Jewel Thief—The Heist Begins, Review: Slick flick from Netflix, but does it click?

Jewel Thief—The Heist Begins, Review: Slick flick from Netflix, but does it click?

A film with a giveaway title. A film that repeats the title of a brilliant 1967 crime suspense thriller, starring Dev Anand and Ashok Kumar, and directed by Dev’s younger brother, Vijay ‘Goldie’ Anand. A film those title reminds you of the passable ‘sequel’, Return of Jewel Thief, directed by Ashok Tyagi and starring Dev Anand and Ashok Kumar. A film produced by Siddharth Anand, grandson of actor-director Inder Raj Anand, and son of producer Bittu Anand, the brother of actor-director Tinnu Anand, no relation of Dev and Vijay Anand, and the director of such films as Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007, starring Saif Ali Khan), War (2019), Pathaan (2023) and Fighter (2024). A film that Sidhharth Anand chose to only produce, and appointed Kookie Gulati and Robbie Grewal to take the director’s chairs. A film whose official title, in 2024, was Jewel Thief – The Red Sun, Chapter. A film that releases today, along with several other films of different genres. That is Jewel Thief.

A film that is directed by producer-director-writer, Kookie Gulati, who was associate director on films like Ishq Vishk and Fida, and Creative Director on Total Dhamaal, and who was brought in to re-shoot parts of the film. It is co-directed by Robbie Grewal, who helmed the spy thriller, Romeo Akbar Walter. The present one is a film that is fast, and about as slick and suave as can get, but it takes too much for granted, and leaves loose ends galore. A film whose audiences will have no way of knowing whether these ends can, or will be tied up, in the expected sequel, Jewel thief--The Heist Continues. Meanwhile, the review continues, of the film, that is Jewel Thief.

A film that has the following plot: A murderous art collector, Rajan Aulakh, batters and kills his Chartered Accountant because he suspects that the numbers of his and his five friends’ secret black money accounts in off-shore banks were leaked to the police by this man. Aulakh learns about a priceless diamond, currently in the possession of an African prince, with be exhibited in India very soon, and will be on display at a reputed Mumbai art-gallery/museum, Fort Crest. He wants to steal the Rs. 500 crore worth stone, so he summons the greatest jewel thief, Rehan Roy, an Indian who is hiding and merry-making in Budapest, Romania. Rajan has recently had a run-in with the thief, and the two are not on good terms, to say the least. Three different parties are out to grab Rehan: Rajan, the Mumbai police and Rajan’s brother, Avi. Avi wants him to save their father, an angelic, upright medical practitioner, who charges his patients a fee of Rs. 10 only, from blackmail by Rajan, who manages to con the good doctor in getting his signature on a document that could send him to jail. He uses this bait as blackmail to make Rehan steal the diamond for him. That is Jewel Thief.

A film about the heist, its planning and execution. Rajan surrenders to the police, a couple consisting of a ‘normal’ police officer and a grossly obese partner, who is made to run for several kilometres, chasing Rehan Roy. They bring him to Mumbai, on the orders of their Chief, Vikram Patel. But Rehan manages to hoodwink the duo, steal the obese officer’s passport, forges his own mugshot on it, and escapes from them. At Rajan’s den, he is told to break the Z level security at Fort Crest, steal the diamond and hand it over to Rajan, and for this gargantuan robbery, he will be paid 50% of the value of the diamond, i.e., Rs. 250 crore, if he succeeds. If he fails, his father will bear the brunt of Rajan’s backlash. Rehan is given no choice in the matter. Curious, Rehan asks who will Rajan sell it to? The only man in India who bought high value stolen goods, is dead, after a police raid on his premises, where banned contraband chemicals were being manufactured. Rehan himself provides the answer, “Moosa,” the next best fence. Moosa is a big time crime boss, who lives in Istanbul, Turkey. Rajan has had a run-in with him too, but the two agree to let bygones be bygones, and Moosa agrees to buy the Red Sun for Rs. 500 crore. Rajan tells Rehan that he will have to stay at his house, where he lives with his wife, Farah, and his slew of gun-toting hoodlums, till the Red Sun is obtained. That is Jewel Thief.

A film written by David Logan of the UK, a producer-director-writer, who wrote Harry Wild (2022), in which a recently retired English professor discovers a real knack for investigation, and cannot help but interfere with the cases assigned to her police detective son. Rajan, the art collector, is a fighting-killing machine. Rehan, who was raised in such poverty that his father would have money only enough to buy two ice-creams, one each for his two sons, and have no more money to get one for himself. He becomes a thief, who has a superhuman IQ, and infallible Plan A and Plan B for any contingency. How and where did he acquire his abilities to crack maximum security camera and laser-sensor installations, pick ultra-high-grade locks, crack open state-of-the-art safes, hack into impenetrable IT network of Fort Crest (albeit with the help of an IT whiz kid doll), scale walls, slide across a busy road on trolley wires that he put in place in case of exigencies, outsmart hard-boiled murderers and dons, fight like a WWE winner, with heavies and bouncers? That is Jewel Thief.

Dr. Roy looks 80, Rehan looks 35 and Avi 30, an incongruous premise. Were the children adopted? The good doctor charges Rs. 10 only, did not have enough money to save his dying wife, but lives in a posh house. Moreover, his younger son, Avi, rushes to Romania, finds Rehan right-away, and asks his brother to extricate their father from the blackmail (and possible killing), by ‘the sword hanging above their heads’, at the drop of a hat, a trip that would cost lakhs. Rehan is underground, and not in touch with his family, yet Avi traces him quite easily. Rajan is as ruthless and frozen-blooded as villains come, so how in heaven’s name, can Rehan flirt with his wife, who, he says, he trusts more than then he trusts Rehan, and take her out to a posh restaurant, while still in solitary confinement at Rajan’s abode, without Rajan getting the whiff about it? The list is long, but saying more might tantamount to spoiler alerts. That is Jewel Thief.

Dialogue by Sumit Arora are matter-of-fact, with a lot of underworld logic spouted by most of the characters. The scene, in which Rajan and Rehan talk about their heist plans while standing in the gallery, with a chinky-eyed man standing between them, keenly listening to their conversation and often butting in, is the only real attempt at comedy, but falls flat, as it depicts Rajan and Rehan completely out of character; would men in their positions discuss the king of all robberies in a public place, with a stranger standing between them? And never mind that he is Japanese, a fact that the two are not aware of, and that the two are talking in Hindi. When a senior police officer has to rush to Istanbul, to try and nab the master thief, he is not provided a plane by his authorities, and has to ask a rich man, who owes him a favour, to borrow a chartered plane. That is Jewel Thief.

Saif Ali Khan has matured significantly over the years and seems to be enjoying his new identity. Who would mind playing man who appears to have an IQ of 200 and outwits all his adversaries, with a combination of brains and brawn rarely seen in Hindustani movies? He gets to not only show, but flex his muscles, time and again, with a bare top. Even his diction has improved considerably. If too many tricks of the trade are attributed to him, making the audience lose belief and empathy with the character, it cannot be his fault. Jaideep Ahlawat impresses as Rajan, height, built/body and dialogue delivery being his strong points. You might recall him in Raees (2017) and Raazi (2018). Jaideep’s more recent films have been films Jaane Jaan and Three of Us, both made in 2023. For his performance in the former he won Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series for Paatal Lok, in 2020, in which he played a lawman. His work was awarded in the Web Original film, 2024’s Maharaj. That he is matched, move to move, in the game of chess that the heist becomes, is a necessary evil of the under-privileged screen baddies, because the villain has to lose in the end, not the hero.

Nikita Dutta as Farah has a minor role, with no real back-story, like Saif and Jaideep. Kunal Kapoor as Vikram Patel, the top-cop, looks the part, and is kept on his toes, running from country to country and chasing the elusive Rehan, who is always two steps ahead of him. For help, he has a couple of nitwits, including an obese policeman in mufti, who cannot keep pace,  and starts panting, every time he runs after Rehan. It is they who update him on Rehan’s changing whereabouts, and not the other way round, as it should be. All this leaves him frustrated and over-shadowed, allowing little time for histrionics. As Moosa, we have a rather strange piece of casting, the role going to man from the North-East of India, Loitongbam Dorendra Singh, with ‘chinky’ features. Veteran Kulbhushan Kharbanda is the doctor. 80 going on 81, he looks his age, but his dialogue delivery has improved, if anything, with words not mumbled but clearly intonated. Gagan Arora is okay as Avi.

Music score by Shezan Shaikh matches and enhances the mood of the film, despite often going hammer and tongs. Unlike its ancestor, Jewel Thief, Jewel Thief Returns has songs by Sachin–Jigar, OAFF–Savera and Soundtrek–Anis Ali Sabri that are mood –matched and tunefully composed, though they get lost in the din, not finding chances to caress your eardrums, in deference to the narrative. A large part of the slickness and suave look are the result of the efforts of cinematographer Jishnu Bhattacharjee and editor Aarif Sheikh. The mod images, the suave textures, the racy pace, the right length (just under two hours)… are the results of the efforts of these two talents.

We are informed in the end that The Heist Continues. Now the team and the presenter, Netflix, will have to do a lot of home work and plug the dozens of loopholes that Jewel Thief is dotted with, some so big that the extra-large diamond, the Red Sun could easily slip through them, and fall out of the reach of the writer(s) and director (s). There are a few genuine thrills and stunning visuals, certainly not enough for the film to deserve then Red Sun for award. Logic, back-stories, and avoiding missing links are not the fortés of the film. You might consider visiting the 1967 Jewel Thief, or the Alfred Hitchcock take, titled To Catch a Thief (the Indian film Jewel Thief, 1967, is inspired by this film), or Gambit, a 2012 remake of the 1966 film of the same name, starring Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine. And, whaddya know, Netflix itself is streaming a diamond heist series in 2025, called...you guessed it, The Diamond Heist!

Almost invariably, whenever there is an embargo on publishing reviews till the day a film releases, it turns out be disappointing. And here we go again. The Heist is deceptively camouflaged, but once you see its true colours, the flick does not click.

Rating: **

Trailer: https://youtu.be/_dUNLPNfS8s