Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor (1980) is the Bollywood equivalent of those Russo-Finnish fantasy epics that occasionally pop up on Mystery Science Theater 3000. And I mean that literally - Ali Baba is a Russian and Indian co-production based on a well-known story, but because this is Bollywood, everybody needs an extensive backstory before things can really get going.
We'll start with Fatima (Zeenat Aman). Fatima and her merchant father (Madan Puri) are crossing the desert in a caravan when they are attacked by bandits commanded by Abu Hassan (Rolan Bykov). The caravan guards defend themselves with gunpowder, and that gives Abu Hassan an idea. He's a very successful bandit already, with an indeterminate number of thieves under his command, as well as a cool magic cave full of treasure, but he wants more, and gunpowder can help. He captures Fatima and her father, forcing him to make more gunpowder and her to spy in town and perform the occasional dance number. Fatima's father realizes that she is staying to protect him, so he takes his own life, leaving her to escape alone and plot her revenge.
Ali Baba (Dharmendra) is the son of another wealthy merchant, Yusuf (Zakir Mukhamedzhanov). Yusuf has been away on a trading expedition for years, so long that Ali Baba can't even remember what he looks like. Ali's brother Kasym (Yakub Akhmedov) manages the family business, while their mother (Sofiko Chiaureli) tries to keep them in line. Yusuf is finally heading for home when his caravan is attacked by Abu Hassan (thanks to information provided by Fatima) and Yusuf is left for dead. Fortunately, Yusuf is found by . . . well, the subtitles call him the emperor, so let's go with that.
The emperor nurses Yusuf back to health, and sends a message to his family so that he can finally return home. Ali sets out to collect him, but before he can get there the emperor is overthrown by the evil Shamsher (Prem Chopra), and Yusuf is forced to flee along with the princess Marjina (Hema Malini). Ali Baba runs into the pair, and fails to recognize Yusuf, and . . . . well, it gets complicated. They meet and separate and get captured and rescue each other in various combinations, but eventually Ali and Marjina are in love, father and son have realized their true relationship, and then Abu Hassan attacks. Yusuf is seriously wounded, living just long enough for Ali to take him home, and Marjina is lost in the confusion.
Marjina isn't missing for long, but by the time Ali finds her, she's being sold into slavery, and he has to take a sizable loan from Kasym in order to buy her freedom. Kasym's condition for the loan is that Ali agrees to give up his share of their father's estate, and Ali agrees without hesitation. He leaves the family house, taking Marjina and his mother with him. He needs money, so he finds work as a woodcutter. Kasym, meanwhile, has teamed up with Fatima; she wants someone to help her get revenge on Abu Hassan, while he wants to find where Abu Hassan keeps his fabulous treasure.
And so, finally, Ali Baba is a poor but hard working woodcutter who stumbles across the fabulous cave of the Forty Plus Thieves (a lot of them die in various fights scenes, but they eventually get down to just forty). Ali Baba steals some of the treasure and uses it to help the people around him, while his greedy brother Kasym learns the secret, tries to steal the treasure for himself, and meets with a grisly fate. And when the leader of the Forty Thieves comes looking for him, Ali Baba is able to survive thanks to the help of the quick-witted Marjina, who was technically a slave for a brief period of time. Not the most faithful retelling of the original story, but it hits all of the major points.
Despite the extensive backstory, Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor moves really quickly. There's always something happening, and it's usually something interesting. And the leads are engaging; Dharmendra has never been very good at "charming young scamp," but he quickly settles into "solid and implacable hero," which he is very good at. And this is post-Seeta Aur Geeta Hema Malini, which means that while she doesn't get to beat up an entire police station this time, she does get to be an active protagonist rather than a damsel in distress for most of the movie, which is unusual for a Bollywood heroine of that era. And Zeenat Aman's character has less agency overall, but somehow manages to be a woman in eighties Bollywood who has no romantic attachments at all. It's an impressive achievement.
No comments:
Post a Comment