watchable ONLY 'once' upon a time in Mumbaai

ONCE UPON A TIME in Dilli, I watched ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai’. It’s a tale of two gangsters where one wants to become another but doesn’t wants to adopt his means. The movie comes from Balaji Telefilms (producer - Ekta Kapoor) and directed by Milan Luthria.

Story -
The movie starts in a narrative format; an honest cop (Agnel Wilson) goes to his past (70s) and describes the rising of the two smugglers – Sultan Mirza and Shoaib Khan. Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgan) is a smuggler driven by values, good intentions and commands respect from all corners, while for Shoaib Khan (Emraan Hashmi) money and power is everything and can adopt unethical ways to get them. The first half is satisfactory and quite nicely shot. The second half mainly speaks about the indifference between the two and the collapse of the Sultan’s sultanat. The most disappointing part of this movie is the ending. Just as you start to expect something really spectacular, the projector says THE END. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself sitting on the chairs with some ‘still-to-be-finished’ eatables with you. This movie does not ENDs, it STOPS, that too unconvincingly.

Cast -
Ajay Devgan as Sultan Mirza is perfectly casted and gives a superb performance. His aura that of a ‘localized Robinhood figure’ is aptly subtle and does not overdo in any sense. Kangna Ranaut (Rehana, Sultan’s wife) is superb for her looks but you do take time to get comfortable with her speech (yet again). Emraan Hashmi (Shoaib Khan), who incidentally gets the best dialogues in the film, delivers them with perfect timing and tone. Besides that, he does his regular romantic circling but this time it’s without that MUAH (man! he will surely remember this Once Upon A Time). On the negative side, his acting in aggressive scenes is a bit over the top but manageable. Randeep Hooda (Agnel Wilson) as honest cop is good but can’t be compared to KK Menon (remember ‘Black Friday’). Prachi Desai (‘Rock On’ fame) as Mumtaz is the only let down with respect to casting here.
('Tusshaar Kapoor', was not seen...bach gaye)

The music side is standard except the popular ‘Pee Loo’, voiced by Mohit Chauhan (undisputed king of romantic blues). Cinematography is good; make-up, sets gives an impressive 70s feel to the movie. However, the main attraction of the movie is the dialogues (credit to Rajat Arora) - ‘give-back-hard’ types, cheesy and entertainingly filmy.

"Main un cheezo ki smuggling karta hoon jinki sarkar izzat nahi deti, unki nahi jinki zameer izzat nahi deta" - Sultan Mirza

By the end of first half, I started to compare this movie with Company (a RGV cult by quality standards), but then the second half was not to my expectations. Once Upon a Time…is not a classic but doesn’t disappoint either. Should you watch it?
Speaking Pictures’s Verdict – WATCHABLE ‘just’ ONCE UPON A TIME…2.5/5

ps: In my long movie watching career, I haven’t concentrated on ear-rings that closely (ear-rings : a pricey asset that keeps dropping from ears). Why? Because the Punjabi aunty sitting besides me was whispering non-silently with her daughter about the fashion shown to her on 70mm. Without any fuss, the lead actress had a huge ‘christmas tree’ inspired asset hanging from her ears. Will surely remember this ONCE UPON A TIME…
(also available at Desimartini. com)