Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara Review

Movie: Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan,Sonakshi Sinha..
Producer : Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor
Director : Milan Luthria
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty, Anupam Amod
Release date: 15 Aug 2013

After a box-office record breaking start by Shahrukh’s ‘Chennai Express’ last week, Bollywood will now see another gangster film in ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara’ that joins the long list of the Mumbai underworld themed films. Directed by Milan Luthria, the sequel to the 2010 superhit film ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai’ stars Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha in lead roles. Initially slated for an Eid release, this film was postponed and has finally hit the screens today. Let’s read on to see how this much awaited film fares.

Story :

Shoaib (Akshay Kumar) is the uncrowned king of the notorious Mumbai underworld who dominates the crime scene and is also the most wanted criminal of Mumbai. One fine day when several arrest warrants are issued against him, Shoaib shifts his operations to Dubai to evade arrest. Very soon, Shoaib is attacked by his arch rival Rawal (Mahesh Manjrekar) in Dubai. Unfortunately for Rawal, Shoaib survives the attack and then decides to come back to Mumbai to destroy Rawal and his empire.

In Mumbai, Shoaib relies on his close friend and gang-member Aslam (Imran Khan). Interestingly, Shoaib and Aslam’s 12 year old friendship based on trust takes a complete u -turn when an upcoming starlet Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha) enters the scene.

As expected, both friends fall in love with same girl and soon enough end up becoming arch rivals. The rest of the film is about the problems created by the presence of Jasmine between the two former best friends and about who she finally chooses to settle down with at the end!

Positive Points :

As he had done in the prequel, director Milan Luthria has worked closely on the look of each of the lead characters alongwith the production design of the film which makes the movie look realistic. Coming to performances, Imran Khan brings in some innocence with his character as Aslam while Sonakshi has done a good job in the emotional sequences of the film. The chemistry between and Imran and Sonakshi is showcased beautifully.

Sonali Bendre has a very miniscule role but she does look beautiful and it was refreshing to see her onscreen after such a long time. Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh, who plays the role of a police officer, has done a splendid job with his dialogue delivery. The film has a lot of romance and drama and the love triangle has been presented in a unique way.

Negative Points :

To start with, Akshay Kumar should stick to action and comic roles as he is quite good at those roles since he looks absolutely unauthentic as a menacing don in this film. While Ajay Devgn was mesmerizing as the ruthless but sensitive don in the prequel, neither Akshay’s looks or his expressions impress the audiences. Infact, Akshay ends up looking more like a hero than a villain.

Imran Khan, on the other hand is a complete disappointment as I strongly believe the actor is only good at playing roles of a college or lover boy. Seeing Imran play a street-smart ruffian in this film was a frustrating experience. Though Sonali Bendre looked ravishing, her role in the film was wasted given her blink and miss appearance.

At one point, the movie just stopped making sense at all. In a few scenes, Akshay’s character, which is supposedly inspired from Dawood Ibrahim, roams around in the streets of Mumbai without any threat to his life from his rival or the Mumbai Police who has issued warrants against him.

Technical Points :

Cinematography is a huge asset for the movie as it captures the mood of the eighties perfectly. The art direction is not up to the mark since the props used in the movie including the cars and accessories are of the 80’s while the hotels shown are contemporary.

Editing, on the other hand, is flawed since some of the sequences are disconnected while a few connections don’t make any sense. The background score and music by Pritam is OK. The dialogues are good while the screenplay is quite predictable.

Verdict :

One can safely say that Milan Luthria clearly couldn’t create the magic of the prequel. The weakest part of the film is its star-cast and the weak direction. If you are a hard-core Akshay Kumar fan and are keen on seeing him as a don, then watch this film once but not Dobaara!