The good news is that this film is not a remake of the old Vijay Anand crime classic, though as a hat trip to the master, his name is invoked in a scene. There is no better news– Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins, directed by Robby Grewal and Kookie Gulati is a trying-too-hard to be slick heist thriller and landing flat on its face most of the time.
It seems to have been made because Saif Ali Khan is perfect to play a cool dude, and Jaideep Ahlawat, probably tired of playing thugs, wanted to wear stylish suits, live in a swank bungalow and own a Gustav Klimt painting. The gangster roots show, however, in the way he beats a man to death, frames his blood spatter and hangs it on the wall.
In debt to the tune of several crores, Rajan Aulakh, needs to get ace jewel thief Rehan (Saif Ali Khan) to steal the priceless Red Sun diamond, that is to be displayed at a Mumbai art centre (why?). Rehan is a wanted man in India, and a cop, Vikram (Kunal Kapoor) has put two very incompetent men to surveil him wherever he travels—no explanation as to why, since they are obviously not arresting him in Budapest.
Aulakh puts pressure on Rehan by threatening to entrap his father (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and brother (Gagan Arora) in a fake case. Of course, Rehan easily walks into India with a stolen passport, and agrees to the heist from a high security venue. He knows more than the cops, like where the camera blind spots are and how to access underground tunnels to enter the art centre. While waiting for the day of the theft, Rehan flirts with Rajan’s abused wife (Nikita Dutta). She has a belladonna plant at hand, so that the poison can be used later.
The museum plan fails and Rehan makes an even more audacious plan to steal the diamond from an airplane, by maneuvering to get in landed in the middle of Istanbul city, and of course, only he knows of an underground escape route, of which the Turkish cops are unaware. The source of Rehan’s intel seems to be a blue-haired hacker, whose reasons for helping him are unclear.
The viewer can snigger at the silliness of it all, because the writers and directors do not care whether the script makes sense or not. The recent capers like Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga, Crew and Sikandar Ka Muqaddar did it much better, because they did not treat the audience as idiots. The only thing in its favour is that it is not boring. Plus, Saif Ali Khan can carry off this sort of lunacy and look as if he were enjoying it.
Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins
Directed by Kookie Gulati, Robbie Grewal
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Nikita Dutta and others
On Netflix
