Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor Review

Not having ever seen the trailers or any other promotional program of this one, we could not place what audience the movie intended to target. Now that we have seen the picture, we can confidently say that we still don't know.

Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor has enough dinosaurs (yes, d-i-n-o-s-a-u-r-s!) to shame any cheap Jurassic Park imitation. And, it has enough thighs and mid-riff to keep any testosterone junkie interested. With Pinky Harwani (the same gal who gave Celina Jetley enough competition in Janasheen for her to play a violin in her bikini) around, you would not expect things to be much different, would you?

The story is set in either Sonapur or Solahpur, depending on which actor's diction you choose to go by. It is a small village inhabited by people whose occupation consists of ogling at Manjeera or Marjeena (Pinky Harwani), the name again being diction-dependant, and thinking of ways to make a pariah of Ali Baba (Arbaaz Khan – yes Malaika "HOT" Arora's husband).

At the same time, when the atrocities of Daaku Zakali reach the pinnacle of their glory, they turn to Ali Baba. He, being the hero, vows to protect and deliver them from the zulm of zulmi Zakali. The job comes laden with perks, most of them of the form of the element Au (Gold). It is risky, too, especially if your IQ is lower than that of the Ravenous Bug Blatter Beast of Traal (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal that assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you) or if you are Ali's brother (Tej Sapru) and tend to not remember such long phrases as Khulja Sim Sim.

The brother pays the price for to his greed. Mushtaq, the cobbler, is called upon to stitch his severed body into one piece. Zakali learns of Ali Baba's knowledge of his secret. And the movie, from here on, makes a stupendous mockery of the fable. In fact, it does not adhere to any part of it.

Surprisingly, the movie scores a few brownie points in the music department. Or may be the comic relief that the songs seemed to provide has us overwhelmed. Either way, it is not reason enough to squander two hours of your life on, even if you don't have one.