Thief of Baghdad

I found this on the internet. It is a Bollywood version of Doug Fairbanks classic Thief of Bagdad. Unfortunately it is in Hindustani with no subtitles but fortunately, it is full of belly dancing. Some of the belly dancing is quite sexy. I read once that all Indian made movies have to have Bollywood dance sequences to be successful, even a Tarzan jungle adventure. Luckily the dance sequences fit into the story here.

The plot, as near as I can figure out without subtitles, is a combination of the Fairbanks original and the Korda color remake of 1940. There is a scene taken directly from the Fairbanks original (the thief admires the sleeping princess) and a sequence straight out the Korda film where the thief finds a genie in a bottle, the genie flies him to an ancient temple, inside he fights dragon and takes a ring from a giant hand (shades of Captain Sinbad). There is also a giant spider killed by the thief and a cyclops in the best Bert I. Gordon tradition (forced perspective with the giant photographed close by and the people at a distance). The thief escapes from a cage by bending the bars like Steve Reeves and there is Prince whom the thief is helping. At least I think he is although they are fighting at other times. There are acrobatic stunts a la Fairbanks and leaps from tall buildings (must be a net below the camera angle). The bad guy is a court noble or general working with a wicked sorcerer who has a spying raven who takes human form to report to his master.

All in all, it is enjoyable show with lots of sword fights and I certainly enjoyed the belly dancing. Maybe someone who speaks Hindustani can fill us in on what I did not understand.