Once upon a time in Mumbaai - Review

Every once in a while comes a film which lacks complete sense of good filmmaking but still entertains you for the reasons its not meant to. OUATIM is right there. Punchlines, randomness and some more punchlines is all that this film offers.
A masala fare this one, is it worth your weekend watch?
Not for the intelligent watcher, score one for the mindless...

Set in the 70's, the film deals with the formative years of the Mumbai underworld, loosely based on the lives of Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim. After fate brings him to the city of dreams, Sultan(Ajay Devgn) grows up to become an ace smuggler albeit one with a heart of gold. He helps the needy and doesn't believe in violence. Enter his protégé Shoaib(Emraan Hashmi), son of a cop whose only goal is to effect complete control of the city. Following on Sultans footsteps, he eventually realises that their two ideologies cannot survive together, hence one must go.(How fresh?)
Also thrown in for the commercial angle are their love interests, starlet Rehana(Kangna Ranaut)for Sultan & girl next door Mumtaz(Prachi Desai)for Shoaib.

The film begins on a firm footing and has an impactful start, but as we move on, the film starts loosing its bearing as the narrative slowly slips away into sleep mode. The love angle is overstretched and filmi one-liners dominate the order of play.
It soon takes the mould of countless other Bollywood-gangster films with excess attitude and no soul.

The background score is an interesting lift of Rock-n-rolla and is heard every 3 min. Even then, it suits the tone of the film.
Rajat Aroraa is the man behind the words and writes some corny dialogues like, "Is sheher ko chalane ke liye do log chahiye, baki sab pandu vanvaas jayenge".
The films shoddy screenplay reminds you of Kanti Shah's cult classic Gunda. Scene to scene only by way of one-liners makes it a hilarious watch.

From the cast, Ajay Devgn is top notch as the restrained and mature smuggler. He plays the role perfectly and Emraan Hashmi pales in comparison. He hams his way through the film making Randeep Hooda's below par performance look good.

Director Milan Luthria fails yet again, though this movie might have a large audience. Amongst the masses, one expects whistles galore on the masala overdose and mediocre music.

To sum it up, OATIM is a film right out of the 70's(literally and figuratively). One could have expected this one to do a silver jubilee back in the day but unfortunately, it doesn't matc1h up to the quality of cinema available today. Watch it if you must, or enjoy yourself making fun of it, its a JOY !!!

Rating: 2.5/5