Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

September 1, 2011

The classic tale is newly dressed up as a graphic novel and transferred to modern Mumbai.

Hewing fairly closely to the original's storyline, Mukherjee casts Ali Baba as a cab driver, the clever slave girl who repeatedly saves his hide as an aspiring young dancer named Marjeena, and the thieves as heavily armed bank robbers in suits and shades. Drawn as caricatures in the crowded-together but legible panels, Ali Baba and his son Omar have appropriately hapless looks, the thieves' leader, Vladimir, is a picture of chiseled menace and the beauty Marjeena (modeled, to judge from the photo, on the author) projects an air of alert competence. The "reload" is felt in plot as well as depicted setting. The climax feels muddled, thanks to a previously unmet gent who mysteriously pops up to defuse the bombs that Vladimir sets, but Marjeena consents to marry Omar in the end rather than just being handed over. Also, the thieves are only arrested, not boiled in oil, and though Ali Baba's ne'er-do-well brother Qasim is gunned down early on with much splashing of blood, at least he isn't, as in the traditional version, chopped into quarters.

A properly melodramatic rendition that doesn't take itself too seriously. (Graphic fiction. 12-14)

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November 15, 2011

Scholars debate whether the character of Ali Baba came from the earliest One Thousand and One Nights collections, but it's certainly one of the best known and most family-friendly tales of the bunch. In the usual version, Ali Baba is a woodcutter who happens to glimpse thieves visiting their treasure cave and through a combination of cleverness and helpful collaborators manages to take advantage of them. This modern reload puts Ali Baba behind the steering wheel of a Mumbai taxi, an auto rickshaw. The 40 thieves he stumbles across have masterminded a bank robbery and hidden 50 kilos of gold bars in a truck-size storage container; "open sesame" is the password to the computerized security lock. His updated family reflects the traditional characters: greedy brother, conniving but loveable sister-in-law, and pretty Marjeena, the kitchen help, whose smarts save everyone's skins at the end. And as in the original, Marjeena marries Ali Baba's son. VERDICT With engaging contemporary characters, stylishly angular color art, and minimal violence, this version of the classic tale will appeal to adults along with teens and older tweens who like picaresque urban adventure with a Mideast vibe.--M.C.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.