Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

Yes, the film is over-wrought, melodramatic and designed as pulp fiction. But it's intermittently fun.

In setting the film in the 70s, Luthria borrows much of that period's cinematic style. Every line is a punch line, every dialogue a clap-trap. The nostalgia is enjoyable initially, and the film successfully evokes the spirit of those Amitabh Bachchan starrers of the 70s. But you become numb to the impact of the dialogues when even supporting characters and bit players speak in clever quips.

The challenge in a film like this, which entwines mobsters and `mehboobas', is to make it all new, because of the past classics which have soared with the same dramatis personae. Milan Luthria rises only partially to it : he starts off well, and carries on as he means to, but then falls into the trap of the familiar. `Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai' doesn't match up to that spectacular scene where the city lies below, in all its glittery splendour, never quite becoming the great retro chic gangster flick that it sets out to be.

Post-intermission, the pace drags till you start reciting your prayers. Please lord, do prompt Luthria to avoid that predictable ending, please, please. Alas, your prayers go unanswered. Similarly, you keep praying that writer Rajat Arora would quit making ACP Wilson from talking like a modern-day Mirza Ghalib. But no, he uses Urdu words (pukhta, mashbara) and showers metaphors constantly. Honestly, he could rival Gulzarji.

...a stylish, spirited, nostalgia with power packed performance; Miss it at your own risk.

Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai offers you both substance and soul, even as it dabbles with a slice of reality. Don't miss it.