3 stars
Milan Luthria is back with the second installment of Once Upon A Time In Mumbai. Expectations are riding high as the stakes increase in the sequel. The movie takes off from where the previous film ended with Shoaib Khan [Akshay Kumar] being the reigning don after killing Sultan Mirza. Shoaib picks up a local Dongri reckless lad Aslam [Imran Khan] to build for himself a loyalist at crime, becoming his Godfather. Shoaib is the biggest gangster of Bombay who handles in all the way from presumably a Gulf country. His only confidantes are his best friend Javed [Sarfaraz Khan] and former lover Mumtaz [Sonali Bendre]. The quest to clench Rawal [Mahesh Manjrekar], a Prem Chopra fanatic, brings Shoaib to Bombay. Here, he impinges on a bold, beautiful & to some extent, rabid girl Jasmine [Sonakshi Sinha] & he throws his heart to her. She aspires to be an actress & Shoaib becomes the benefactor but without her knowledge, despite hanging out with him for days on end. What starts with a misinterpretation between Aslam & Jasmine, climbs up the ladder to love. What follows is the chase for love.
The prequel was a loud, thoroughly entertaining homage to the scripts of the ‘70s: high on drama, breezy with one-liners & packed with masala. The prequel worked because of the tight script which was crisply edited combined with powerhouse performances by Emraan Hashmi and Ajay Devgn. But here in the sequel, besides focusing on the game of one-upmanship between gangsters, the story indeed results in the strife that initiates between Shoaib & Aslam – a war as to who will win the girl & the gangster moments take a backseat. If you are showing a past era, you need campy dialogues but that doesn't mean they have to be high-decibled delivery which makes it seem more theatrical than filmy. The dialogues [Rajat Aroraa] were the highpoints of the prequel but in the sequel, they seem to have aimed only to the single screen spectators, where every line is a punch line, sometimes flat though but towards the penultimate & ultimate moments, some of the most fiercing dialogues are being delivered by Akshay to match up his persona. Once again, director Milan Luthria impresses us with the set-up of the movie. Everything is so filmy just like how it used to be back then. The first half, which has plain dramatic moments with bit of everything, right from songs, humor & sleazy lines to some sensuous scenes as well. The grip is missing right from the outset. Only the conversation between Akshay & Imran, following the interval, is something to look forward to in a Once Upon...series. Brilliant lines. It is only the second half which packs a solid punch & which has the real drama which includes less songs & some virtually menacing scenes & dialogues, especially the confrontation involving Akshay & Sonakshi and the powerful sequence between Akshay & Sonali Bendre, towards the closing stage. MAI TO PYAR BHI PYAR SE NAHI KARTA HU. The styling is unflawed here. Terrific second half. Pritam’s music ain’t extraordinary and the editing could have been better. But it is the script, the direction and the acting that dooms it all for them!
Akshay's slick look as a dreaded gangster definitely gets points. He is vindictive in the climax. He is the one, who's vivacious charisma as the dreaded gangster gets the film brownie points. Imran Khan's chocolate boy good looks is difficult to be hidden behind a moustache, making him look like one of those kids from the Filpkart commercial and he is plain flat throughout. However, the chemistry between him and Sonakshi is better than Akshay's. Watch out for him in the penultimate & ultimate scenes only. He's excellent there. Sonakshi plays the gangster's moll in the film and looks almost similar to all her past films. She's loud also. There is only one solid scene that the director has given to actress Sonali Bendre and she's brilliant in it. The supporting cast is almost wasted, only Mahesh Manjrekar is competent though.
On the whole, this one's a damp squib that is the last thing expected from Luthria and Balaji because they have set the temperature soaring earlier in the prequel & The Dirty Picture. The only lifeline here is the powerful second half. It has some really awestruck gangster moments. It stands nowhere in comparison, which is inevitable, to the prequel. Watch it for Akshay only or better skip it & wait till it gets premiered on television.
Milan Luthria is back with the second installment of Once Upon A Time In Mumbai. Expectations are riding high as the stakes increase in the sequel. The movie takes off from where the previous film ended with Shoaib Khan [Akshay Kumar] being the reigning don after killing Sultan Mirza. Shoaib picks up a local Dongri reckless lad Aslam [Imran Khan] to build for himself a loyalist at crime, becoming his Godfather. Shoaib is the biggest gangster of Bombay who handles in all the way from presumably a Gulf country. His only confidantes are his best friend Javed [Sarfaraz Khan] and former lover Mumtaz [Sonali Bendre]. The quest to clench Rawal [Mahesh Manjrekar], a Prem Chopra fanatic, brings Shoaib to Bombay. Here, he impinges on a bold, beautiful & to some extent, rabid girl Jasmine [Sonakshi Sinha] & he throws his heart to her. She aspires to be an actress & Shoaib becomes the benefactor but without her knowledge, despite hanging out with him for days on end. What starts with a misinterpretation between Aslam & Jasmine, climbs up the ladder to love. What follows is the chase for love.
The prequel was a loud, thoroughly entertaining homage to the scripts of the ‘70s: high on drama, breezy with one-liners & packed with masala. The prequel worked because of the tight script which was crisply edited combined with powerhouse performances by Emraan Hashmi and Ajay Devgn. But here in the sequel, besides focusing on the game of one-upmanship between gangsters, the story indeed results in the strife that initiates between Shoaib & Aslam – a war as to who will win the girl & the gangster moments take a backseat. If you are showing a past era, you need campy dialogues but that doesn't mean they have to be high-decibled delivery which makes it seem more theatrical than filmy. The dialogues [Rajat Aroraa] were the highpoints of the prequel but in the sequel, they seem to have aimed only to the single screen spectators, where every line is a punch line, sometimes flat though but towards the penultimate & ultimate moments, some of the most fiercing dialogues are being delivered by Akshay to match up his persona. Once again, director Milan Luthria impresses us with the set-up of the movie. Everything is so filmy just like how it used to be back then. The first half, which has plain dramatic moments with bit of everything, right from songs, humor & sleazy lines to some sensuous scenes as well. The grip is missing right from the outset. Only the conversation between Akshay & Imran, following the interval, is something to look forward to in a Once Upon...series. Brilliant lines. It is only the second half which packs a solid punch & which has the real drama which includes less songs & some virtually menacing scenes & dialogues, especially the confrontation involving Akshay & Sonakshi and the powerful sequence between Akshay & Sonali Bendre, towards the closing stage. MAI TO PYAR BHI PYAR SE NAHI KARTA HU. The styling is unflawed here. Terrific second half. Pritam’s music ain’t extraordinary and the editing could have been better. But it is the script, the direction and the acting that dooms it all for them!
Akshay's slick look as a dreaded gangster definitely gets points. He is vindictive in the climax. He is the one, who's vivacious charisma as the dreaded gangster gets the film brownie points. Imran Khan's chocolate boy good looks is difficult to be hidden behind a moustache, making him look like one of those kids from the Filpkart commercial and he is plain flat throughout. However, the chemistry between him and Sonakshi is better than Akshay's. Watch out for him in the penultimate & ultimate scenes only. He's excellent there. Sonakshi plays the gangster's moll in the film and looks almost similar to all her past films. She's loud also. There is only one solid scene that the director has given to actress Sonali Bendre and she's brilliant in it. The supporting cast is almost wasted, only Mahesh Manjrekar is competent though.
On the whole, this one's a damp squib that is the last thing expected from Luthria and Balaji because they have set the temperature soaring earlier in the prequel & The Dirty Picture. The only lifeline here is the powerful second half. It has some really awestruck gangster moments. It stands nowhere in comparison, which is inevitable, to the prequel. Watch it for Akshay only or better skip it & wait till it gets premiered on television.
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