Once upon a time in Mumbai

Let me first appreciate the marketing efforts gone behind this movie. Absolutely spot – on ...Full marks to Balaji banner for that. The trailer, the hoardings, the continuous advertorials in BT penned by Shobha de. The best thing about the movie marketing was it not just created a buzz but a kind of curiosity that pulls the audience to theaters.

Having said that, once the hype is generated, its important the content of the movie is strong enough to live upto the expectation and create a ripple effect else it just becomes an opening weekend wonder (which in today’s times is quite common). And I believe this movie has been fairly successful in surpassing that.

The movie is definitely worth watching. While the pace of the movie is slow and could have been made slicker, what makes the movie click is the cinematography, style of the old eras, dialogues and most importantly Ajay Devgn’s acting. While all characters have performed well, this movie keeps going primarily because of Ajay. After a long gap where he built his expertise in comedy, Ajay is back with some intense performance. Its interesting to see him repeating his Company role with much more variety. Kangana looks the diva which she is supposed to play (Good to see her in a role where she is not a psycho or a suicidal maniac). She and Prachi Desai are beautiful and easily slip into their small roles. Emran and Randeep are average. As per the roles, Emraan and Ajay should have been equals but he is left totally overshadowed and just cant match his counterpart.

The dialogues are the soul of the movie which have been carefully written to the flavor of the era of mafias and smugglers (70-80s). Some of the one-liners are just too good. Ajay anyways has been expert in such “shayrana” dialogue delivery.

All the songs are hummable. I especially loved the song “Tum jo aaye Zindagi mein” on Kangana. Beautifully choreographed… (She resembles Mumtaz in the song). The background score is superp and apt in the context of the movie. Even when the movie ends, you are bound to come out with the background score on your mind… The item song (Remix of Monica… my Darling) on Gauhar will also be a Repeat Hit.

Though the movie is based on the days of smuggling and dons, somehow it focuses more on emotions hence loses out on the pace and jazziness especially in the first half. Overall… Milan Luthria has come up with a nice movie.