Movie Review: Aladdin

Producer- Walt Disney

Director- Guy Ritchie

Star Cast- Will Smith, Mena Massoud , Naseem Pedrad Marwan Kensari, Navid Negahban and Baomi Scott

Genre- Fantasy

Rating-***1/2

Entertaining to the core!

Jyothi Venkatesh

The film is about Aladdin (Mena Massoud) who is a thief plying his trade in the marketplaces of the vaguely, vividly Middle Eastern fantasyland of Agrabah, where he meets and falls for Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott). Her father, the kindly old Sultan (Navid Negahban), is being undermined by his diabolical vizier, Jafar (Marwan Kenzari). Aladdin and his lovable monkey, Abu, are joined by a magic carpet and a blue genie (Wills Smith) who grants wishes and also develops a crush on Jasmine’s handmaiden, Dalia (Nasim Pedrad).

It is not fair to compare this film with Aladdin,” the 1992 cartoon feature with Robin Williams as a garrulous blue Genie,  from Disney’s second golden age of animation, but this new live action product Aladdin also has durable charms and memorable songs. Will Smith who has been painted blue is excellent and isintroduced as the Genie about 45 minutes into the film, and is single-handedly responsible for injecting it with the energy that is sorely missing in the first act.

Mena Massoud, who bears a striking resemblance to our own Tusshar Kapoor is endearing as the young Alladin who falls for Princess Jasmine and has a deadpan comic energy that shines whenever he’s not required to simply re-enact his animated counterpart’s iconic moments. Naomi Scott who was zeroed in for the role after our very own Tara Sutaria was rejected looks pretty as Jasmine and also acts reasonably, it is Marwan Kenzari’s performance as the treacherous vizier Jafar that makes you sit glued to the edge of your seat your seat as it departs most strikingly from the original film. Composer Alan Menken returns joined this time by La La Land’s Pasek & Paul to produce new music for the film. To sum up, go and see Alladin because it is not only entertaining to the core but also musical and very pleasing to the eye and what’s more does not bore you even for a minute at all.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Aladdin, Movie Review, Will Smith, Mena Massoud , Naseem Pedrad Marwan Kensari, Navid Negahban, Baomi Scott