Any excitement over seeing Ben Kingsley and Amitabh Bachchan turning out histrionic performances in "Teen Patti” was not enough to give the $7.5 million movie a draw in the lucrative international markets.

Though its distributors in North America and the United Kingdom had not released the box office numbers on Sunday as most distributors do, the grapevine says the film is a dud.

Over the decades, seasoned editors have saved many messy films. But the Oscar winning Hollywood editor Hughes Winborne ("Crash") just could not save "Teen Patti”. Director Leena Yadav's second film was even more disastrous than her first film, "Shabd”.

"Teen Patti", whose English dialogue was written by the independent Los Angeles filmmaker Ben Rekhi, may not make it easy for Kingsley, who is trying to raise $30 million for his "Taj Mahal” movie project.

Kingsley plays a pivotal role in the new film — he plays a mathematician like Bachchan. This is Kingsley's second Indian film, after “Gandhi".

The new movie was ridiculed in the mainstream media.

” Sir Ben Kingsley has never beenoneto turn down a job, which is why his recent resume includes everything from the current number one movie in America, 'Shutter Island', to a role as a villainous vampire daddy in the 2005 schlockfest 'Bloodrayne',” wrote The Washington Post. "His heroic willingness to cash anyone's check might explain why Kingsley, playing a Cambridge professor, phones in a handful of scenes in the overwrought, overlong, totally bonkers Bollywood thriller 'Teen Patti'.''

Though the review complained that Bachchan overdid his part and compared him to Al Pacino, who has become notorious in recent years for his overacting, it showed some sympathy for the Indian thespian.

"Kingsley is paired with one of the great classic stars of the Indian screen, Amitabh Bachchan," the review continued, "who brings such commitment and gravitas to the lead role of Venkat, a tortured Mumbai mathematician, that you almost think he doesn' t know how ridiculous his movie is."

"Gandhi meets the Big B in Bollywood's dire riff on a mediocre Hollywood movie (21)..." Tune Out London wrote. "Told largely in flashback, with frequent use of inexplicable onscreen montages, this gamble at pushing the bollywood-envelope is a loser."

The New York Times review said, "Mr Kingsley and Mr Bachchan's scenes together have real charm. They're like two old pros from different leagues tossing a ball around: loose, smooth, in no doubt of their power."