The Adventures of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

The film is a fairy tale with elements of melodrama , comedy and musical based on the tales of " 1000 and one night ." It is based on the legend of poor lumberjack Ali Baba , who found innumerable riches in the fairy cave of robbers, the main theme of the tale is the conflict of his brothers: the noble and selfless Ali Baba with the greedy and stupid Kasym.

Differences from the source

The film presents a number of characters, themes and plots that were not in the original Arabian fairy tale “ Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves ” ^[1] : social relations between residents and the populist - the ruler of the city of Gulabad, problems with the water supply in the city and trade in drinking water, use pigeon mail and boomerang , plot and palace coup in the Indian province, the slave trade, the use of gunpowder as explosives. The community of power and selfish interests of the ruler of the city and the leader of the robbers - two persons of one person is shown.

In the literary source, all the action takes place in Persia , while Margina (or Marjan) is only a servant who, in the final, after saving Ali Baba’s house from the robbers, is accepted into the family as a sister.

In the film, the action takes place in the fictional eastern city of Gulabad (thanks to field shooting strongly reminiscent of medieval Uzbek), in the mountains, in the desert and in India; and Margina is the Indian princess and the bride of the protagonist, whom he saves from death. With the money stolen from the robbers, Ali Baba builds a dam to save his hometown from drought. It is also the dam that saves Ali Baba from the robbers. Ali's friend, Hamid, sees Ali Baba jumping and armed robbers chasing him. Having instantly assessed the situation, he orders to lower the water in the dam. It is she who becomes an obstacle to the robbers and salvation for Ali Baba.

• Dharmendra (in the credits of the Soviet version - Darmendra) - Ali Baba
• Hema Malini - Margina
• Rolan Bykov - the leader of the robbers Abu Hassan / ruler of Gulabad (in the Indian version - Kazi Nuriddin )
• Zakir Mukhamedzhanov ^[2] - Yusuf, father of Ali Baba
• Sofiko Chiaureli - Zamira, mother of Ali Baba
• Yakub Akhmedov - Kasym, brother of Ali Baba
• Zinat Aman - Fatima
• Khojadurdy Narliev - Hamid
• Frunzik Mkrtchyan ^[3] - caravanbashi Mustafa
• Hamza Umarov - Ahmed Daredevil
• Javlon Hamraev ^[4] - Muhammad - knife thrower
• Elena Sanaeva - the spirit of the cave ^[5]
• Madan Puri - Fatima's father
• Prem Chopra - the raja-impostor Shamshir (in the credits of the Soviet version of the film, the roles of Prem Chopra and Pinchu Kapoor are mixed up)
• Pinchu Kapoor - Raja, father of Margina (in the credits of the Soviet version of the film, the roles of Prema Chopra and Pinchu Kapoor are mixed up)
• R. Anand - Doctor
• S. Divanov, K. Abdureimov - friends of Ali Baba

The film is replete with impressive steppe and architectural urban landscapes of Central Asia, Indian songs, dances and battle scenes ^[6] . A film was shot in the territory of the USSR and in India . 70% of the shooting of the film took place mainly in Uzbekistan . Field shooting took place in Bukhara, Tashkent and neighboring Dushanbe ^{[7] [8]} . The main roles are actors of different nationalities, stars of Indian, Russian, Armenian, Uzbek, Georgian, Turkmen and Kyrgyz Soviet cinema.

Usen Kudaibergenov , versatile athlete Sultan Dyikanbaev and other stunt riders from Kyrgyzstan ^{[9] [10]} participated in the shooting of horse stunts: the artist of the Dzhigits of Kyrgyzstan group of the first Kyrgyz circus.

In 1980, the film was among the leaders of the Soviet film distribution (5th place), attracting 52.8 million viewers ^[11] and is 32nd in the history of Soviet film distribution ^[12] . In a number of sources it is believed that this film was watched by the largest number of viewers among all Soviet films shot not at the studios of the RSFSR. In India, the film went on the screens of cinemas for six months in a row and also collected large fees ^[13] .

In Russia, an Indian version of the film was released on DVD with a voiceover into Russian (rental certificate 2211316607 of November 20, 2007). There are no licensed copies of the Soviet version of the film on DVD as of March 2009 in Russia, but the film is shown on TV.

Songs according to the tradition that has developed in the Indian film industry are performed by famous Indian singers Lata Mangeshkar and her younger sister Asha Bhosle , as well as the famous Indian film actor and singer Kishore Kumar , moreover, there are 3 songs in the Soviet version of the film and 5 in the Indian version. Khatooba ”(literally in Hindi:“ The choice of suitors ”) at the“ minute of glory ”was performed by the blind Indian girl Vasundhara Raturi (known on the Internet as Lina Ritchie), which brought her fame and recognition not only in India but also abroad .

The songs and musical design of the film for the Indian version were written by Rahul dev Burman, music for the Soviet version of the film (except songs) was written by Vladimir Milov.

• 1980 - The film was presented and received awards at the 13th All-Union Film Festival in Dushanbe ^[14]

(prize for the work of artists ^[6] )

• 1981 - at the Belgrade Film Festival.

The version released in India is 24 minutes longer than the Soviet one. In the Indian version, the film begins with the departure of the robbers from the magic cave and their frantic jump across the steppe. The Soviet version begins with a voiceover (“Legends that have survived centuries, they come to us from afar ...”), accompanying the episode where a trade caravan goes through the desert. In India there are more songs (5 instead of 3), more fighting scenes and explosions. In the Soviet film, Ali Baba kills robbers, dropping them into the river with the help of Fatima right in the jugs, in the Indian - with the help of Fatima, again, he fights with sabers and hand-to-hand combat.
In the Indian version, the image of Fatima is developed in a slightly different way, showing her relationship with Ali Baba and Margina. In the Soviet version, Fatima becomes the wife of Kasym (which corresponds to the original tale) ^{[15] [16]} .

• The main female roles in the film were originally 2: Fatima and Margina. But Rolan Bykov specifically for his wife came up with a third role: the spirit of the cave. This is a demon in the form of a beautiful woman serving the chieftain. The demoness played a key role in the film. It was she who clouded the mind of Kasym, and he forgot the cherished words. The demoness could not do this with Ali Baba, since Ali Baba was disinterested and took treasures not for herself, but for the construction of the dam.
• The director and performer of horse stunts in the film, who played the cameo role of one of the robbers, Usen Kudaibergenov , was killed by unknown people in his house in Bishkek in April 2005 . At that time, he was a public figure and the leader of the stunt group of “ Kirghizfilm ”, and a month earlier he headed the national squads that prevented looters and pogroms during the riots in the city ^{[17] [18]} , ^[19] dispersed people together with his horsemen, arbitrarily seized land in park areas in the southern foothills of the Kyrgyz capital ^[20] .
• Despite the fact that the film at the Russian box office is presented as family-friendly ^[12] and is designed for any age category, the film has many scenes of violence and murder, but there is not a single hero played by the child, except for the baby who appears in one of the episodes in the hands of the gulabad ruler.
• The ataman of the robbers is called Abu Hassan, which in literal translation from Arabic means Father Hassan. According to the Arab tradition, after the birth of the first-born, the parents begin to call him by the name, with the prefix Abu (father) and Umm (mother). Therefore, based on the name, it turns out that the chieftain has a son, Hassan. But neither in the film nor in the book is there any mention of him.

• Polish movie poster
• One of the songs that were not included in the Soviet version of the film
• One of the songs that were not included in the Soviet version of the film
• Indian version of the movie online
• Soviet version of the film online