Aladin (2009)

Since years the Indian cinema fails to attract my attention and respect. The Americanized atmosphere, the must-be-plagiarized story, or just being weak were the problems. This time forget it.Now here's a movie that takes not the easy, but the hard way to do everything. There are some diligence and patience behind the CGI, the sets, the music, and the story; which is a creative take on the famous Arabian folk story : Aladdin and the magical lamp.The story managed to be a romantic comedy mixed with fantasy, action and music. The matter of the Genie knowing Aladdin's parents, failing to rescue them, feeling responsible for their death provided the story with new spirit and catchy surprises. Yet, the character of The Ringmaster as the archenemy with his really creepy henchmen and woman, wanting the lamp along with the one million years meteor's flame did impress me, being more new and catchy. Did I say earlier that this is a movie from Bollywood as well ?!The image is beyond dazzling. The comedy got me. The music is as high as any Hollywood music or maybe better. Most of the songs are instant classics; (You May Be) is one fair example. The dancing affected me to the extent that after days and days of watching I still imitate the moves of (Bachke O Bachke) ! The action (The battles of the flashback, with the evil minions, and sure the last one) is perfect. The young director (Sujoy Ghosh) is marvelous; just recall where Genius and The Ringmaster meet head-on, or the inspired by Cyrano de Bergerac scene of (You May Be); How Enchanting ! (Ritesh Deshmukh) did a fine job whether as actor or dancer. He makes the role his own. And anyway THANK GOD THAT THEY DIDN'T USE (ABHISHEK BACHCHAN) AS IT WAS INTENDED. To tell you the truth (Deshmukh) looks like the fair son that (Bachchan) didn't have. (Jaqueline Fernandes) is one of a kind smile, sweet femininity and cute gestures; in brief a walking dream.I envied the movie's makers to have (Bachchan) as the Genie. Who else him can be more magical ? I laugh when I read something like "Genius's characterization is inspired by Robin Williams's take on the Genie in (Aladdin – 1992)" !! Genius's characterization is inspired by none other than the Big B. Follow the nice references to his old roles/the classic Indian cinema all along; talking about turning the impossible into possible (Amar Akbar Anthony – 1977), facing the bad guys in climactic fight but not before a song in a masquerade (Naseeb – 1981), The while suit in the party (Namak Halaal – 1982), etc. The movie understands which icon it deals with, being so proud of having him around. And he shows much brisk that can't tell how he was 67 year old. I only hated that his eyes were being covered for 75% of the time; by the cool hat or the white wig's long tufts.Speaking about hating; many scenes and moments, in the first 2 acts, should have been deleted; Aladin at night demands from the Genie to have love without magic, then a next scene, in the morning, for saying nothing but the same thing !, Genie goes to assure that nobody remembers the first wish's dance by asking the teacher (Why ?!), someone asks who's next in audition to know that Aladin is the next while we can understand it easily without that, The Ringmaster makes way over a mountain by outstanding stunt; I believed that fits being a smart introduction for him, or something he does with one of the first 2 victims, not a totally extra scene that didn't affect anything. Some shots begin with somewhat long and unnecessary walking for the characters or moving camera over the city. Let alone that the movie waits, for more than its half, till the romantic comedy ends to let the hot action unfold; however why The Ringmaster didn't try earlier to kill Aladin more than once?! That could have added some excitement, not delaying the conflict to very late phase. All of the above did slacken partly the final product. Is it why it ended up as a flop ?!! Is it how an original, fancy, lovable movie, with 4 years of working, huge budget, and A-list stars, went wrong ?!!! Whatever the reason was; 5 out of 10 in the IMDb is not unfair, it's rather the unfairness !This is surprisingly top notch and no less. Surprisingly as I used to get "The less" mostly from Bollywood lately. It's more like a festival of bright colors, imagination, and cinema. Despite its pace problems I can't get enough of it. Therefore it's sad that it had to fail in the box office. But don't bother yourself (Ghosh), we need more wonders from your pocket, because dear…you're the true "Genius". And this pure moment of happiness you made; will live forever.

Really, the title said it all – fantasy mixed with adventure, fairy tale and a bit of science fiction. A small boy looses his parents as they are in search of a lamp but years pass by and he meets a man who is claimed to be his cousin. The only thing is that the man is on the point of retiring from his job.Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandes, Sanjay Dutt, this is directed by Sujoy Ghosh while Vishal Shekhar provide the music score.Amitabh Bachchan in a role that has been mentioned quite a few times for a while now, is as usual, excellent and he has managed to carry it off rather well. While Ritesh Deshmukh, in the title role, has done a job that, perhaps, he could have taken it a bit further but never the less, he has performed well. The same, however, can't be said for Jacqueline Fernandes and she could have been more convincing in her role. Sanjay Dutt, is just excellent in his role as the villain and is worth watching. I felt that his role, could have been extended and it would have been better. But both Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt, really carry this film on their shoulders to a level that one can say that is worth watching if you like such films.What also makes this film a bit interesting are the visual effects and these are worth watching and especially the woman who breathes nothing but fire and the fight sequences. The song to listen for "Ore Saawariya," is the one to listen for and is worth listening to.A good film to watch if you like a bit of everything, fantasy, romance, adventure, fairy tale and science fiction is mixed in. A good film for the kids as well.

Last year we had a heavy weight fantasy debacle from the banner of Eros Entertainment called "Drona". And this year we have a similar kind of forgettable fantasy movie titled "Aladin", once again from the same prestigious banner of Eros. Wasn't there even one thinking mind in the team who could see that they were repeating the same horrendous blunder again leading to a big loss, both on financial and goodwill grounds? Wasn't there any creative person at all, who could point out that "Aladin" was also having the same distasteful ingredients, which were earlier universally rejected in "Drona" in the very first few days of its release? Anyway, the mistake has been committed and the loss has to be faced by everyone.Playing with the loving memories of a childhood story which is still fresh in our mature minds, the movie shamelessly lies in the lowest zone of creativity. Hanging in the mid, it is neither an enjoyable fare for the kids, nor a refreshing graphical ride for the youngsters. In other words it seems to be the result of the wandering mind of a director who is simply lost in his own artistic world and damn cares of the entertainment quotient of his final product.To start with, in my opinion there are two most important and exciting sequences in an "Aladin" movie, which have to be dealt with extra care and creativity. First being the entry and introduction sequence of the Jinn. And second, the content of the three wishes granted to Aladin by the Jinn. Originally the whole movie should revolve around these three granted wishes and their surprising aftereffects. But shockingly neither of the above two sequences have been given the much required importance by the director Sujoy Ghosh. The Jinn simply appears from the cloudy smoke in few seconds and then just starts singing a song along with Aladin and a group of dancers, which is arguably the weirdest conceived sequence of the movie. Besides this, the three wishes are just wasted by Aladin, without any excitement build up or entertainment factor for the viewers.Moreover the kids keep on waiting for something great to unfold on the screen, each time Aladin is going to say a wish, but nothing happens and post interval the movie moves on to a totally different tale of a Ring Master who is also in search of the magic lamp. Can't say from where he came into the story all of a sudden as we have not read about any such character in the Aladin story. May be the director wanted to add some spice and thrill into the story with some additional villain characters. But sadly, his move of adding a baddie Ring Master, doesn't work at all. On the contrary, the bonus track deviates the story from its original theme and takes away the world famous charm of this fantasy story.In the performance department, except Ritesh Deshmukh, almost everyone goes over the top, acting with hyper reactions and high energy. It seems they acted that way according to the brief given by the director. Yet in bold terms, both Amitabh Bachchan & Sanjay Dutt should include this movie as one of the most regretful projects of their career. Debutant Jacqueline Fernandez is just there for adding some glamour value and she delivers what was being expected from her. But I was unable to figure out why three talented veterans Ratna Pathak Shah, Victor Bannerjee and Mita Vashisht were there in the movie playing completely unimportant roles which didn't suit them at all. Only Ritesh Deshmukh looked like his character of Aladin on the screen and he is the only one who gives an impressive, controlled and enjoyable performance in the movie.Musically, it's another mediocre score from Vishal-Shekhar with no Hit Track as such. Moreover, most of the songs in the movie are deliberately added into the proceedings and could have been easily left out at the editing table itself. In fact it's only the Cinematography and few graphic sequences in the movie which are able to impress the viewer to some extent. Otherwise it's a complete disaster from the production team, who didn't learn any lesson from their own dud "Drona".It was indeed sad to see all the valuable resources and hard work going down the drain once again in a useless effort of making an epic fantasy Indian movie. Actually we should stop thinking about competing with Hollywood in the Fantasy genre as it's not possible to reach the level of "Harry Potter" or "Lord of the Rings" with this kind of mind setup, where a Ginni still has to sing songs along with Aladin.If a big ship sinks then only the captain gets the blame, who is Sujoy Ghosh in this particular case, solely responsible for this silly & mad fiasco. Along with him both Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt are equally responsible for saying yes to this project and raising the expectation levels of all their children fans in the entire world. The veterans of the industry should understand the responsibility associated with their big names and ideally should take utmost care in selecting a project featuring them in the lead roles. But it doesn't seem to be the way our Industry works as Bollywood keeps on delivering bad and disgraceful projects at regular intervals year after year and that too with some great confidence on their faces before the release.In a nutshell, it's high time that the production houses should rethink upon their working strategies. In clear words, they got to keep full control over their ongoing projects and their over-creative directors in order to save the hard earned money of both the makers and the spectators. Cause we really don't want to witness any other "Drona" or "Aladin" in the future.

Magical world,Special effects is nothing new for todays movie lovers but for Bollywood,with low budget,Aladin is good enough.It brings a fresh air of a simple fantasy world.Aladin a film about magical world began in the Khwaish Nagar of north India.A little boy named Aladin sometimes harassed by his friends because of similar name with a hero..One day a genie appears when Aladin rubes a magical lamp...Then began the story of magic and fantasy.Genie helps Aladin to find his love,fights with evil character named Ringmaster who want that magical lamp to control the world.There is nothing special(other than simple special effects) in the film but watch it for its simplicity..It helps you to fly through your childhood Fantacies..Scripts is ordinary,clumsy in some places..Music average..In acting Ritesh and Sanjay Datta well into their character.Newcomer Jaqueline Fernandes done Justis to his character.Though there is nothing cinematic beauty in this Movie but at the end of the day it makes you fill good..