Because Bollywood actors are often working on several movies at one
time, filming a week or two for one film before moving on to the next,
it’s not unusual for a movie to take years to produce.
That doesn’t always make for a bad movie, but even the best of these
multi-year projects can end up feeling disjointed. Aladin (2009) is a case in point.
Aladin (Ritesh Deshmukh) is the orphaned son of globe trotting adventurers who spent their lives searching for Aladdin’s magical lamp, hoping to use its power to help the world. Aladin is now a young college student, mostly ignored by nearly everyone apart from the owner of a small cafe (Ratna Pathak), who acts as a surrogate big sister, and Kasim (Sahil Khan), his childhood bully, who even after all these years thinks it’s hilarious to gather his friends and force the hapless Aladin to rub random lamps.
When the lovely Jasmine (Jaqueline Fernandes) transfers to his college, Aladin is immediately smitten. Unfortunately, so is Kasim. A psychological bully of tremendous skill and experience, Kasim throws a birthday party for the hapless Aladin as a means of making himself look good to Jasmine, and even manipulates her into presenting Aladin with an old lamp as a birthday present, and asking him to rub it. Aladin does, and then heads for home.
On his way home, however, Aladin is stopped by Genius (Amitabh Bachchan), the one and only Genie of the Lamp. Genius is one month from retirement (no, really!) and he just wants Aladin to make his three wishes so that he can be free. Aladin, after a lifetime of lamps being shoved in his face, isn’t interested. After some cajoling by Genius and a few moral qualms of his own, Aladin finally wishes for Jasmine. It doesn’t go well. His second wish is used to undo the first, leaving him with a girl to woo, a bully to defeat, and one wish to do it with.
Kasim isn’t Aladin’s biggest problem, however. That would be former genie Ringmaster (Sanjay Dutt) and his gang of evil circus folk, including a bald knife thrower, a Klingon strongman (strongKlingon?), a masked firebreather, and a clown who is incredibly creepy even by clown standards. Ringmaster plans to use the power of an approaching comet to become a genie again, kill everyone, and rule the world. (In that order. Ringmaster is crazy.) Despite not being a genie anymore, Ringmaster still has impressive supernatural powers, and holds a fragment of the lamp, so Genius can’t touch him. Fortunately, there is a prophesied chosen hero who can defeat him. Unfortunately, that prophesied champion is the decidedly hapless Aladin.
Aladin’s two plotlines never really intersect; while Ringmaster is doing vaguely menacing things in the background throughout the movie, Aladin never even hears about him until after the Jasmine situation has been resolved. The character development is oddly paced, as well. Despite expectations, Genius never really urges Aladin to confront his fears or anything of the sort, flatly declaring that Kasim is not his problem, and the Kasim situation never reaches the expected climax. On the other hand, it’s actually kind of refreshing to see a movie where the bullied protagonist doesn’t ever hit the bully; Aladin doesn’t ever hit anyone, in fact, leaving the physical heroics to Genius and Jasmine. (Jasmine studies karate, and actually gets to use it!)
Storyline and character development is rather beside the point, anyway. Just as one of the major attractions of The Forbidden Kingdom was watching Jackie Chan and Jet Li fight, the real charm of Aladin is watching Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt try to out-charisma one another. (I’m going to call it a tie.) Despite all the newfangled special effects, this is a movie which wisely relies on good old fashioned scenery chewing.
Aladin (Ritesh Deshmukh) is the orphaned son of globe trotting adventurers who spent their lives searching for Aladdin’s magical lamp, hoping to use its power to help the world. Aladin is now a young college student, mostly ignored by nearly everyone apart from the owner of a small cafe (Ratna Pathak), who acts as a surrogate big sister, and Kasim (Sahil Khan), his childhood bully, who even after all these years thinks it’s hilarious to gather his friends and force the hapless Aladin to rub random lamps.
When the lovely Jasmine (Jaqueline Fernandes) transfers to his college, Aladin is immediately smitten. Unfortunately, so is Kasim. A psychological bully of tremendous skill and experience, Kasim throws a birthday party for the hapless Aladin as a means of making himself look good to Jasmine, and even manipulates her into presenting Aladin with an old lamp as a birthday present, and asking him to rub it. Aladin does, and then heads for home.
On his way home, however, Aladin is stopped by Genius (Amitabh Bachchan), the one and only Genie of the Lamp. Genius is one month from retirement (no, really!) and he just wants Aladin to make his three wishes so that he can be free. Aladin, after a lifetime of lamps being shoved in his face, isn’t interested. After some cajoling by Genius and a few moral qualms of his own, Aladin finally wishes for Jasmine. It doesn’t go well. His second wish is used to undo the first, leaving him with a girl to woo, a bully to defeat, and one wish to do it with.
Kasim isn’t Aladin’s biggest problem, however. That would be former genie Ringmaster (Sanjay Dutt) and his gang of evil circus folk, including a bald knife thrower, a Klingon strongman (strongKlingon?), a masked firebreather, and a clown who is incredibly creepy even by clown standards. Ringmaster plans to use the power of an approaching comet to become a genie again, kill everyone, and rule the world. (In that order. Ringmaster is crazy.) Despite not being a genie anymore, Ringmaster still has impressive supernatural powers, and holds a fragment of the lamp, so Genius can’t touch him. Fortunately, there is a prophesied chosen hero who can defeat him. Unfortunately, that prophesied champion is the decidedly hapless Aladin.
Aladin’s two plotlines never really intersect; while Ringmaster is doing vaguely menacing things in the background throughout the movie, Aladin never even hears about him until after the Jasmine situation has been resolved. The character development is oddly paced, as well. Despite expectations, Genius never really urges Aladin to confront his fears or anything of the sort, flatly declaring that Kasim is not his problem, and the Kasim situation never reaches the expected climax. On the other hand, it’s actually kind of refreshing to see a movie where the bullied protagonist doesn’t ever hit the bully; Aladin doesn’t ever hit anyone, in fact, leaving the physical heroics to Genius and Jasmine. (Jasmine studies karate, and actually gets to use it!)
Storyline and character development is rather beside the point, anyway. Just as one of the major attractions of The Forbidden Kingdom was watching Jackie Chan and Jet Li fight, the real charm of Aladin is watching Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt try to out-charisma one another. (I’m going to call it a tie.) Despite all the newfangled special effects, this is a movie which wisely relies on good old fashioned scenery chewing.
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