Starring Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, and Akshaye Khanna. In Hindi with English subtitles. Rated PG.

Director Farah Khan loves Bollywood, and her films tend to reflect the exuberance that characterized the industry’s films in the ’60s and ’70s. Tees Maar Khan, much like her 2007 hit, Om Shanti Om, is full of references to old Hindi classics and takes jabs at established icons with a wink and a nod. Yet, while her previous film managed to hit the right note of playful and clever intertextuality, her latest offering misses the mark and is more of a grating parody.

The convoluted plot centres on the character of Tabrez Mirza Khan (Akshay Kumar), as he is known only to his mother. The rest of the world knows him as Tees Maar Khan, a wanted thief and con-man who has been arrested numerous times and has always escaped the police. He is accompanied by three hapless stooges and his fiancée Anya (Katrina Kaif) who dreams of being a Bollywood dancer.

The police are transporting a shipment of stolen goods to the national coffers by train. The recently escaped Khan is hired by the original thieves to reclaim the loot. Khan devises a plan to conceal the robbery by incorporating the action into a film he can shoot near a remote village where the train is scheduled to pass. He brings aboard a desperate star, Atish Kapoor (Akshaye Khanna), and the stage is set for every Bollywood stereotype to be lampooned.

While the film does make some clever swipes at thinly concealed industry heavy hitters, it also relies heavily on tasteless gender, ethnic, and sexual stereotypes. The mock-acting style suits the limited range of the leads well and there are a few good musical numbers, especially “Wallah Re Wallah”. However, these things do not compensate for the overall tediousness of the film.