Action Jackson (2014) (Hindi)

There is a point in time towards the end of Action Jackson (we shall call it AJ here on forth) where Khushi (Sonakshi Sinha) apologises to Jay (Ajay Devgn) for a misunderstanding and tells him that she misses Vishy (Ajay Devgn). The movie instantly cuts to “Chichhora Piya”.

It was at this time that a section of the audience at the preview show broke into a loud laugh.  The pent up frustration over nearly 2 hours had exploded.  The rest of the 30 minutes was a breeze in comparison to the excruciating pain that Prabhu Deva and his writers (Shiraz Ahmed & A C Mughil) had put us through.

It took 2 hours for the audience to actually realize that the intent was to make a comedy and not an action movie.  We were all idiots to have expected something different.  We had expected India’s Michael Jackson to deliver an all-out quality action flick.  How could we have done that?

We had experienced Ramaiyya Vastavaiya and R… Rajkumar last year right? So we were the guilty party here. So the secret to sustain Action Jackson and most of all a certain Musa (Kunaal Roy Kapur) is to just laugh at everything that comes up on screen.

It is of course funny to see Sev Puris being carried by Musa on a bike in a manner that the Puris fly towards the biker that’s following.  Not surprising at all that the biker is from Gemini Circus and manages to land each one of them right into his mouth.  He of course asks for water after all of it.

It is of course hilarious to watch Ajay Devgn dance (or should we say attempt to dance).  It is of course comic to see goons dressed in shoddy red suits getting thrashed and of course quartered.  The quartering is thanks to the Samurai sword that is hugely successful in making a clean cut across AJ’s suit but of course doesn’t nick him one bit in the process.

If that doesn’t make you laugh your guts off (and mind you I am being extremely sarcastic – lest someone takes me seriously) then the point where Marina (Manasvi Mamgai) has just skewered Musa (Thank God for that!!! – makes you love Marina).  She leans over into his ear and says, “Where is AJ.  I miss him.  It has been months”!!!!

There are of course shady dialogues like “Singham se Chingam bana diya”.  But the piece de resistance has to be when AJ and Don Xavier (Anand Raj) come face to face in profile with Pink Floyd’s cover as a precursor.  Exceptional Prabudeva sir!!! Sensational indeed!!! What creativity!!!

The saving grace for AJ are a couple of shots during the action sequences (something that used to be Prabhudeva’s forte but apparently it has deserted him).  There is of course Himes Bhai’s music that is foot tapping and hummable as always.  Will be played at discos for a while.  2 on 10 only for these 2 points.

Watch the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YubQzbzGHps

Mahabharat (Animation) (2013) (Hindi)

The trailer starts with the predictable, “Yada Yada hi Dharmasya….” (for translation, visit - http://www.asitis.com/4/7.html).  That and the really bad quality of animation visible on the trailers prepared me for pretty much the worst.  The fact ironically remains that India will be the largest exporter of animation in the world (citation needed) but will not spend money in making a quality animation movie.

Satyagraha

It was only a matter of time before someone had to take inspiration from Anna Hazare for a movie.  If someone had told me that Prakash Jha would be that somebody, I would not have been the least bit surprised.  I have been a keen follower of Jha’s work and more importantly, I have been eagerly waiting for him to show the intensity and straight forwardness that he did with “Gangajal”.

Himmatwala (2013)

I request the film fraternity to seriously consider some stringent rules for remakes.  There is an effort that has been put in by someone and that effort should be respected.  Creative liberty and freedom doesn’t mean that you can convert the effort from anyone into a piece of crap work.  Sajid Khan has done exactly that with K. Raghavendra Rao.

Son of Sardaar

And after a painful start at the movies to Diwali, I moved from Screen 4 to Screen 2 @ PVR Mulund for the 1305 show of Son of Sardar. By this time, I was quite certain that it would be a “Dud Diwali” @ the Box Office in terms of quality of movies. But in terms of collections, the cash counters would ring in like most Diwalis to date. I must say that I was hoping against hope when I walked into screen 2. My hopes were going to be ill placed once again.

You are all aware of my aversion to slapstick comedy. And Ajay Devgn seems to be taking to that genre quite seriously. Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt had already made themselves comfortable here and to see 3 of these on the same screen was probably my worst nightmare coming true. The only other person missing who would have completed the horror would have been AK. Thank God for small mercies. Thank God once again that Salman makes his presence felt only for about 30 seconds in all.

The Randhawa and The Sandhu families are at each other’s throats for a while and just the smallest of sparks sets off a blood bath of epic proportions. Enough for the surviving mother to send her child off to Rani Ka Des (The Queen’s Country). Many moons later, Jaswinder aka Jassi (Devgn) gets a notice from the government (wonder how they got his address) that he has received land worth Rs.50 lacs as part of a will (wonder whose?). So he has to get back home and claim it.

Of course, before he leaves, he is briefed about the long standing family fued. A fued that has left Shri Billu Sandhu (Sanjay Dutt) unmarried to Parminder (Juhi Chawla) for the past 25 years – some vow about not getting married till the last of the Randhawas are turned to ash (what is with this Diwali and promises to God and sundry???).

Along with Billu are his cousins who have promised not to have ice cream and Coca-Cola respectively – erm? But somehow Jassi finds his way into their house and conveniently refuses to leave. And the Sandhus don’t kill anyone within the four walls of their house. A matter of principle. So we need to wait for over 2 hours to figure out what will happen at the end of all this crap.

In between you have to sustain a barrage of slapstick dialogues. Lets give you a flavor of some of them.
1. Mein waapas nahin jaoonga. Wahan pe log mujhe “Hindustan Lever” bulayenge. (I will not go back. They will call me “Hindustan Lever” when I return)
2. Power waale chashmey aur Billu ki kasmey, ek baar chadh jaati hai to utarti nahin. (Powered glasses and Billu’s promises cannot be changed – apologies for the crude translation)
3. Yeh Real hai? Nahin ji yeh NaReal (Nariyal - coconut) hai (No translations for this one. I just cannot come close to what it means).
If you enjoyed this sneak peak, then there are 30 or more such absurb one liners waiting for you. You will love whats in store. I have not shared some of the more atrocious ones in this forum. Lest, I lose a few followers.

If you ask me whether SOS is better or JTHJ, I would go with the latter because it is the better of both evils – but that’s because I don’t like slapstick. If you want some mindless fun to ensure that your Diwali is not ruined by a fake Yash Chopra movie then SOS it should be. Either ways both rank a lowly 3 on 10 on my rating scale. A “Dud Diwali” indeed. After RA One last year – expected much better.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOlcpr7qEv4

Bol Bachchan

Like I said earlier in the day. I do not mind Rohit Shetty movies at all. But sometimes they do get to your nerves. And quite a bit. With no offence meant to the monotony or the predictable quality – one such comparison would be Def Leppard. No two Def Leppard songs are too different from the other. Similarly no two Rohit Shetty movies – whether it the totally slapstick Golmaal series or the Bajirao “Atha maajhi satakli re” Singham – can be too different. No offence meant to either Rohit Shetty or Def Leppard fans out there :p.

The difference being, Def Leppard can be heard out for quite some time. After a while of Rohit Shetty, one is compelled to switch channels or even consider moving out of the theatre. Not because it is a badly made movie but simply put because – if you have seen it once, you have seen it all. So essentially, Bol Bachchan is yet another cut copy paste of all his previous ventures with a vastly different star cast.

Shetty of course continues with his tried and trusted Ajay Devgn but adds in the angle of good “friend” Abhishekh Bachchan who seems to have signed up for a limited 2 movies per year – good for him. I can see it only going down to one per year. AB Jr. – I like you. And I mean it. But get out of the shadow of Yuva. You will not be able to repeat such a performance. Live with it and go out there and just be natural. It will help.

Prithviraj Raghuvanshi (Devgn) is the be all and do all in a village called Ranakpur in Rajasthan. He is widely respected and feared. Respected for his sense of justice and huge heart. Feared for his affinity for the English Language. So “Chhati ka doodh yaad dila doonga” translates to “I will make you remember Milk number 6”. You get the drift right.

Shastri (Asrani) is one of his “subjects” so to say who is a close family friend of Abbas (AB Jr.) and Sania (Asin) from Delhi. Abbas and Sania lose a property dispute case against their paternal uncle. With nothing to lose they come to Ranakpur on Shastri’s insistence. When Abbas breaks into a disputed temple to save a drowning child, Prithvi is impressed and gives him an accountants job that pays 35K per month. But to ensure no major communal issues, Ravi (Shastri’s son) introduces Abbas as Abhishek Bachchan. The comedy of errors ensues.

Rohit Shetty has not made any bones at all about the obvious inspiration he has drawn from Golmaal. If there was one person who is deeply influenced by the 1979 comedy it would be Shetty. The entire story of Bol Bachchan moves into a double role for Jr. B – one with a moustache and the other without. Need I say more? Go back to paragraph 2 of this review if you have forgotten what I have written earlier.

Watch it if you have nothing better to do – 6 weeks from now when it airs on TV or Tata Sky Showcase. You may like a bit of the slapstick humour that Shetty is famous – or should I say infamous for. 4 on 10 despite a warm welcome to one of my all time favourites on screen – Archana Puran Sing. Good to see her back with a performance typical of her.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn7I0Ajp0xc

Tezz

Akash Rana (Ajay Devgn) is has just completed his engineering and wants to start a business of his own. He is in love with Nikita (Kangana Ranaut) who is a British Citizen. Much against her father’s wishes, she marries him. Akash becomes successful to the point of teasing his father in law with a new Mini Cooper that he purchases within no time. The father in law of course drives a Bentley and looks the other way.

All is hunky dory to the extent that Akash even helps out a couple of people. Firstly, he saves Megha (Sameera Reddy) from the hands of the police who are about to deport her. He also helps Adil (Zayed Khan) with a job at his engineering firm. Now the tricky part is that all of the above is illegal. Hilarious isn’t it? The Brits are trying to get illegal immigrants out of the country and our people have started a mini racket of sorts.

Akash of course gets caught and deported. The other 2 escape. Everything that Akash had saved up for is over. Now he seeks revenge. Revenge against the people who were basically doing their job right? But no, Akash believes in the concept of a world without borders and wants the Brits to suffer – Kyonki aaj izzat milti nahin hai. Chheen ni padti hai (You don’t get respect these days. You have to snatch it). Therefore, he decides to leave a bomb on Train no. 121 from London to Glasgow. That’s when the ride begins.

Now the basic premise of the movie is really ridiculous but then there are crazy people across the world who believe that they should be allowed to work in other countries without proper permits. That kept aside, Tezz has some really good work from Priyadarshan for a change. All chase sequences are really well shot. The outstanding one being where Megha is being chased by half the cops of Great Britain.

There are also sequences of Zayed Khan’s body double (quite obviously) providing a fantastic exhibition of Parkour or free running as they call it. The funny part is Anil Kapoor being able to emulate them at the same pace. So on one hand, the finishing is much better than most of the movies seen of late but on the other, you have too many inconsistencies. I guess, one can never get a perfect Hindi movie that needs effects.

Decent performances from most of the cast including the otherwise insipid Ranaut – except one scene where she is totally over the top about communicating her pregnancy to Akash. The only person who forever surprises me with his capability of getting movies is Zayed Khan. No acting classes can help this person. Not even Vishal Bharadwaj with all due respect to VB. Mohanlal and Boman Irani are outstanding in their respective roles.

If you have seen Taking of Pelham 123 and Unstoppable and Speed and any other runaway train movies then there is nothing new in Tezz. If not, you could actually enjoy it. 5 on 10. Worth a dekko for certain. You will not leave disappointed.

Valid point also to be noted – and we need to give credit where it is due – Tezz is shot predominantly in English and dubbed in Hindi later for Indian audiences. I would love to see the English version sometime. It would actually take up the movie a notch I am guessing.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/

Singham

Now here is a case of a movie being as good (or should I say as bad) as a trailer. Such a welcome relief for the avid movie watcher like me which cuts the crap and the red tape and shows what the entire movie is about in just the trailer. I wish there were more such movies which are made. The viewer would know exactly what is in store for her / him. A brilliant way to ensure that expectations match the final result and therefore the viewer doesn’t really leave the hall feeling cheated in anyways. Come on guys – what more can a movie maker do? He can put his heart and soul into making the movie and then ensure that the movie is marketed enough with the right trailer being shown in the right place. Now if you expect the makers of the movie to say, “Pretty much what you want to see in the movie is in the trailer” as a scroller on the trailer then I think you are expecting a bit too much folks. Why would they shoot themselves in the foot? Use what the person up above as give you that is between your ears sometimes and make up your mind. If u still believe that you aren’t satisfied and your curiosity gets the better of you then go right ahead and spend your hard earned money in whichever way you want.

Singham is anything but an original movie. It was supposed to be a remake of the Tamil Version starring Surya. Now here again I think it was my fault that I expected Rohit Shetty to actually give us something that was at least a bit different. Now why should someone go through the effort when you have someone else’s experience to learn from. And Rohit does exactly that. Smart work in a way. Just some confusion between whether he wanted to make the movie in Hindi or Marathi or Tullu (People in Goa speak Konkani right?). But if the audiences are loving it then why not I say. Rohit sticks to what he knows best – dramatization and cheap humour.

Singham is peppered with corny one liners – quite a few of them are in really bad taste. Stuff like “India mein sirf 1400 sher bachein hain (only 1400 tigers left in India)” OR “Cockroach ko marne ke liye Baygon nahin milta hai to Paragon bhi chalega” or snide references to the Brrrrrr commercial of Coca Cola – all of this come together to give something that the audiences seem to like. A lot at that. People could not stop laughing. One of these days, I am going to slide down the abyss of understanding and appreciating cheap humour. God save me from that day!!!!

Acting is not something you could expect from a Rohit Shetty movie but one person who stands out would be Ashok Samarth (remember Inspector Malvankar from ek Chaalis Ki Last Local) who in his role of Shiva Naik does a solid job. The rest of the cast is quite insipid. Kajal Agarwal debuts as the heroine whose primary role seems to be carrying Bajirao Singham’s belt, gun and uniform. Ajay Devgn tries very hard to do a Rajnikanth but Rajni Saar is Rajni Saar. Ajay doesn’t come even close to Surya who did the Tamil version so Rajni Saar is currently on a different planet as far as Ajay is concerned. Sachin Khedekar does his image no good and neither does Anant Jog or for that matter Govind Namdeo. All good actors in their own right who have taken themselves down to really low levels. Rohit must have paid them a lot.

In a nutshell, save yourself the pains of going to the movie halls. Singham is playing on you tube. The link for trailer is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp-XqCrCi6I. And while you are at it, watch the Tamil Trailer as well and judge for yourself if there are any similarities http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9pMoHK8XZg&feature=fvsr. I thought it was a superb cut / copy paste job. If you still gather the courage to go to the screen, please don’t miss the beginning and Ajay Devgn’s Singham Claw dance and his effort to speak Marathi *yawn*. 3 on 10 for this one purely for some good action.

Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji

Madhur Bhandarkar for the first time moves away from his standard formula of a topical movie – Page 3, Fashion, Jail etc. I have always thought that he is vastly over rated but for some wonderful reason – one of the mysteries of the world – he has always gotten away with it. Probably because he makes movies that just about make the cut. Movies which appeal to the audience just enough for them to overlook the ridiculous amounts of inconsistencies and gaffes. It was quite amazing to see that even last nite although at a much more muted level. There were enough and more people who actual found the stale humour which was grossly placed actually humourous. I was taken back to my experience with Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani where I was probably the only person in the hall who wasn’t laughing. This time, however, I wasn’t alone. Thankfully.


Naren Ahuja (Ajay Devgn) is an executive in a bank. He is 38 years old. He is married to Madhavi (Rituparna Sengupta) who is a news reader. They have a daughter. Their 8 year attempt to sustain their marriage has not succeeded. That too by a fair margin. When things come to an absolute head, they decide to part ways. Mutual Separation. She keeps the daughter though. Not that Naren seems to mind in any manner. Naren moves out to his parents place (all of this is in Mumbai) – and what a place it is!!!! If I were Naren, I would not have moved out of the place at all. Nevertheless, he now has the tough job of finding a couple of paying guests just to keep the house occupied. Not good to stay alone after a divorce you see.

In come two drastically different personalities. Milind Kelkar who works with jhatpatshaadi.com and considers himself to be a modern day poet. Needless to say he is atrocious at poetry and even more atrocious with women. His luck is about to go worse when he meets Gungun Sarkar (Shradha Das), an RJ with Big FM @ a poetry recital. He falls head over heels for her and so begins his love story. The other guy is Abhay aka Abby, lesser of a gym instructor (his day job) and more of a Casanova whose only aim in life seems to be to bed every single woman in the world. And they all seem to be suckered in; quite comfortably at that. A monetary constraint gets him thinking and he uses his charm to be the boy toy of ex Miss India Anuskha Narang (Tisca Chopra), the wife of a big time industrialist. He is the magnetic opposite of Milind. Where Milind spends all his savings on Gungun and company, Abby gets Anushka to spend money on him. Rounding off the female love interests is June Pinto (Shazahn Padamsee) who joins Naren’s team as an intern and gets him all smitten for her. Not going to reveal the entire point of Shruti Hassan who plays the role of Nikki Narang. That will retain the bare minimum element of suspense in an otherwise drab movie.

There are only 2 semblances of acting in the movie. Ajay Devgn in his role of the 38 year old divorcee desperately seeking to impress a girl half his age and the associated embarrassing situations are quite well done. And Tisca Chopra continues to show the talent and class that can be associated more often with stage actors than others. Shruti Hassan is confident and much better than her previous outing (Luck) but still doesn’t convince you that she comes from the gene pool of 2 of India’s finest actors. Shazahn Padamsee should stop acting – IMMEDIATELY  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE – go to acting school and come back with some semblance of acting capabilities. Ditto for Omi Vaidya who I believe is one of the most over rated actors in recent times. Don’t know what to say about Shradha Das. Lastly, Emraan Hashmi should stick to Mahesh Bhatt movies with a super sound track that do a fabulous job of hiding his acting skills or should I say the lack of them.

Extremely disappointing effort overall. This time around Madhur Bhandarkar does not meet his “just about par” formula for success. Sorry producers. You are going to lose some money here. Viewers – please don’t lose yours. 3 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvtFLd6sAMU

Golmaal 3

My expectations from G3 were not too high. Especially after the debacle called Action Replayy which I was subjected to last evening. I guess news of Action Replayy had spread like the wildest of fires. And when I was making my bookings for the 9:30 am show of Golmaal 3 this morning, I had a fabulous choice of 3 seats in the entire theatre. Yes my friends, the morning show of Golmaal 3 was sold out. Rohit Shetty will be definitely receiving a huge thank you note from the officials and staff of PVR Mulund. They have finally received a full house to manage!!!


The gang is back. But like the previous time, this is a different story altogether. The cast remains identical with some minor changes in roles and a couple of new introductions. Pritam (Mithun Chakroborthy) stays in Goa with his 3 fully grown brats Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor) and Laxman (Kunal Khemu). Pritam used to run an orphanage and these 3 were the left overs (for lack of any other word) in a manner of speaking. They have since then grown up to being hard core nincompoops. They keep borrowing money for their adventurous projects and now owe half the world a lot of money. They are of late backed by Puppy Bhai (Johnny Lever) who is the local goon suffering from short term memory loss. His 2 cronies Daga (Sanjay Mishra) and Teja (Vrajesh Hirjee) are right out of a Bollywood movie from the 60s / 70s (wonder why that trend seems to be in this Diwali).

On the other side are Gopal (Ajay Devgn), Daboo (Kareena Kapoor) and another Laxman (Shreyas Talpade) who stay with their mother Geeta (Ratna Pathak Shah) in another suburb of Goa. They are mirror images of our earlier trio with the exception that their backing is from Vasooli Bhai (Mukesh Tiwari). Both these troikas are at logger heads with each other coz they come up with the same business plan every single time. Be it water scooters or fireworks. Adding to the complication is Puppy Bhai who is also an ace thief and has stolen the Maharani’s necklace and hidden it in a suitcase which belongs to Pritam. And thanks to his short term memory loss, he cannot remember where he has kept it. And if u thought the complication was too much – we also have a love story – not between Gopal and Daboo. That would be too predictable. It is between our lead pair – Pritam & Geeta – a very old love story that is dying to achieve completion. Thanks to the assistance of Daboo it starts seeing some hope.

Golmaal 3 continues with the slapstick humour that G1 and G2 left us with. I personally thought G1 was good and G2 took slapstick to a whole new low. But G3 seems to have taken it back. The first half is very entertaining to say the least. With quite good humour. Keeps u entertained all the way. But the 2nd half is much slower and starts deteriorating in quality of humour but somehow manages to see it through to the end with the least of hiccups. Don’t watch G3 with an expectation of super quality of movie making or quality humour. Watch it if you are a Golmaal fan or a fan of the erstwhile superstar of our time – Govinda. Despite the lack of direction (as always) and acting skils (again as always – with the exception of Arshad Warsi), G3 is a good mishmash of slapstick and decent humour. Some of the one liners include “Jahaan Harsha hai wahaan Bhogle hai, jahan Asha hai wahaan Bhonsale hai” and “Wife Dil hai toh Husband Dhadkan hai, Wife diya hai toh husband Diwali hai, wife zabaan hai to husband gaali hai” and the worst of the lot, “Tu insaan nahin farishta hai – café barista hai”!!!! – Harish Bubna & Amit Tandon you will totally love this movie I guarantee it. For the rest of the lot I cannot give any guarantees but I loved it. 5 on 10 for this one.

Aakrosh

Jhanjhar is a village in Bihar where there is only one law – that of the jungle. And in this case its not a lion that rules the jungle but a pack of wolves led by Bahubali – the village head in a manner of speaking. Holding him in good stead is mainly Ajat Shatru (Paresh Rawal) the local SP and Pappu Tiwari (Jaideep Ahlawat) who is the local goon. And in this jungle you don’t mess with the wolves. But that’s exactly what 3 students from a Delhi Medical School do. Led by Deepu who is from Jhanjhar and in love with Roshni (Amita Pathak), they make their way to Jhanjhar and try to elope with Roshni. All it takes is for one priest to see Roshni take off and the 3 are caught. They go missing and are untraceable for the next couple of months. The apathy on the government’s part gets to the students of the med school and they go on an indefinite hunger strike till the government takes the required action.


Promptly, a CBI Team is appointed. The team is led by Siddhant Chaturvedi (Akshaye Khanna) a hot blooded young CBI Officer who is 2 cases and 6 convictions old. He is joined by his sidekick Keshav (Vineet Sharma) and Major Pratap Kumar (Ajay Devgn) – Officer on special duty. The clash of personalities is very obvious. Siddhant is an officer who goes only by the book and follows protocol to the T. Major Pratap is all for protocol but a bit more street smart and aware of the intricacies that exist in a place like Jhanjhar. He knows that the law means little of nothing to the people there. More so since he comes from a background where his entire family is wiped out thanks to the vengeance of one such Zameendar.

The efforts of the CBI Team come to naught as they find all their leads disappearing by the day. Every person in the village is petrified of Bahubali and his cronies. Getting someone to be a witness seems to be a far fetched idea. None of them are willing to even speak to the team. Their main lead, Deepu’s maternal uncle is first threatened and then killed along with his kid. That leaves them with Jhamunia (Reema Sen) who is again threatened first and then the goons chop her tongue off. Their last straw would be Geeta (Bipasha Basu), Pratap’s ex flame and Ajat Shatru’s current wife who can be their only hope.

Priyadarshan’s last attempt at making a Drama would have been Virasat (1997) preceded by Kaala Pani (1996) and Gardish (1993). His attempts @ serious cinema and not slapstick have yielded much better results to date. Wonder why he doesn’t stick to something that he is good at. Its probably the typical case of having tasted blood with Hera Pheri (2000) and then living in the illusion that comedy is exactly what he is cut out for. Aakrosh marks Priyadarshan’s reasonably successful return to a genre of films that he is more suited for. Although the movie is extremely stretched out for over 2.5 hours, it still delivers a strong story line. It could have done without the meandering about in the first half and been delivered in a much more compact fashion. But I guess Priyan was quite rusty (13 years) and took a while to get into the groove. Way off from his best performance to date for sure. There are several editing and consistency flaws in the movie. Akshaye Khanna is shown coming into Jhanjhar in a First Class Compartment but gets out of an AC compartment.

Ajay Devgn has definitely come of age over his past few movies. Yet another solid performance with little or no constipated looks. However, all the others with the exception of Paresh Rawal are sad to say the least. Paresh Rawal once again comes on tops and shows us why he is probably the most versatile actor of our time. His execution of Ajat Shatru really makes one cringe in a way only a good villain can. Akshaye Khanna tries very hard but falls woefully short. Bipasha Basu as always is furniture – good looking furniture if it makes her feel better that is. Moreover, one cannot help but draw similarities with the likes of Mississippi Burning. Overall not 2 great a movie. I would give it 4 on 10.

Once Upon a Time in Mumbai

Beyond the myth... Lies Mumbai's greatest betrayal

And that’s what DCP Agnel Wilson (Randeep Hooda) thinks he is to blame for. Its that guilt that leads him to attempt suicide. He believes that he gave up a chance when he had the best one. Unfortunately his attempted suicide fails and he finds himself in front of the commissioner of police explaining himself and the story of Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgn) and Shoaib Khan (Emraan Hashmi).

Sultan Mirza comes to Mumbai after a flood in Chennai forces him out of the city. He would not be more than 10 years old when he starts working in the dockyard. At an early age he starts showing people that he cares. He makes just 4 annas (25p) every day (mind you it’s a really long time back) but gives away 1 anna to a beggar when she asks him to. All he says is, “Dua mein yaad rakhna” (remember me in your prayers). He starts doing odd jobs for the local goons and gains their trust and over time starts controlling the docks. The other gospel truth that he lives by, “Jab Dost banake kaam ho sakta hai to Dushman kyon banaye” (When one can get work done by making friends then why make enemies). Realising that there is no point in fighting with rival gangs, he calls the 4 big players – Vishnu, Pathan, Vardhan and Verghese – where he successfully suggests the division of Mumbai into clear territories for each one. In the bargain he retains control of the 5 territory – the sea.

Enter Shoaib Khan. Son of Inspector Khan who reports into ACP Agnel Wilson (at that time). He has always been severely stubborn and convinced that there is no point in following the right path. He keeps indulging in petty crimes to make a living. On the insistence of Inspector Khan, Sultan provides Shoaib with an opportunity to start a small electronics store. But when he gets caught for some of his past crimes, Sultan has no other choice but to induct him to the core business i.e. Smuggling. Patrick (Naved Aslam), Sultan’s right hand man, is not comfortable with the idea but lets it pass.

In between all of this, Sultan’s love life comes alive thanks to him sweeping leading actress Rihana (Kangana Ranaut) off her feet with some sheer persistence. Also, the only piece of furniture in the movie, Mumtaz (Prachi Desai) makes her appearance as Shoaib’s love interest. Rihana and Sultan share a publicly known relationship but aren’t married. However, when Rihana is diaganosed with Congenital Heart Disease (Hole in the heart) he decides to get out of managing the core business to a more supervisory role (read politician). When he goes to meet the home minister, he leaves the responsibility of the business with Shoaib.

OUATIM is a well made period movie which deals with one of the favourite topics for most audiences – gangsters. The similarities between the story of Haji Mastan and Dawood are unmistakable – no matter how much the producers may put a disclaimer. But at the end of the day that’s what rakes in the moolah I guess. The fact that the movie has been around for over 4 weeks now and running fairly successfuly is a fair indicator that the crowds like it.

All in all, I think Milan Luthria does a good job with the direction. There are some gaffes that could have been managed well like the nice 21st Century heels that Ms. Desai wears in the song “Pee Loon” under her Sharara. This could have been hidden better I thought. Also, Sultan and Rihana are seen having dinner or lunch @ the Renaissance which I am quite sure didn’t exist in the 70s. Could have gone in for a more relevant location, especially since the map of Mumbai very clearly calls out only greater Mumbai. Now how did they get to Powai when it didn’t exist. And then there is the cigarette that Shoaib smokes which clearly is a B&H – wonder if they were around at that time in India. These kind of eliminate the overall good attention to detail in aspects such as costumes which are very well designed and apt for the period. If only the finishing at the cutting table was better.

Ajay Devgn comes in with yet another stand out performance. Yes its true that actors mature with age. One cant imagine that this was the same “Charsi” looking face that hit the screens with Phool Aur Kaante nearly 20 years back. Mr. Devgn (without the a) – you have definitely come a long way. And the dropping of “a” seems to have helped too. Emraan Hashmi needs to drop his constipated looks which he believes makes him look like an “Angry Young Man” and stick what he does best – kissing his leading ladies. Prachi Desai is furniture and if it hadn’t been for the controversial love making scene that her family seems to be extremely upset about, she would have been relegated to furniture. Surprisingly, Kangana looks extremely stunning. Brilliant work with the make up I must say. This is the best I have seen Kangana and in all fairness, one cannot take eyes off her.

The movie keeps you quite involved all the way through. Narration is strong enough to keep audiences interested. Overall a 6 on 10. Must take time out to watch if not done yet.