As the viewer prepares to watch a movie like ShootOut At Lokhandwala, or SOAL in short, the expectations are high, but not extremely high thanks to the decreasing popularity of its genre. It was expected that the audiences will think of the movie as yet another COMPANY or yet another SARKAR coming out. However, the end product leaves an impact so strong that it easily manages to create an identity of its own.
What makes SOAL so special is the director’s belief in the movie: the ending is given away right at the start, which is quite a daring movie. It takes one strong director to hand out his movie’s ending and opt for his narration to be done going into the past from a present stand-point. Simply put, rather than filming the movie in the present tense with the proceedings leading to the finale, the director gives the finale away, in the process testing the strength of his direction in whatever precedes the finale. In an age where movie-makers add a twist after another to lead to a "thrilling" finale, the director of SOAL relies on the execution that leads up to the finale to have that thrill factor to it throughout the show.
And besides, had the director opted for the routine execution where proceedings lead to the undisclosed finale, it still would have probably been quite a predictable finale, with good defeating the evil. That said, there is no need to give out the storyline as it is self explanatory - it is Sanjay Dutt and the good guys who prevail in an intense battle over Viveik and his gang of bad guys. With Amitabh Bachchan playing the part of Dutt’s lawyer, the last scene is the only significant event that takes in the present tense, showing how Bachchan manages to free Dutt and his partners from any punishments at the hands of law for being way too aggressive against the criminals.
SOAL takes off on a predictable note with news about violence between police and criminals being shows on the T.V. From there, however, the unique execution takes over as Dutt and his partners defend themselves against charges of being overly aggressive in their mission to kill six gangsters in a civilian area. One after the other, each defense they provide adds more and more interest to the film, right from the killing of Abhishek’s character till the final scene, where Vivek’s gang is trapped miserably and hammered till death very convincingly. With a hard-hitting script on hand, the director makes full use of his resources and utilizes them wonderfully - the action is of top quality, the cinematography and camerawork very convincing, and at the top of the list, the performances being of outstanding quality.
Sanjay Dutt steals the show once again and proves why he’s still one of the best in the business. Everytime someone dares to forget mentioning his name in Bollywood’s A-list, he comes up with a wonderful performance to put his name back into that list strongly. If he touched many hearts with his MUNNABHAI act, his performance in SOAL is arguably the best in a cop-film, much ahead of Aamir Khan’s over-rated act in SARFAROSH. Amitabh Bachchan is in a brief role, yet makes his presence felt wonderfully like always. In the finale, he does the typical Bachchan act - delivering the best possible line to end the show on a positive note. Suniel Shetty and Arbaaz Khan both impress in their supporting roles.
Viveik gets the most footage, as if he is the star of the show. While he makes the audiences hate him via an effective portrayal, this performance is not nearly as powerful as his performance in COMPANY. Besides, he should avoid doing gangster movies at this point of his career as it is novelty, and not monotony that can save his sinking career. Tushar does better than his disastrous performance in KYA LOVE STORY HAI but still needs to work very hard to keep improving. The rest of the "bad-guy" gang is just average, having nothing much to do than join Viveik and Tushar in their horrible, repetitive jokes.
On the whole, SOAL is an impressive movie though for a target audience. Those who prefer to stay away from gang-violence are not recommended to go out of their ways to catch this one. However, it has to be stated that SOAL is also clearly one of the best made movies of its genre with some brilliant performances and a unique screenplay. At the BO it is already a hit and had the editing been better(it should have been a songless film), its could have been more effective too. In short, it is highly recommended to those who can handle it!