The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : The magic is missing Film Review

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 02, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

The magic is missing Film Review

Time pass: Amitabh Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh in a scene from ‘Aladin’.

Film: Aladin

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh, Jaqueline Fernandez.

Director: Sujoy Ghosh

It is not easy to twist a story, which has lasted generations. Sujoy Ghosh has tried to commit an irreverent act by fiddling with the Arabian fantasy. In today’s Bollywood there are many genies who loosen their purse strings for films that ‘look’ good, but won’t make an effort to have a credible script. They can sign Amitabh Bachchan, but won’t give him dialogues and situations to match his ability.

Riteish Deshmukh plays the modern day Aladin, a submissive Bengali orphan, who is bullied by his college mate Qasim (Sahil Khan) to rub every possible lamp. Aladin’s focus is on the new entry in college, Jasmine (Jaqueline Fernandez). She gifts him a lamp on his birthday and as always, Qasim forces him to rub it. Wow! The genie (Amitabh Bachchan) is out. But what he has to do. Dance and some more dance! Yes, Sujoy makes Bachchan shake to some mediocre tunes by Vishal Shekhar.

When genie comes to business, we realise the big man is in a hurry. He ventures into Aladin’s mind and figures out that it is rooting only for Jasmine. A dumb Aladin squanders his two wishes on her before realising that he wants to win her the human way and not through some magic. It somehow doesn’t count as a wish and the genie begins to help him out as humanly as possible.

Riteish is earnest to begin with when Bachchan explores his spacious think tank to hilarious effect, but somewhere he gets lost or the plot loses him. There is hardly any chemistry between him and Jaqueline.

The college scenes are repetitive with the likes of Ratna Pathak Shah and Arif Zakaria given some sketchy characters mouthing puerile lines.

In comes the Ringmaster (Sanjay Dutt), the magician and an erstwhile genie who lost his status because he didn’t believe in genie’s mantra of giving. When we discover that he has an axe to grind with the genie and has a link with the Aladin’s past, we expect some high voltage action but it never materialises.

The visuals of Khwaish, the imaginary town where the story is set, are arresting and Ringmaster’s entry with his cohorts has an international class but in a fantasy, the stream of magic shouldn’t dry. Here it comes in droplets. Only a genie can save it!

ANUJ KUMAR

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh