Writer: Janak

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Watch this if you liked: 21”, “Lucky You”, “Casino”

Borrowing heavily from that recent Hollywood movie on blackjack "21", this one's about a reclusive maths professor Venkat Subramaniam (Amitabh Bachchan) who develops a remarkable theory of probability and randomness known as Teen Patti. Applying this new theory to the gambling table, the grizzled-hair mathematician is able to figure out who's going to win the game when the cards are dealt. In comes junior professor Shantanu (Madhavan) and together, they take the theory to hit up illegal gambling dens. To avoid creating any doubts, they rope in a bunch of students with sign languages as well. Expectedly, what begins as a mathematical experiment turns into a dangerous mind game of greed and deception as the big money starts to flow in.

Amitabh Bachchan as usual is superb as the eccentric professor and Sir Ben Kingsley is wonderful to watch as well. Madhavan with his shady character is passable. Debutante Shraddha Kapoor (Shakti Kapoor's daughter) impresses at times and will surely get noticed. Amongst the male newcomers, all three supporting roles by Abbas, Dhruv and Siddharth Kher have good screen presence. There are also cameos by several Bollywood actors but the most impressive one is by Mahesh Manjrekar. Do look out for him.

Plot wise, confused director Leena Yadav seems unsure about whether to focus on the characters, the story or the theory of gambling itself. Despite this, the first half was still very entertaining to watch. However, the second half falls flat completely.

Cinematography by (Aseem Bajaj) is quite good. Due to much concentrated character driven story and theory, effects used were minimised. The prime effect sequences were only used during the gambling scenes in the film. Some consolation does come from the songs by musical duo Salim-Sulaiman. The music is quite listenable and some of the songs are quite catchy.

Overall, "Teen Patti" is a very ordinary film that hits and misses. It could've been better if the film had more English than Hindi. This time around, having two big iconic legends wasn't enough to save the film as it fell down like a house of cards.

Cinema Online, 02 March 2010