By BollywoodMDB Team - Aug 15, 2013 10:25 AM

Rating: 2.5/5

One Line Review: An insipidly diluted thriller mingled with baseless and plodding love drama with the backing of riveting music.

Positive Points: Enchanting music tracks.

Negative Points: Flat and fumbled storyline, A fantasy tale rather than a realistic one, Unnecessary adult scenes, Extended plot.

Plot:The story advances with the notorious underworld Don, Shoiab Khan (Akshay Kumar), who is now back to reign the city of Mumbai. Mumbai now dances to the tunes of Rawal (Mahesh Manjrekar).

Shoiab stumbles upon Aslam (Imran Khan) and plans to assimilate Aslam with him in his work. Within a period of time, Aslam becomes one of the trusted confidantes of Shoiab. Along with Aslam, Shoiab attempts to find Rawal, who makes some dodgy plans against Shoiab. Apart from Aslam, Shoiab has two more people, whom he trusts undoubtedly - Shoiab's ex-lover Mumtaz (Sonali Bendre) and Javed (Sarfaraz Khan). This time, Shoiab with womanising expertise, finds his new love in Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha), who aspires to be an actress. Jasmine hails from Kashmir and lands in Mumbai with her eyes full of dreams to be an actress. Aslam comes across Jasmine, while helping his friend Dedh Taang (Pitobash Tripathy). The frequent meetings and rising interactions between Aslam and Jasmine bloom a feeling of love for Jasmine in his heart.

Gradually, the love of Shoiab for Jasmine starts taking shape of an obsession more than affection. And here, the real game starts with a solid tiff between Shoiab Khan and Aslam over the issue of love. The proceeding tale is what to watch out for!

Direction And Other Technical Aspects: The director Milan Luthria this time bumped up with a heavy-duty drama wrapped up in the cover of a love story with a tag of touted thriller. However, the ace director could not enliven the magic of the film's predecessor, 'Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai' or the other epic-thrillers like 'Shootout At Lokhandwala' and 'Shootout At Wadala'. Although the direction was up to the mark, the story did not succeed in sparking off the enigma of its earlier franchise. The overall movie seemed conflicting in many fashion, such as it presents a full-fledged love story in the name of a thriller. Effervescence is the component that was entirely absent throughout the film and it could not ignite the aroma of nostalgia of its prequel. The film didn't portray any apparent underworld business narratives and the script paid minimal attention to the criminal activities, which was highly anticipated from this film and thus, made the film too much of unrealistic. Some dialogues in the film go beyond redemption, making the film dull and irksome. One could effortlessly note the fake fight sequences with technical flaws, especially the one, filmed over the train. The first half of the film fails to captivate one's interest. The story is engrossed with hard-to-believe romantic scenes and adult scenes, which disqualifies the movie from being a family entertainer.

The point to be noted is that the film was garnished with the backdrop settings of 1970's and 1980's, in which the story aimed to depict itself. Also, the dress code of formal suit for the underworld don Shoiab Khan went hand in hand with the bygone era, as the gangsters used to don such attires during those times. Nevertheless, this movie with unnecessarily prolonged story, can bestow one with tiresome experience with the script stressing more on pulpy dialogues, characters' romance and ignoring the violence part that was promised by the trailers of the film. Cinematography by Ayananka Bose and Akiv Ali's editing part was good, lending a support to the film. Background score was average.

Performance: Though Akshay Kumar looks strikingly dashing and had delivered certain dialogues with great intensity, he fails to create villainous presence on the screen. Akshay did not get a chance to flaunt his action-skills, the film being more of a love tale.

Hiding the fact that Imran Khan possesses chocolate boy looks and lean physique, he suits well in his respective role and plays his part conveniently. The lead lady Sonakshi Sinha once again delivers a whirlwind performance. After tasting success with biggies like Salman Khan, it seems Sonakshi is now aiming for bull's eye by working with rising talents like Imran Khan. Essaying her role with perfection, she re-assures viewers about herself as a blockbuster material.

Sonali Bendre making her comeback on the silver screen is certainly to look forward. Mahesh Manjrekar hugely disappoints as an underworld don, as he looked entirely contradictory to the expected image. The other artists like Abhimanyu Singh, Pitobash Tripathy, Sophie Choudry, Akash Khurana and Sarfaraz Khan were good in their respective roles and formed the outline of the story.

Music: Music is something to be applauded in this film. The music composer Pritam Chakraborty arrived with some bouncy music tracks like 'Bismillah', which appears to be loved by one and all. The other songs, 'Tu Hi Khwahish', 'Yeh Tune Kya Kiya' and 'Chugliyaan' are the ones that sound soothing to ears and blends well with the storyline. 'Tayyab Ali' is the dance number re-created from the original one and is sure to watch for Imran Khan's new avatar.

Final Verdict: Too far from the entertainment ratio, the film falters with a crime thriller gravely mingled with a dramatic love story. It is not meant to be a family film with unnecessarily tinctured adult scenes and also not meant for movie-lovers with an appetite for thriller like 'Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai'. The movie does not live up to its promise of presenting Mumbaiyya gangsta razzle dazzle.