‘Alibaba Aani Chalishitle Chor’ review: A lightweight study of modern marriage

The knives come out after the lights go out at a party attended by seven long-time friends. A kiss is heard in the dark, followed by a slap. Who did the smooching and was punished by whom? Was it consensual? Or was the kissee consumed by regret?

The matter is important enough to send the friends – four married couples and an unattached man – into a tizzy. All of them are in their forties, on the cusp of mid-life crises. They question their vows, trade nasty gossip about each other and release repressed feelings for men and women they have claimed are “friends only”.

Aditya Ingale’s Marathi-language comedy Alibaba Aani Chalishitle Chor (Ali Baba and the Thieves in their Forties) is based on Vivek Bele’s play of the same name. Bele has written the screenplay as well as supplied the cutting lines that frequently lift a plainly filmed, made-for-television drama.

Bele’s dialogue zings even though the study of modern marriage doesn’t quite. A fine cast of actors assembles for a guessing game that starts out being funny and then gets needlessly serious. Each of the characters is guilty of something, if not the sonic provocation itself.

Parag (Subodh Bhave) is upset about the closeness of his spouse Aditi (Shruti...

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