Aladin

Everyone knows the story of Aladin and his magic lamp. But not everybody could have anticipated the fiasco that would be Sujoy Ghosh's "Aladin".

There's a loser, Aladin (Ritesh Deshmukh) in love with a pretty and unattainable girl Jasmine (Jacqueline Fernandez). The genie, Genious (Amitabh Bachchan) helps him get the girl, fighting off the evil character Ring Master (Sanjay Dutt). Doesn't sound too bad. The typical romantic film. Except, it's not.

The film had a lot of scope to be really entertaining. People might want to watch it to feel a sense of nostalgia; we've all grown up reading the story, haven't we? And most of us would have seen the animated version on screen as well. But the film was just a huge let down.

The special effects of the film were juvenile. Even 5 year olds in the theatre didn't appreciate the primitive effects. The dialogues were boring and silly. And the lesser said about the unappealing and unnecessary songs, the better.

 

What's surprising is that the otherwise great combination of Vishal-Shekhar failed miserably. Even Shiamak Davar's choreography couldn't add any magic to the lifeless film. The sets were as inspiring as Thermodynamics to an Arts student. 

The kid who played a younger Ritesh actually looked a lot like him. Seems like a lot of effort was put into getting the look right. Alas that is where the Director's effort ended; his screenplay was pathetic, as was Sirsha Ray's Cinematography. I'm already tired of criticizing the film, but alas that's not the end.

Amitabh as the genie was disastrous. In spite of being such a fine actor he does this? His fans must be crushed. His over the top acting, exaggerated facial expressions, ugly wig and garish clothes made him look like a mad man who has no sense of style, not a lovable genie with magical powers.

Sanjay Dutt was in the same league. His clothes were equally bad, as were his apparently funny dialogues. And he didn't even get to do his signature walk!

Ritesh was decent. But he still doesn't have the capability to carry an entire film on his shoulders. He needs to stick to movies with ensemble casts, like say, Masti or Heyy Baby.

 

He was shown wearing a red sweater in the film; it was his dad's and he valued it above everything else. Silly thought, but how can you wear the same sweater all the time? Didn't he ever wash/dryclean it? No wonder Jasmine didn't wanna come too close. But of course it's a movie. So I'll throw logic out of the window and let it fall in the garbage with my brains.

Coming to Jacqueline. She's beautiful, no doubts there. I just wish they had used a better dubbing artist for her. Though Narendra Kumar gave her much better outfits than the rest of the cast, they were still not great. (Manish please take him under your wing.) Even then she made for good eye candy. Since all she did was smile and look pretty, no comments on her acting abilities.

Ratna Pathak Shah, as Marjina, the owner of a Cafe, was totally wasted, with a teeny tiny role. Remember Sahil Khan, the body-builder guy with Sharman Joshi in Style? He played Kasim, a bully in the film, and looked scary! Why the bad makeup? Not like he's drop dead handsome, but he's definitely not hideous looking either. 

Sigh! I have nothing more to add than a few words of caution: Don't watch the film, unless of course you're already brain dead.