Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins is the latest Bollywood film to be streaming on OTT platform, and being a Netflix presentation so it’s available only on that platform.
For beginning and to caution you it is far removed from the cult classic Jewel Thief of Dev Anand fame which had its own twists and was really appreciated when it was released way back in 1967. After all these years somebody thought about replanning a film with the same name but unfortunately it doesn’t live up to the expectations.
Shot on a good scale (one can give that much to it) however it leaves a lot to be desired, for starters it has got Saif Ali Khan a misfit in this role he doesn’t look anything like his smooth talking self as one can see he is getting old for such roles, here you needed much younger Hero who is nimble and blithe in his demeanor as a Jewel thief (he tries hard to be that but is not convincing as he looked gloomy and mostly uninterested).
The heist story which has been told so many times over and over that there doesn’t seem to be anything new in it similar plots have been seen in many Hollywood films like Entrapment, Italian job etc. etc. also nearer home we had our own share of such movies in the OG of the same name then there was Dhoom, Players and many such all had similar plots with different treatment.
Here the storyteller tries to go above himself what with a full commercial flight landing right in the middle of Istanbul, Turkiye. Now how far will our creatives go to give credence to our Indian hero’s intelligence, exhausting. Then you go ahead and complicate with a sub plot on how the real jewel was switched.
Excessive cinematic liberties are availed, only to make a mess of it, nowhere being near the classic Dev Anand’s thriller Jewel Thief (1967). The hero’s family angle which anyways doesn’t look genuine as it is very under developed and emotions seemed forced on both sides.
The heroine, the wooden Nikita Dutta appears to have been introduced in the proceedings to revv up the glam quotient which too fails miserably. She just appears to be the gold medal the hero gets in the end for conducting a successful heist. The only bright spot is Mr. Jaideep Ahlawat the antagonist in this dreary plot and off course the cinematography also seems to be its second one. Police Officer Vikram Patel (Kunal Kapoor) as the cop chasing the jewel thief whose role is so poor that he is just going from one place to another as if stuck in a time loop with his two side kicks.
As the byline of movie is ‘The heist begins’, I will just keep my fingers crossed that they do not come up with a sequel that will be like sounding the death knell. Sorry for a disappointment, however as it is on OTT and you do not need to make an effort to go to your near by theatre and waste your money on bloated ticket and snack prices thus saving for yourself all that money, one can invest these savings in something better, maybe get a telescope to gaze on the real stars on the huge huge canvas of our very own universe.
Streaming on Netflix and has a running time of 118 minutes.
– Review by PAWAN GUPTA
Read the review of Dev Anand’s JEWEL THIEF (1967)
https://filmytown.com/movies/jewel-thief-1967/
Cast of Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins –
Saif Ali Khan as Rehan Roy
Jaideep Ahlawat as Rajan Aulakh
Nikita Dutta as Farah
Kunal Kapoor as Vikram Patel
Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Jayant Roy
Gagan Arora as Avi Roy
Loitongbam Dorendra Singh as Anees Moosa
Shaji Chaudhary as Salim Misti
Sumit Gulati as Chunky
Meenal Sahu as Nikki Taneja
Credits of Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins –
Production company – Marflix Pictures
Produced by Siddharth Anand, Mamta Anand
Directed by Kookie Gulati, Robbie Grewal
Screenplay by David Logan
Dialogues by Sumit Arora
Cinematography – Jishnu Bhattacharjee
Edited by Aarif Sheikh
BGM – Shezan Shaikh
Songs:Sachin–Jigar, OAFF–Savera
Distributed by Netflix