder, who also composed the title track and background score. A remake of the 1966 Italian film After the Fox,[4] whose story was adapted by Shirish, the film stars Akshay Kumar, Akshaye Khanna, and Katrina Kaif in lead roles.[5] Salman Khan and Anil Kapoor make special appearances.[6] [7]
Tees Maar Khan was released worldwide on 24 December 2010, on Christmas 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". 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 was premiered in theatres with Vipul Amrutlal Shah's romantic comedy Action Replayy, also starring Kumar, and Rohit Shetty's action comedy Golmaal 3 on 5 November 2010.[9] The featuring music was composed by Vishal-Shekhar. Even though the film received negative reviews upon release, it has become a cult film.
The Indian Police Force successfully busts an operation which was to smuggle ₹500 crores worth of national treasure. The Interpol suspects that this was being operated by the infamous conjoined twins, the Johri Brothers. Due to the possibility that they will try to steal the treasure again, Commissioner Khadak Singh is assigned the task of securing the train which 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 pull off the heist of stealing the artefacts from the moving train.
Meanwhile, in Paris, Tees Maar Khan is arrested by a secret agent from the Interpol. CBI Officers Chatterjee and Mukherjee are tasked with the responsibility of bringing Tees Maar Khan back to India via air. However, Tees Maar Khan tricks the people on the plane and slyly escapes on landing. As expected, he's soon hired by the Johri Brothers who are desperate to retrieve the antiques.
To perform this feat, Tees Maar Khan 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 a Manoj Day Ramalan, a film director and brother of Manoj Night Shyamalan. Using this identity, he approaches Aatish Kapoor, a superstar who is desperate to win an Oscar Award, to be a part of the film he is shooting to gain an edge over the police and control the villagers. After Tees Maar Khan narrates an "Oscar-winning" period drama based on India's freedom struggle, Aatish Kapoor promptly agrees to be a part of the film.
As Tees Maar Khan gears up for the heist, the Johri Brothers inform him the train is delayed by a week due to security reasons. As a result, Tees Maar Khan 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 Kapoor.
Finally, the big day arrives and Tees Maar Khan briefs the villagers that the scene to be shot is that of Indians looting a British train secured by British officers that's 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 tucks. Aatish Kapoor, completely lost in his character of 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 Khadak Singh is forced to stop the train.
After the trucks are loaded and the train is completely emptied, the Johri Brothers double-cross Tees Maar Khan and run away with his share of the loot as well. Immediately, Tees Maar Khan gets arrested by Commissioner Khadak Singh. The court sentences Tees Maar Khan to 60 years in prison. Tees Maar Khan asks his sidekicks to complete the film and release it.
At the film's premiere, the film's director Tees Maar Khan is brought under heavy police protection straight from prison. Critics tout the incoherent, disjointed film as French Cinema that's sure to win an Oscar. However, Tees Maar Khan is nowhere to be seen, having escaped during the screening.
Tees Maar Khan hijacks the Johri Brothers' plane which contains the loot and throws them out, thereby getting even with them. Aatish Kapoor 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 they get due to Bharat Ka Khazana.
Priyanka Chopra was earlier rumoured to play the part of Aanya,[10] but that rumour was later dropped after Katrina Kaif was chosen to play the female lead.[11]
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.[12] Farah stated in an interview that she wanted someone with a voice which people can recognise even in their sleep.[13]
An entire train was made and 500m track laid for Rs. 7.5 million to shoot the climax scenes.[14] Dharmesh Yelande was choreographed in this film.
Tees Maar Khan premiered in the UK, Fiji and Canada on 22 December 2010.
A mobile video game based on the film was also launched by UTV Indiagames.[15]
Anupama Chopra of NDTV 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.[16] Aseem Chhabra of Rediff.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?"[17] 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."[18] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood 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."[19] Nikhat Kazmi of the Times 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."[20] Yahoo! Movies gave the film 1.5/5 stars.[21] 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."[22] Aniruddha Guha of Daily 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."[23] Gaurav Malani of The Economic Times gave 2 stars saying, "To sum up in Tees Maar Khans 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."[24] Kaveree Bamzai of India 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."[25] Rajeev Masand of CNN-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."[26] Raja Sen of Rediff.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."[27] 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."[28]
Tees Maar Khan took a 100% opening at most multiplexes across India.[29] The film collected on its first day of business, becoming the second biggest opening day grosser of all time across India for Hindi movies after Dabangg. On the second day of its release, the film netted, taking the two-day total to nett.[30] Tees Maar Khan collected about 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.[31] Despite its initial huge run at the box office, there had been many negative reports about the film.[32] 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."[33] Tees Maar Khan underwent a heavy 65% fall on Monday, its fourth day of business, as it collected .[34] The film further suffered a big drop on Tuesday, its fifth day of business, collecting around nett, taking the five-day business to nett.[35] Tees Maar Khan went on to collect nett in its first week of release.[36] The film showed an 85% decline in the second week, on its eight-day of business, as compared to its first day.[37] In its second weekend, the film collected around nett, taking the ten days collections to nett.[38] The film collected about nett in second week, taking the total collections in two weeks to nett.[39] The film collected nett in its third week, taking the total domestic collections nett.[40]
In the overseas market, the film grossed around $2.5 million from its extended weekend, which, according to Box 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 from United Arab Emirates in 3 days and $175,000 from Pakistan in 3 days.[41] 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.[42]
| Tees Maar Khan | |
| Type: | Soundtrack |
| Artist: | Vishal–Shekhar |
| Genre: | Feature Film Soundtrack |
| Label: | T-Series |
| Producer: | Shirish Kunder |
The music of the film is composed by the music duo of Vishal–Shekhar and one song from debutant music composer Shirish Kunder for the title track. Lyrics are penned by Vishal Dadlani, Anvita Dutt Guptan and Shirish Kunder. The music was launched on 15 November 2010. The entire cast and crew travelled on a train booked from Mumbai to Lonavala for the music launch.[47] Sonu Nigam has given 54 voices for the title track of the film.[48] The song 'Sheila Ki Jawani' became a chartbuster and fetched Sunidhi Chauhan a Filmfare Award and many other awards.
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 film Joker, was also poorly received and was dubbed a disaster, Kumar reportedly avoided further collaborations with Khan, and the sequel was shelved.