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Monday, April 21, 2025
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BOLLYWOOD ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAI
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: *** ½
It`s the way he looks at the camera. Almost as if it doesn`t
exist. Ajay Devgn as Sultan Mirza is NOT Haji Mastan, please note. He`s just
this Robin Hood in the 1970s who happened to be a smuggler and who at some point
in the taut plot, locks horns with a junior recruit who, please note, is NOT
Dawood Ibrahim.
So who, in the name of immoral crime and haphazard policing, are these two men?
So stylishly masculine, so sweaty in their realism and so menacing in their
demeanour and complete denial of the existent morality they remind you of the
anti-social heroes from Sam Peckinpah`s Westerns?
Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai takes us back to the beginnings of
gangsterism in Mumbai. Milan Luthria excels in creating smouldering combustive
stress between two mean menacing men… Remember Devgn (who back then was Devgan,
just as Mumbai was Bombay when the film under review unfolds) and Saif Ali Khan
in Luthria`s Kachche Dhaage and on a more satirical note, John
Abraham and Nana Patekar in Taxi No 9211.
In Once Upon A Time…. the conflict between Devgn (who is NOT Haji
Mastan) and Emraan Hashmi (who is NOT Dawood) is placed in a far more complex
and challenging scenario. The screenplay (Rajat Arora) takes into view the
entire gamut of grime in the canvas of crime that cannot be hidden by the
surface glamour and glitter.
The vintage cars, the costumes and that attitude of rebellious abandon comes
through in the inner and outer styling of the characters. The people in
Luthria`s panoramic view of Mumbai in the late 1960s and 70s are steeped in a
cinematic realism. Neither a part of that period nor a completely true
representation of an era gone-bye-bye the characters hover in a no-man`s-land
populated by fascinating details of past recreated with a tongue-in-cheek
broadness of purpose.
There are bouts of suppressed satire in the way the whole era of the genesis of
the underworld is represented. For example Emraan Hashmi befriends and sleeps
with a woman who looks a lot like a Bollywood actress whom Raj Kapoor had
introduced in a film and Dawood had befriended and allegedly impregnated.
Often the characters are an amalgamation of furious folklore and long-forgotten
newspaper headlines of the 1970s. Kangna Ranaut plays an actress from the 1970s
who gets the hots for the Robin Hood-styled smuggler-hero. Later she is
discovered to have a congenital heart disease (a la Madhubala who came two
decades before the events of this film are supposed to unfold). But look at the
irony! It`s her smuggler-hero lover who dies of a wounded heart.
Maybe we shouldn`t give away the plot. Because the plot never gives itself away.
It never betrays a phoney intent of purpose. The narrative unfolds through the
first-person narration of a troubled wounded cop, played with remarkably
restrained bravado by Randeep Hooda. Indeed this is the most accomplished
performance in the film. He`s partly a gallant law enforcer and partly a victim
of a system that breeds inequality, corruption and finally, self-destruction.
Hooda is wry, cynical, bitter, anguished and yet able to see the humour of a
situation that one can ride only by sublimating its gravity. As for Ajay Devgn,
he continues to evolve with every performance. As a gangster from the 1970s
Devgan brings on the table a clenched self-mocking immorality. He stands outside
the character even while internalizing the performance.
Director Milan Luthria imparts a keen eye for details to the storytelling. Some
bits in the second-half get shaky, such as the predicable club songs and the
repeated use of overlapping editing patterns to convey the rising tension
between the mentor and the protégé turned tormenter. But the director`s
command over the language of outlawry is unquestionable.
Emran Hashmi as Devgn`s uncontrollable protégée gets the look and body
language right. His courtship of Prachi Desai to the accompaniment of romantic
hits from the 1970s (e.g Raj Kapoor`s Bobby) is engaging.
Understandably, the two ladies are reduced to pursing their lips and wringing
their hands as the story progresses. The film`s best, most charming and
heartwarming moments come in the early stages of the drama between Devgn and
Ranaut. Their growing fondness for one another is recorded in scenes and words
written by a poet who can see the humour behind mutual attractions.
The real hero of this film is the writing. Rajat Arora`s dialogues flow from the
storytelling in a smooth flow of poetry and street wisdom. Aseem Mishra`s
sharply -evocative cinematography gives to this rugged-and-razorsharp look at
Mumbai`s mythic mating with crime, an urgency that simply can`t be ignored.
Actress Prachi Desai, who has completed a decade in the Hindi film industry, says Bollywood does give due and credit to everyone at some point.Read More
There is less of drama in Bollywood now, says Milan LuthriaFilmmaker Milan Luthria, who has made commercially successful films like "The Dirty Picture" and "Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai", says the concept of drama has been diluted from the narrative used in Bollywood over time.Read More
Seen Through the eyes of a police officer, `Once Upon A Time in Mumbai` traces the changing face of the Mumbai underworld and how it all started.
The film, set primarily in 1970 s Mumbai, follows the rise of Sultan (Ajay Devgn), and the conflict, when his protégé Shoaib (Emraan Hashmi), challenges his supremacy, and usurps power to rule the murky underbelly of Mumbai.
The film is presented in a retro chic style and is a glamorous and powerful rewind to the golden era.
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Press conference of movie Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara Stills
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Theatrical trailer release of film Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Doobara Stills