As the title promises, Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor (2004) is an
adaptation of the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. It’s the
kind of story that Westerners often don’t know as well as they think
they do; everybody remembers “Open Sesame,” but people often assume that
Ali Baba is the leader of the Thieves, and most adaptations of the
story leave out the dinosaurs entirely.
So Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor isn’t that faithful an adaptation of the story, either. The film is set in a bizarre version of contemporary India; the village of Sonapur looks like every other Bollywood village ever, but visiting American journalist Susan spends the boat ride to the village happily photographing the vast herds of dinosaurs on shore, and nobody finds the presence of extinct megafauna worthy of comment.
Susan is in Sonapur to interview Shangrila Baba, the local herbalist and mysterious old man, who has been put in the Guinness Book of World Records for being a hundred and fifty years old. Shangrila talks to his plants, which is normal. They also talk back to him, which stuns Susan. (Dinosaurs? Meh. Talking plants?!) Shangrila isn’t really interested in talking about his magical herb garden, though, or about how old he is. Instead, he wants to talk about his grandson, Ali Baba (Arbaaz Khan), woodcutter, manly man, and self-proclaimed protector of the forest.
At that moment, Ali Baba is on horseback, riding out of the village and toward the city. He stops to tease his sort-of girlfriend, Marjina (Pinky Harwani), a simple, naive village belle who dresses like an extra from a Pat Benatar video. Ali and Marjina sing a song, he beats up her jealous suitor and a pair of hired thugs, and then he’s back on his way.
Meanwhile, extremely evil bandit chieftain Zakali (Tej Sapru) is having a staff meeting with his men. They’re all looking forward to doing some robbing, but instead Zakali decides that they will raid the village and kill a lot of people, partly because this will increase the gang’s reputation, and partly because Zakali is just that evil.
The raid goes well, from a bandit’s point of view. The new forest officer arrives in town the next day, and the villagers rebuke him for not having been there. (Bollywood villagers tend to overreact and jump to conclusions, but in this case they do actually have a point.) The forest officer vows to bring Zakali to justice.
That night, the forest officer (who never gets a name) and his men encounter Ali Baba, returning from the city. Upon learning about the attack, Ali declares that he will bring Zakali and his men to justice. He finds the bandit camp by following the sound of their dancing girl, but he’s quickly discovered. After a quick fight, the bandits capture Ali, and Zakali decides to feed him to the giant lizard that lives in the black valley.
Ali escapes from the lizard (and say what you will about Ali Baba, but any man who can drive off a T-Rex using a small knife gets serious badass points), climbs onto his trusty horse, and makes his way back to town, where he promptly collapses. After Shangrila and Marjina nurse him back to health, he refuses to tell anyone about what happened, even though the villagers offer to help him fight the bandits. Instead, he goes back to work.
The next day, while cutting wood in the forest, Ali catches sight of Zakali and his men. he follows them through the black valley to their secret treasure vault. And I’m sure you already know what happens next: Ali watches as Zakali uses the magic words to open and close the vault, and after they leave he enters the vault himself and takes some gold.
As Ali explains to Marjina, the gold belongs to the villagers, and he intends to make sure that they get it all back. (Even though nobody in the village could have possibly had that much money in the first place.) Ali’s brother Qasim, who stumbles across the gold and badgers Ali until he learns where it comes from, has no such scruples. He goes to the cave and steals all the gold he can. In his excitement he forgets the magic words, Zakali arrives, and . . . well. Things don’t go well for Qasim.
Ali is a good brother, and he returns to the cave to look for his brother, finds him, and brings the pieces home. (Zakali: “Where is that corpse I hacked in half?”) Of course, now Zakali knows that someone else knows the secret of the cave, and he really, really wants his gold back.
The dinosaurs are actually my favorite part of Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor. It’s not that the computer animation is terribly good ((it isn’t,) and it’s not that they do anything interesting (they don’t.) I like the dinosaurs because they make absolutely no sense. I keep trying to figure out what sort of a world this movie takes place in; clearly there must be dinosaurs in more places than just the village, because Susan isn’t surprised by them, and the village is not swarming with scientists.
Even without considering the dinosaurs, the writing is sloppy. Susan, the American journalist, is roughly equivalent to Christopher Sly; she listens to some expository dialogue and then vanishes entirely. The real problem with the film, though, is that Ali Baba himself is not a likable character. He’s gruff, surly, and rude to everybody, and only seems interested in stopping Zakali because that’s what the leading man is supposed to do. Zakali is frankly more charismatic, in the way that insane Bollywood villains tend to be, and his chief henchman has a cool eye patch.
The movie isn’t very good, but there are entertaining parts. It’s recommended, but only if your Bad Movie Tolerance Threshold is high.
So Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor isn’t that faithful an adaptation of the story, either. The film is set in a bizarre version of contemporary India; the village of Sonapur looks like every other Bollywood village ever, but visiting American journalist Susan spends the boat ride to the village happily photographing the vast herds of dinosaurs on shore, and nobody finds the presence of extinct megafauna worthy of comment.
Susan is in Sonapur to interview Shangrila Baba, the local herbalist and mysterious old man, who has been put in the Guinness Book of World Records for being a hundred and fifty years old. Shangrila talks to his plants, which is normal. They also talk back to him, which stuns Susan. (Dinosaurs? Meh. Talking plants?!) Shangrila isn’t really interested in talking about his magical herb garden, though, or about how old he is. Instead, he wants to talk about his grandson, Ali Baba (Arbaaz Khan), woodcutter, manly man, and self-proclaimed protector of the forest.
At that moment, Ali Baba is on horseback, riding out of the village and toward the city. He stops to tease his sort-of girlfriend, Marjina (Pinky Harwani), a simple, naive village belle who dresses like an extra from a Pat Benatar video. Ali and Marjina sing a song, he beats up her jealous suitor and a pair of hired thugs, and then he’s back on his way.
Meanwhile, extremely evil bandit chieftain Zakali (Tej Sapru) is having a staff meeting with his men. They’re all looking forward to doing some robbing, but instead Zakali decides that they will raid the village and kill a lot of people, partly because this will increase the gang’s reputation, and partly because Zakali is just that evil.
The raid goes well, from a bandit’s point of view. The new forest officer arrives in town the next day, and the villagers rebuke him for not having been there. (Bollywood villagers tend to overreact and jump to conclusions, but in this case they do actually have a point.) The forest officer vows to bring Zakali to justice.
That night, the forest officer (who never gets a name) and his men encounter Ali Baba, returning from the city. Upon learning about the attack, Ali declares that he will bring Zakali and his men to justice. He finds the bandit camp by following the sound of their dancing girl, but he’s quickly discovered. After a quick fight, the bandits capture Ali, and Zakali decides to feed him to the giant lizard that lives in the black valley.
Ali escapes from the lizard (and say what you will about Ali Baba, but any man who can drive off a T-Rex using a small knife gets serious badass points), climbs onto his trusty horse, and makes his way back to town, where he promptly collapses. After Shangrila and Marjina nurse him back to health, he refuses to tell anyone about what happened, even though the villagers offer to help him fight the bandits. Instead, he goes back to work.
The next day, while cutting wood in the forest, Ali catches sight of Zakali and his men. he follows them through the black valley to their secret treasure vault. And I’m sure you already know what happens next: Ali watches as Zakali uses the magic words to open and close the vault, and after they leave he enters the vault himself and takes some gold.
As Ali explains to Marjina, the gold belongs to the villagers, and he intends to make sure that they get it all back. (Even though nobody in the village could have possibly had that much money in the first place.) Ali’s brother Qasim, who stumbles across the gold and badgers Ali until he learns where it comes from, has no such scruples. He goes to the cave and steals all the gold he can. In his excitement he forgets the magic words, Zakali arrives, and . . . well. Things don’t go well for Qasim.
Ali is a good brother, and he returns to the cave to look for his brother, finds him, and brings the pieces home. (Zakali: “Where is that corpse I hacked in half?”) Of course, now Zakali knows that someone else knows the secret of the cave, and he really, really wants his gold back.
The dinosaurs are actually my favorite part of Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor. It’s not that the computer animation is terribly good ((it isn’t,) and it’s not that they do anything interesting (they don’t.) I like the dinosaurs because they make absolutely no sense. I keep trying to figure out what sort of a world this movie takes place in; clearly there must be dinosaurs in more places than just the village, because Susan isn’t surprised by them, and the village is not swarming with scientists.
Even without considering the dinosaurs, the writing is sloppy. Susan, the American journalist, is roughly equivalent to Christopher Sly; she listens to some expository dialogue and then vanishes entirely. The real problem with the film, though, is that Ali Baba himself is not a likable character. He’s gruff, surly, and rude to everybody, and only seems interested in stopping Zakali because that’s what the leading man is supposed to do. Zakali is frankly more charismatic, in the way that insane Bollywood villains tend to be, and his chief henchman has a cool eye patch.
The movie isn’t very good, but there are entertaining parts. It’s recommended, but only if your Bad Movie Tolerance Threshold is high.
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