Thursday, August 12, 2010

Once Upon a Time in Mumbai

Genre: Gangster flick!

Koppireddy’s Tag Line: The good and the bad Dons!

Koppireddy’s Rating: 3 (Go watch it, given the pathetic variety of bollywood movies we have now a days to watch. Who knows how long later we get another watch-worthy movie)

Analysis: There seems to be no end to big dreams of turning into Dons this monsoon…After Don Seenu, this is another story of a contentious good don (though the oxymoron (don and good or contentious!) I used might piss you off, I cant help!) and an ambitious real baddie (played by Emraan Hashmi). By contentious good don I mean Robinhood type of don played by Ajay Devgan. The dialogues by Ajay Devgan( like ‘jo dosti se kar sakthe hai, tho dushmani kyon’), and punchers (like ‘kal ka wait karronga tho aaj bura maan jayegi’ and ‘haar and haar dono nahi hog, ayinda’) from Emraan Hasmi written by Rajat Araora are the main strength to the film. The plot is weak and some sequences by Milan Luthria are questionable and unconvincing (like the removing of patri to crossover and put them back safe, buying an amrit for 400 rupees, the cop not trying to save Mirza etc.). 70s looks was well worked out and looks effortless so kudos to cinematography and art work. Music is mediocre and borrows inspiration from some of RD Burman classics of that time the plot is set in…

Performances: Ajay Devgan does a Company type of role and I think he is comfortable doing such roles now. It would have been a cakewalk for him. Emraan Hashmi surprised me with his amazing screen presence though I should admit he still excelled in his trademark lovemaking scenes (to Prachi Desai) than in being a don. Kangana who played Ajay Devgan’s love interest, looked comfortable in the 70s look but not so much with Prachi Desai, though both the heroines featured the bouffant look on their hair. One was supposed to be a heroine and the other a shopgirl, so I wondered how both could afford a bouffant look! Randeep Hooda in the cop’s role was adequate.

Story (The Spoiler) Don’t read this part if you don’t like spoilers: The story is right out of biography page of Haji Mastan Mirza from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haji_Mastan) who is the protagonist in the movie called Sultan Mirza (played by Ajay Devgan) except that the film is more dramatized by Shoaib (played by Emraan Hashmi) who also happens to kill the Sultan Mirza’s character. Though Shoaib is promoted as Dawood Ibrahim by the moviemakers, I don’t think there is any real life connection that way…
But Haji Mastan’s connection to bollywood is quickly covered in bits and pieces when Agnel (played by Randeep Hooda as the cop) tries to associate Sultan Mirza to producing the heroine’s films to some extent which he says is all illicit money. Another scene, where Kangana refers to making a movie on the Don’s life, and hire the new guy Amit. She was actually referring to Amitabh Bachan in the 70s who made Deewar inspired from Haji Mastan’s life…


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