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.

Luthria rightly recreates retro from the ‘70s. And this is not just in the low angles of the shots; strange prints on expensive nylon shirts; or trumpets for a background score. It’s most importantly in the sense of the big screen occasion, and a throwback to smart, terse dialogue.

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.

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.

To compare OUTIM to other underworld films like Company and Satya would also be gross injustice to them considering they were a far more textured look into the mafia machinations. OUTIM doesn’t go beyond the obvious and essentially remains nothing more than a straightforward tale about how the new order takes over from the old in the underworld hierarchy.

The real hero of this film is the writing. Rajat Arora’s dialogues flow from the storytelling in a smooth flow of poetry and street wisdom. Aseem Mishra’s sharply -evocative cinematography gives to this rugged-and-razorsharp look at Mumbai’s mythic mating with crime, an urgency that simply can’t be ignored.

The movie’s obvious strong points are Ajay Devgan, apt characterization and a good story which could have churned out a better climax. Watch Once Upon A Time In Mumbai for the love of Bombay, Ajay Devgan, an entertaining story and don’t expect to blown away.

Watch it. It’s like watching a retro fashion show with some cool gun battles thrown in. Lots of rain, lots of crashing of the waves, moody lighting, and dialogues that echo Salmi-Javed at their purplest prose. Ahh. Mumbai when it was still Bombay.

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

…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.