Milan Luthriya, who has made Kachche Dhaage, Deewar (new), Taxi No 9211 (my best), and Hattrick, is here, this time with a new field (although thouroughly exploited by RGV), and made Once upon a time in Mumbaai. And this time his choice was Ajay Devgn as Sultan, Emran Hashmi as Shoaib and Randeep Hooda as Ins. Agnel. And I think, he always did choose his characters well.
Plot seems similar to RGV’s company, a don who is a good-hearted don, named Sultaan, ruled the Mumbai, and then there come a new chhokra called Shoaib, who too wants to rule the Mumbai, but he is not good-hearted, but he is ambitious, and ambition sometimes takes the wrong route, and he became as opposition for Sultaan, in the last part of 2nd half, and hence decide to kill this Sultaan, because there can only be one don, no aandu-no paandu is required. And who is responsible for the growth of Shoaib, its police, and specially Ins. Agnel Wilson, as he wants to break Sultaan’s empire, he always hide the bad work done by Shoaib. The movie starts in the timeline of 1993, when the whole Mumbai is burning in the fire of Bomb blasts, and then it was Ins. Agnel himself who is telling the story which lead to these deterioting condition.
Acting department is handled well, with the actor Ajay Devgn holding the fort, as always, supported well by Emran (But don’t compare him to Viveik Oberoi, he is far much better!). But I liked Randeep’s performance, whatever dialogues he said, and whatever scenes he was there, it seems solid, but his role was only there for the first half. As the second half is for the DONS. Kangana Ranaut in the role of famous actress and lover of Sultaan, Rehaana, looked different, and this is basically not because of her acting, but because of her getup, and costumes. Prachi Desai as Shoaib’s lover looked dull, not in acting but in the looks, as it was the demand of her character. Nice work there Mr. Costume designer and the makeup-man, and the art direction of Bollywood’sboss, Nitin Chandrakant Desai suits perfectly well. Old Mumbai looks realistic, and movie was shot in the way which seems like we are really living in the past. Ajay and Emran looks different in the 70’s costumes. Shot well by Aseem Mishra, and edited in quite a nice manner by Akiv Ali, although first half seems a bit elongated, but the movie came on track in the second half. The dialogues by Rajat Aroraa were nice and dhaansu, although at some points it seems that in attempt to make movie a heavy one, he tried more of such dialogues, which seems a bit more exaggerated.The songs are nicely placed, and as we all know, that the song "Peeloon" is already a hit. A good music by Pritam, wrote by Irshad Kamil, and sung well by the Silk Route’s ex-singer Mohit Chauhan did the trick. The song, "Parda", which is inspired by R.D.Burman’s "Duniya mein logo ko" is shot well, and gave the realistic feel of the 70’s. Background score, especially the theme music sets the mood, awesome.
All-in-all the movie is a one-time watch, but it is softer than other underworld sagas, and basically portrays the 2 dons, and a Mumbai between them, less on violence part, and more on love and caring part. Now, remains the comparison with RGV’s Company, OUATIM’s Emran = Company’s Ajay Devgn, and OUATIM’s Ajay Devgn = Company’s Ajay Devgn’s boss (If you remember, in the start of Company, Ajay killed his boss, saying that now I will handle your Mumbai), That part of story is shot here in OUATIM. So, Once upon a time in Mumbaai, there rises a Don named D, so it’s Comapny’s Part 1, its prequel.
Ruchir.