Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAAI – CATCH IT ( A- ) Once Upon a time in Mumbaai is quite different take on the Mumbaai Don world… which is less brutal and hardcore then Company or Satya… An amazing movie with amazing performances by all the leading actors… Ajay Devgan yet again proved that he is par excellence… his portrayal of Sultan Mirza is effortless and complete natural… Imran Hasmi in his Bad Boy Avatar again proved he is the best Bad boy Around in Bollywood. Gangana Ranaut looks drop dead gorgeous and exquisite… Prachi Desai looks innocent and extremely pretty... Randeep Hoda proved that he has abundant of talent… Gauhar Khan's item number was Classy and looks Hot as Always. The music of the movie is really enchanting…. Overall a great movie by Milan Luthria, who didn't mess up the movie with hardcore violence & scenes…, must watch it!

Surprising movie, and a good surprise ! The Bollywood style takes a bit of time to get used to (I never watched a Bollywood movie before), but once you start to get used to it you really get into the story.

The story itself is good, the actors as well, Ajay Devgn and its character making me think of a Danny Trejo, but subtler. The set and mood are very refreshing, far from the usual European, American or East Asian cinema we get used to. The soundtrack, nicely mixing Indian pop and electro/rock, is right on.

Last but not least - Bollywood targeting the huge Indian market before the rest of the world - this movie gives the action and standards we are used to without loosing its spirit, making it feel like an 80's movie, in a good way, more mature than the latest American and European productions.

I enjoyed it and recommend if you come with an opened mind !

This movie is excellent. The drama in the movie is pulsating and very gripping. Direction, Acting, Story and Songs all of them are very well done. The story line is very strong as it relates to Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim. There are very few songs but all of them are superb.

The only bad part I would say is the romance in the middle was little dragging and Prachi does not fit the role of a gangster girl. She does her acting well but you can tell she does not feel very comfortable with some of the roles.

This is definitely one of the good Indian movies in a long, long time. Not to be missed.

If you like storytelling, you are going to enjoy it. Once Upon a Time in Mumbai is all about the rise two smugglers / gangsters in Mumbai i.e. Sultan Mirza (played by Ajay Devgun) and Shoaib Khan (Emraan Hashmi). Movie begins with ACP Agnel Wilson (Randeep Hooda) narrating the life stories of these two smugglers. Sultan Mirza, a poor boy, who enters into this business at a very small age becomes very strong and powerful man of mumbai due to his strength, bravery & wisdom. He also divides mumbai into different zones and allocates each of them to different smugglers and chooses the seashore of mumbai for himself. Sultan soon becomes messiah of mumbai by rescuing poor from difficult situations and giving charity to needy.

On the other hand, Shoaib Khan, spoiled son of a police inspector, becomes a thief. Shoaib's father requests Sultan Mirza to help him in this regard and Sultan helps shoaib in establishing a electronics shop which shoaib in unable to continue due to his temperament & reputation. Shoaib requests Sultan Mirza to let him work with him in smuggling business to which Sultan agrees. Here the plot of the movie resembles with that of film Company in which Ajay Devgun inducts Vivek Oberoi as his worker and The Company gets more strengthened. Shoaib Khan soon proves that he is fully capable of working for Sultan Mirza and Mirza's reliance on him increases till a time comes when Sultan goes out of city to execute his future plans and makes Shoaib the caretaker in his absence. This is the point where the problem starts between the two.

Director (Milan Luthria) has done a wonderful job by recreating the era of 70's & 80's. First half of the movie is better than the second half due to well-balanced comedy, romance, action; nonetheless, movie does not loses grip in the second half. Rajat Arora (writer) has also done a good job with good dialogues; nevertheless, end of the movie could have been made better. Idea of Sultan Mirza's character seems to have been inspired from life of Haji Mastan Mirza who was a smuggler of Mumbai and had nothing to do with underworld (that is drug, narcotics etc). Ajay Devgun has been given the same look which Haji Mastan Mirza was famous for i.e. white dress, chauffeur driver Mercedes car, imported cigarettes in hand, big donor / charity worker. Haji Mastan also married a bollywood actress and so does Sultan Mirza in the movie who marries top actress of his time Rehana (played by Kangana Ranaut). Although roles of both ladies Rehana and Mumtaz (Shoaib's love played by Prachi Desai) are very small; both actresses have fulfilled their duties. Here, credit also goes to costume designers who were successful in giving the actors & actresses the accurate 70's / 80's look.

As far as acting is concerned, this is one best movies of Ajay Devgun's career (performance wise) and its seems that this role could not have been suited on any other actor apart from Ajay Devgun. Two negatives of the movies are 1) Emraan Hashmi - who gave his best in the movie but (unfortunately) couldn't break his lover boy's image 2) Randeep Hooda - who has not been utilized properly. It would have been better if Shoaib Khan's role was given to Hooda due to the arrogant, anger look on his face.

Pritam's music is one of the strengths of the movie. All the tracks have been composed wonderfully and according to the moment at which they have been placed in the script. Singing great Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's "Tum Jo Aaye" & "Pee Loo" by Mohit Chauhan was splendid.Last but not the least, apart from the songs, superb background score was the biggest plus of the movie especially in the latter half.

Conclusion: Highly recommended to all the cine goers especially to gangster / mafia movie lovers.

"Once Upon a Time in Mumbai" is obviously a film that is trying to capitalize on the success of such classics as "Once Upon a Time in the West" as well as "Once Upon a Time in America" by Sergio Leone. Fortunately, this Indian film is good enough that it's more than just a film borrowing a title!

The story begins with a cop trying to kill himself. He survives and then tells the following story about corruption. First, he talks about an anti-hero named Sultan. Sultan is a mobster but he has a very, very strict code of ethics. In his own way, he's a decent fellow and manages to unify all the mobs of Mumbai--bringing them peace and keeping them from selling drugs and destroying the poor. In essence, Sultan is a bad man with a heart of gold.

Then the story weaves in the story of Shoaib. Shoaib is almost nothing like Sultan. Instead of being a poor orphan like Sultan, Shoaib was raised by a policeman...but Shoaib is completely amoral, angry and vicious. For a while, Shoaib goes to work for Sultan but, not surprisingly, there's a falling out and I really don't want to tell you more...just see the story.

This film has a lot going for it. It's extremely cinematic and well crafted. In particular, I really liked Ajay Devgn (Sultan) as he was a nice combination of power, decency AND corruption--not an easy role to play. Well worth seeing and exciting...though some might dislike the downbeat ending. Considering the characters were based on real mobsters (yes, you can ignore the text at the beginning that says it's all fictional), you can understand the tone of the film at the finale.