Producer: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Director: Mrighdeep Lamba Cast: Om Puri, Shreyas Talpade, Deepak Dobriyal, Yograj Singh, Ragini Khanna.

MUMBAI: The safer genre to take for a film when ones resources as well as the star cast are limited would be comedy. Having said that, it is not easy thereafter because we have few actors who have comic timing and, worse still, no writers adapt at the genre.

Teen Thay Bhai is a comedy film which is never ending, not at all comic events and interactions between three brothers of totally contradictory traits; what the three brothers, Om Puri, Deepak Dobriyal and Shreyas Talpade, have in common is that they can’t stand each other besides being failures in their respective fields. Om Puri is a small time shopkeeper, Deepak Dobryal an incompetent dentist and Shreyas Talpade is an eternally struggling actor.

The three brothers come together for their grandfather’s funeral but realise that they are doomed to spend a couple of days with each other every year for the next three years according to a will left behind by the grandfather at the end of which they would be entitled to the Grandpa’s fortunes. Till three years, they are also supposed to preserve the grandpa’s ashes.

The events which follow on screen are during the third and last year of their fulfilling the obligations and that is supposed to evoke laughter as one watches, but there are less than half a dozen moments which are worth a chuckle, no laughter.

Often scenes are stretched and some overstretched, like three brothers blaming each other at the police custody. There is no romance angle except a cursory one; music is okay with “Aar dariya….” being very good. Cinematography by Ashok Mehta is top rate. Editing is slack. Direction is good as far as details go but lacks control on quality and quantity of content.

Mainly centred on Om Puri, Deepak Dobriyal and Shreyas Talpade, the three try their best to hold the film together. In absence of comedy in script, the three manage some through gestures and by being loud. Yograj Singh (father of cricketer Yuvraj Singh) in a cameo is very good. The dash of glamour angle is provided by Ragini Khanna.

At the box office, 3 Thay Bhai does not work at all; if sliced mercilessly, it may grab some eyeballs on the video circuit.