a citizen, a detective and a thief

the lovely word bathos (a fall from the sublime to the ridiculous, Gk depth) comes to mind when describing this egyptian comedy, apparently a big hit in the arab world, despite its depictions of sexuality and criticism of censorship and police inefficiency. it opens with a soulful number by the thief (also a poet-singer) who is serving time and ends in a ludicrous macarena number by the three eponymous characters. citizen selim, a handsome young writer with western sensibilities (opera, ballet, impressionist art), bumps into an old family friend detective gefour, now a bumbling police sergeant, when he goes to the police station to report a stolen car. gefour, the human fly is drawn to selim, the flypaper and to thank selim for a favour, foists hayat, a beautiful young woman (shown on the movie cover) as a housekeeper. selim, while in love with the sultry madiha, is increasingly attracted to hayat, unaware that she is the thief's lover. their worlds collide when hayat steals the manuscript of the novel selim is working on and gives it to the thief who has since been released. the thief appears to have his own worldview on books and morality (his favourite fuel for making tea is a book or two, preferably lacking in morals). things get hopelessly entwined when the thief burns selim's manuscript for its paucity of "good" characters and in a shocking scene selim puts out the thief's eye in a fit of anger. from here on, the movie's descent into banality is swift. the detective brokers a truce whereby selim is exonerated of the crime in return for a tidy sum of money. in a inexplicable turn of events, the three start a publishing house with the thief publishing selim's works, selim lands up marrying hayat and the thief falls for madiha, everyone enters middle age and the detective becomes a politician.

early on, in a voiceover, it is pointed out that selim (the rich, bourgeoisie) and the thief inhabit vastly different worlds and it is the detective who can straddle both worlds. however, these worlds become absurdly united in the end. except for the last macarena number, the songs were actually enjoyable, despite some of them having the look and feel of bollywood item numbers (replete with generously bosomed, scantily clad women). any message- police inefficiency (when selim tries to lodge a complaint), censorship (when the thief presents an italian nude fitted with egyptian clothes), class issues, sexuality- is drowned out by the noisy, absurd latter half of the movie. characters seem to change overnight- selim slips into middle age and mediocrity, ghefour, who brutally kicks hayat many times in the stomach becomes a close family friend and the thief seems to have ditched his religious past although he continues to sing. the movie is definitely worth watching for its songs, the earlier half and for the fact that it is rare to come across movies from this part.