Review - Aladin: smoothly pulls wool over your eyes

You could call it the Hindi Harry Potter 7-crushed into-1 with a dash of X-men thrown in. Or, for that matter, you can look at it as any other super-hero story. BUT, you could also think of Aladin as a huge step forward for Hindi films in terms of graphics and cute imagination - however small it might be.

Don't expect any sort of deviation from the writing department though. Oops! Did I just give the movie away? Oh well, not like you wouldn't guess that in the first 5 minutes. Also, you still don't know how a dim-wit like Aladin (Riteish Deshmukh) manages to keep the evil forces from taking over. There are no fascinating revelations about life and human behavior. There are no aims loftier than power. I don't know about you? But, I thought Aladin was all about adventures, but this is more like a love story.

The first thing that takes you by awe in the first 15-20 minutes or so is the lovely sets. The sand-colored stones, the fortress like look is done really well and you know you are in fairly land with spurts of color showing up on the screen. You are in this town that is more-or-less nameless and is not bound in time. You will see TVs but they have wood-finished remote controls. You have the milkman's cycle and vintage cars.

The other special effects are also fascinating. I wondered if it was just because I was seeing this in a Hindi film. And the answer was a resounding NO! I would have equally appreciated it in a film from any part of the world. The action sequences are smoothly cut and put together. The camera moves lyrically and somehow never gets me out of the story book.

Unfortunately, there's nothing else that's above the average here. I shouldn't be repeating too often that the story is oft-repeated. :) Not only that, it slacks down quite a bit after the first half hour. Also there are jumps in the story that make you feel like you are watching a movie based on a book and they lost 50 pages after every 50 pages. The intriguing suspense in the beginning is not built further and is sorted-out pretty disappointingly.

The acting I guess requires everyone to behave a little over-the-top. I'm not the loud-act-makes-me-laugh audience, so I wouldn't know if the people who like that would enjoy it. I just think it’s a lame excuse in the name of appealing to the kids. We should be developing better tastes in the next generation.

But, given that they are *supposed* to act loud and larger-than-life Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt enchant. We knew they are capable of it, and we see it again. Oh, how my heart sinks in giving a movie starring the Big B a low rating. You want to look only at this 65-year in a screen full of dancers. How he pulls off an entire song and makes elegant, the simplest of choreography … *sigh* oh well…

Riteish Deshmukh too succeeds, what looks like effortlessly, in playing the larger-than-life idiot! Some of the scenes with two Aladin's on screen (just like that!) make you respect him even more as an actor. Even if those were the only two expressions he could hold. And what's so special about Jacqueline Fernandez, again? Not her chalk-white face with whiter make-up, right?

And those songs get one too many and thus way too often and spoil that for you too!

For those who are not into Hollywood, this one is a must-must-watch! Others could say, "baah! I've seen it in Hollywood - like 100 times over." Or you could watch it like you would watch the next Holly-thriller-action-superhero movie with a typical No-one-can-save-the-world-but-me plotline. And yet, if there were a sequel, I would look forward to it, because all hope's not lost.