"Teen Patti" surprised me. After all, it stars Amitabh Bachchan and he's my favorite Indian actor....to I expected to enjoy the film. Instead, I only felt disappointment...and a bit annoyed. It should have been better...much, much better.
The story is a reworking of the American film, "21", but with enough differences to say it's not a remake. Unfortunately, all the new things they added to the mix just took an excellent idea and made it much, much worse. Annoying and unlikable characters, songs that just did not fit the story, plot elements that were unnecessary...all these made the original idea muddled.
Bachchan plays a mathematics professor who's been lecturing on probability. He's come to realize that using statistics and probability, he COULD make a huge killing by using a team of gamblers. And, initially, the plan nearly gets them killed, as the underground gambling dens seem frequented by psychotic thugs. But they cannot quit, as SOME unknown person knows about their scheme and has threatened to harm the college students helping the professor unless they keep playing and giving this unknown person a cut. In the film they called this blackmail but the correct term for forcing someone to do something or you will harm them is actually extortion...but no matter. What's next? Well, lots of over the top drama and a story that left me wanting the whole thing to end.
The bottom line is that there was a kernal of a good story but way too many distractions along the way to interfere with the plot. Take my advice....see "21" instead...it's intelligent and free from all the unnecessary and annoying things in "Teen Patti".
