A silly-fun ride

IN a scene from Jewel Thief—The Heist Begins, charming chor Rehan Roy (Saif Ali Khan) and brute crime boss Rajan Aulakh (Jaideep Ahlawat) stand side by side in a museum as they discuss "the heist plan". Between them is a clueless Japanese tourist who keeps mistaking their covert discussion as directed at him. "Red Sun," says Rehan, and the tourist nods before enthusiastically replying, "Nippon!" I had to Google this. The tourist had confused the gem-to-be-stolen as a reference to the Japanese flag, which is called the Red Sun of Nippon. After the discussion, Jaideep's Rajan pulls the Japanese's leg. "Samjha kya Hakka noodles? (Did you understand anything, Hakka noodles?)" It's a racial slur, but then only villains have the liberty to be politically incorrect in a Hindi film. The tourist corrects him, "I am not Chinese; I am Japanese," and Rehan cheekily swoops in: "I love sushi."

- KARTIK BHARDWAJ

That is what Jewel Thief essentially is, a mix of smarts and silly. The heist-drama, produced by Siddharth Anand and directed by Kookie Gulati and Robbie Grewal, is a campy caper which has unexpected blips of ingenuity. It's frivolous yet fun and isn't too desperate to push your suspension of disbelief. At a time when cinema is being made solely to rouse either religious or political sentiments, Jewel Thief is a pure genre piece with no agendas but a lot of tricks up its sleeves.