Tees Maar Khan review: This Aadi Saikumar starrer is another addition to the ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ list

0.5/5

Story:

Tees Maar Khan is an orphan adopted by a police officer, who loves his soul-sister to bits and revers her as a motherly figure. He grows up to be a ruffian, runs a gym and one day, rescues the home-minister Rangarajan from a murder attempt. As a token of gratitude, Rangarajan promises to fulfil any wish of the youngster. In a bid to avenge the loss of his loved one, Tees Maar Khan takes Rangarajan’s help to become a cop. However, there’s more to this than meets the eye.

Review:

Kalyanji Gogana’s Tees Maar Khan is a beaten-to-death saga retold in ‘Srinu Vaitla-meets-VV Vinayak’ style. It is unsurprisingly out of sync with the times and the formula is as old as the hills. The premise of an ‘orphaned child turning into a rebellious youngster seeking vengeance’, inspired by Amitabh Bachchan’s 70s films, can’t be sold to a viewer in 2022. Even if one doesn’t have an innovative/new script, the least one could do is to rework the packaging - there’s no hope in sight here.

It’s hard to believe that Aadi Saikumar, who’s in a ‘make or break’ phase in his career, can choose something so lacklustre and insipid to revive his fortunes. The script is a joke mostly. He is an orphan at one moment; has a soul sister in the next scene, is adopted by a police officer in a few minutes while two decades later, he owns a gym, is a part-time goon, later joins a college and turns a cop. Tees Maar Khan’s standards are much beyond cinematic liberties. He can do anything and everything.

To woo his romantic interest Anagha (a student whom Tees Maar Khan spots dancing at a traffic signal- yes, it’s that random), he joins her college and stalks her until she says yes. Tees Maar Khan is so decent that he gets his sister to meet her during college hours, invites her home and they fall in love. He doesn’t even mourn the loss of a loved one, days after their death and even makes time for a beach song with his lady love soon. (that’s a poor man’s version of Pareshaanura)

The so-called antagonist, peculiarly named Jeeja, is perennially caught between coming up with yawn-worthy punchlines and flexing his muscles. Meanwhile, Tees Maar Khan is so busy giving warnings, wooing his girl, posing well for his slow-motion shots and looking for revenge at the same time. There are so many multi-taskers in the film! A twist lands out of nowhere and you’re expected to be blown away (but it’s the crowds who were running away from the theatre).

Merely to introduce a darker side to a sophisticated gentleman in the society, the director finds it necessary to come up with an item song (which is still not enough to wake up the viewer from his slumber). After wrapping up all the formalities in the climax, what does the hero do with the black money? Of course, donates it to the needy. There’s a favour that the director offers a viewer here - he doesn’t threaten us with the hint of a possible sequel.

Aadi Saikumar’s performance isn’t exactly bad but he’s placed in such unintentionally hilarious situations that you can’t take him seriously. Payal Rajput, regardless of the scene, comes up with the same ‘stock expressions’ throughout. One can only sympathise with Purnaa and Sunil for being a part of this mess, even if they said yes because of the paycheques. Shrikant Iyyangar hams beyond necessity and Anoop Singh Rathod gets a role that works more like an endorsement for his physique.

Hemanth plays a sidekick who needs to boost the lead character’s ego from time to time. On the technical front, there’s nothing to write home about. When small/medium budget films have all the freedom in the world to try and explore newer horizons, all they manage is to ape successful films (and still do a shoddy job of it).

Verdict:

Tees Maar Khan is a film destined to fail. Neither does it have a powerhouse performance nor an entertaining plot. It revels in its mediocrity. Aadi Saikumar is much better than the roles he’s been offered lately and it’s high time he gets his act together with his script selection. Sunil and Purnaa are wasted in poorly written roles. There’s no scope for any respite - it’s a dead end. You’ve been warned!