Jewel Thief—The Heist Begins a good 2.0 version of classic actioners

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By the time I was halfway, I came to know that this is one of those classic “leave your brains behind at home and enjoy” kind of entertainers. But then I realized: this is a home watch, as it is an OTT release anyway!

Purists and the section of the younger generation obsessed with logical actioners (only in Hindi, as they are absolutely fine and accepting about South Indian or Hollywood illogical spectacles!!) will be advised to stay away, and also avoid the sequel that has been announced—The Heist Continues in the last frame before the end-credit titles.

If this film is not a match on the 1967 film of that name, it is only because that one was essentially a suspense drama with ingenious crafting and fabulous music, whereas this film is a full-blooded testosterone actioner in which nothing is not known.

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Rajan Aulakh (Jaideep Ahlawat) is the cold-blooded blackguard of the piece, he loses a whopping amount thanks to his accountant, who is disposed of just before he strays into his own curated exhibition of treasuries. A mega-villain as seen in countless Hindi films, Rajan even shoots a dog he has brought up from the beginning because he likes a stranger at their first meeting and kills at will.

The stranger here is Rehaan (Saif Ali Khan), a jewel thief for whom sleight-of-hand is an effortless art. Rajan wants Rehaan to steal the Red Sun, Africa’s priceless red stone, which will help him finish off his debt to Moosa (Dorendra Singh Loitongbam), a ganglord based in Istanbul.

Rehaan, who has antagonized his doctor father (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) after becoming an outlaw, however, respects and loves dad. He now lives lawfully in Budapest. A determined cop, Vikram Patel (Kunal Kapoor, in a case of classic miscasting!) is on his trail.

Rehaan’s younger brother Avi (Gagan Arora) comes to visit him there as Rajan is blackmailing his father so that Rehaan goes to meet him. He tells Rehaan to steal the Red Sun for him amidst impossible odds, as its owner, Prince Gamunu (Peter Muxka Manuel) is exhibiting it around the world and will be doing so in Mumbai as well.

And so it is that Rehaan manages to reach India in a devious way and meets Rajan. He is told that he will be staying in Rajan’s villa until the job is done. Rajan is married to Farrah (Nikita Dutta), who is unhappy and occupies her time painting. And thereby hangs a tale that we are not told.

The rest of the movie is about the heist and all the action and assorted twists and turns. And the screenplay (David Logan) seems to revel in everything absurd and fantastic right until the end. The happy ending in such cases is a dead cert, but how we get there through familiar (and in this case, also familial) means, is the crux. Rajan addresses Rehaan derisively as Bond, but the only ‘womanizing’ this Bond does is to secretly flirt with Farrah, and soon they become a ‘coosome’ twosome!

Classic Hindi film lovers will relish the high-octane thriller with spectacle, superb action, a tinge of violence and terrific foreign locations, with an emotional core with Rehaan’s family values being intact (Dhoom:2, anyone?). One can foresee viewers itching for such refreshing masala in these days of a paucity of good entertainers in movie halls. Netflix again scores high after Dhoom Dhaam, which was more of a comic thriller.

Saif Ali Khan is in the pitch-perfect groove as Rehaan, whose wit, sass and style go—paradoxically—remarkably well with the earnest son he also portrays. Jaideep Ahlawat is the perfect foil with his cool and vicious villain act, and conveys well the fact that he can be helpless too. Nikita Dutta does the classic bimbette heroine act well.

Kunal Kapoor tries hard, but as stated earlier, essaying a no-nonsense and daredevil cop with visionary intelligence clearly does not seem to be his forte, as he, for starters, looks too nice a human being to be all that. But I liked Chirjyot Singh Kohli, one of the cop’s acolytes whose name is Gaurav Chaddha, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Dorendra Singh Loitongbam.

The background score (Shezan Shaikh) is an excellent complement to the stylized tenor, and the cinematography (Jishnu Bhattacharjee), action (Parvez Shaikh, Riyaz Habib, Kecha Kamphakdee), production design (Madhur Madhavan, Swapnil Bhalerao) and technical values (VFX, DI et al) are bewitching and splendiferous. The editor (Aarif Sheikh) has his job made easy by the fast-paced script and the directors.

Kookie Gulati, director of the average Prince and The Big Bull, and Robbie Grewal, whose oeuvre has three very undistinguished movies (Samay, MP3: Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar, Romeo Akbar Walter) join hands profitably for this riveting entertainer.

Never mind if it’s just a breeze of a watch sans any message of seriousness. Unwind and have a ball. We need such relief in these stressful times!

Rating: ***

Netflix presents Marflix Pictures’ Jewel Thief—The Heist Begins  Produced by: Siddharth Anand & Mamta Anand  Directed by: Kookie Gulati & Robbie Grewal  Written by: David Logan, Sumit Arora, Karan Vyas & Sambit Mishra Music: Sachin-Jigar, Oaff and Savera, Soundtrek and Anis Ali Sabri Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Kunal Kapoor, Nikita Dutta, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Gagan Arora, Sumit Gulati, Anees Moosa, Dorendra Singh Loitongbam, Shaji Choudhary, Meenal Sahu, Ayaz Khan, Peter Muxka Manuel, Paayal Nair, Vinay Sharma & others

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