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Actor R. Madhavan will for the first time play a character with "grey shades" in Bollywood in Teen Patti. While he is a professor in the forthcoming film
, the actor will also be seen sporting "six different avatars" in the thriller that also features Amitabh Bachchan and Hollywood star Ben Kingsley.

"I have different looks in the film. I'm playing a professor, but when I go to different areas, I'm dressed up as different characters," Madhavan told IANS in an interview.

"There's one (scene) with a very suave, high-end party look; then there is one for the low, scum areas. Another one's of a mid-level thug; there is the professor's look of course and all sort of stuff leading to even a casanova's and an Italian' look," he explained.

"In Hindi films, this will be my first grey kind of character as one who wants everything very fast in life," the 39-year-old added.

"In Teen Patti, I'm playing a professor who believes he deserves a lot more than what life is offering him at that point of time. He decides to take certain steps which land him in a web of greed, lust and defeat - and how much of a heavy price he pays for those decisions."

The multilingual actor is not apprehensive about the audience's reaction to the transition from his chocolate-boy image.

"When the film is wholesome and you are playing a character, they (audiences) will accept you in any case," he said.

"Even Mr. (Amitabh) Bachchan and Shah Rukh (Khan) have done that. It's very important to play different kinds of roles and I am very excited about it. I am very keen to see how the audiences will react to it," he added.

Releasing Feb 26, director Leemna Yadav's Teen Patti is about greed and deception set in the backdrop of high stake gambling.

After his hit 3 Idiots was dragged into a controversy for apparently promoting ragging, Madhavan is playing safe and insists Teen Patti doesn't glorify gambling but is inspired by mathematics.

"If there is anything that Teen Patti will provoke, (it) is mathematics. It deals largely with mathematics in our lives and youngsters' desire to get anything 'now and today' in no time," Madhavan told IANS.

"Youth today want everything fast which is kind of an instant gratification and they want to live life on the fast track and that is what is shown in the movie with the magic of mathematics," he added.

Saira Mohan, Raima Sen and newcomers Shraddha Kapoor, Siddharth Kher, Viabhav Talwar and Dhruv Ganesh also portray pivotal roles in the movie. Teen Patti also boasts of special appearances by Ajay Devgn, Jackie Shroff, Mahesh Manjrekar, Ranjeet, Shakti Kapoor and Tinnu Anand.

Teen Patti reportedly has some passionate scenes between Madhavan and Saira Mohan but the actor steers clear of controversies and says it has been approved by the censor board.

"I'd like to say that on record that the film has a very large U certificate so there will be nothing explicit about it," Madhavan said.

And what about the kissing scenes with Saira?

"These aren't anything to talk about. All that you see (in the movie) is completely universal. The censor board doesn't give you a U certificate if there is a large number of kissing or other such stuff," he said.

Apart from Teen Patti, Madhavan's future projects include Tanu Weds Manu opposite Kangana Ranaut.

source-ndtvmovies.com

Director: Ken Ghosh
Actors: Shahid Kapoor, Genelia D’Souza
Rating: *1/2

A popular perception of Bollywood films in the West is that they’re musicals. This notion is only partly correct.

Many are left disappointed to learn that the stars of these films can’t sing. They lip-sync. Fine vocalists behind those songs rarely get their due. Few know music composers by face. Dance steps that movie-stars perform to aren’t the toughest to imitate either. The leading man of our cinema is often not even the best actor of his own film crew. He is just the better looking.

This makes the Bollywood star, hogging all the attention and money alone, the most over-rated figure of any pop-culture.

To be fair, Shahid Kapoor can dance. He can certainly move his body, even if his performances don’t move you much. This claims to be a dance film entirely. On paper, the proposition doesn’t read half as brain-dead as it appears on the big screen.

Since he was born, gauging by his looks, everyone assumed the boy in this film would be a hero one day. He began to believe in the myth.

We’re meant to follow the struggles of this wannabe, determined as he is to make it in showbiz. Even if this show-town looks anything but the grimy human factories of Lokhandwala the filmmakers know better. The Delhi, the hero considers back-home, is a mini Punjab full of Sikhs.

He rehearses dance on the giant Mumbai wooden floors Jennifer Lopez may have practiced on before. Govinda, Hrithik Roshan, Shiamak Davar, he says, are the legends of his field. His tiny apartment from the inside may well be the shanty of big-city America. When we weren’t looking, and he had hardly dough for breakfast, the hero also packed in for himself the 8-pack abs.

He does the multiple rounds of film auditions. The journey, and its conclusion, is predictably known. The music should take care of the rest. It doesn’t.

Songs don’t take the motionless picture forward. This is not a musical. The filmmaker here is merely a director of music videos, and there is one after half a dozen others: “Back straight. Attitude. Feel the music.” Sure.

Between those patchy, over-decorated music television tracks, the banal hero fails a courier boy’s job; sleeps in a car (when he could’ve moved in with his girl); joins a school to teach dance; enlists kids to win a competition; enlists himself to win a talent hunt… The show goes on, and so on, and so forth. As does the refrain: “Tu star ban sakta hai. Tu star ban gaya. Mein star banaunga….” (Whatever that means).

We may as well fear for the minor effect on li'l Gauravs and Sameers taking such silliness vaguely seriously. Seeking 'nautanki' fame is anyway turning into a bit of a national disease.
source-hindustantimes.com