By BollywoodMDB Team - Nov 30, -0001 05:53 AM

Rating: 2.5/5

ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAAI is motivated on the lives and working style of Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim, though it is written that it is not so. When the film begins, you immediately, at the very outset, realize that this film is greatly inspired from above mentioned two famous? (Infamous) personalities and films based on such people rocked in 70s.
This film has been directed by Milan Luthria and the producers of the film are Ekta Kapoor and her mother Shobha Kapoor.  The banner of the film is Balaji Motion Pictures. The casts of the film are Ajay Devgan, Kangana Ranawat, Imraan Hashmi, Prachi Desai, Randeep Huda, Gauhar Khan etc.
The director Milan Luthria has earlier directed many films among which DEEWAR of Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Khanna can be said to be best. However, this film too is good and will prove to be a milestone for Milan Luthria.
In 70s the villains used to be smugglers. Those films were greatly liked by the audience. Milan Luthria planned to direct a film which would look like 70s.
You would love watching this film.

The character of Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgan) is inspired by the life of Haji Mastan whereas the character of Sohaib (Imran Hasmi) is motivated by the life of Dawood Ibrahim.  Though Sultan is a negative character, yet there is some positive-ness in his character which makes him more positive than others which would be appreciated by the masses. Sulatan smuggles, but only those items which the government doesn't approve. He doesn't smuggle anything which his conscience does not permit.
Imraan Hasmi has played the role of Sohaib based on the life of Dawood who has the urge to move forward at any cost. He just wants promotion and he does not consider wrong or right in this matter.  Sohaib wants to become like Sultan and thus he joins his gang. Because of his flamboyant nature, Sohaib becomes a reliable person of Sultan. As a reward, Sultan gives him his chair for a few days. But Sohaib starts gang war, causes bloodshed; starts smuggle of drugs and thus changes the city into terror. This brings a rift between both relationships.
Even though the story is simple, and you anticipate what is going to happen next, it keeps you hooked. The screenplay writer of this film Rajat Arora has written its screenplay very efficiently and keeps you hooked. You get to see one by one nice scenes.
Though the film is based on underworld, there is hardly bloodshed in the film. The film gives stress on emotional aspect of gangsters. This film also contains some light romantic scenes which would surely entertain you.
The scene when Ajay offers guava to Kangana is very nice. Imraan's scene at the very outset is also good. Ajay slapping Imraan is also nice scene. There is no lip-lock scene of Imraan in this film which is why his scenes with Prachi look good.
The directed Milan Luthria has justified the script very well. He has put great effort on each and every character and by the appearance and few dialogues of any character; you can conclude what kind of character that person would be.
Ajay Devgan has done performed brilliantly in this film. He has proved that he can do comedy as well as serious roles too. (He began his career with action films like PHOOL AUR KANTE). His gate up is also good. He appears to be a real Sultan. His character will be liked by all because even though he does wrong deeds, he is good hearted.
Imraan too has done well.
Kangana and Prachi have also performed well but they don't have much scope to do anything in the film because this film is based on gangsters.
The film is written in Salim Javed's style so script is the biggest plus point of this film which makes this film very good. Some dialogues are very good.
Music is also good.
All departments have done their jobs very well.
Overall, the film is good and you must watch it.
After a long time Ekta Kapoor has produced a sensible and good film. This film should do good business. It is worth watching.