Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai: when the sea rumbled

‘I had gone a-begging from door to door in the village path, when thy golden chariot appeared in the distance like a gorgeous dream and I wondered who was this King of all kings!’

- ‘Gitanjali’ by Rabindranath Tagore

Film: Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

Director: Milan Luthria

Genre: Drama/action/romance

Language: Hindi

Mumbai Rewind

Underworld flicks in Bollywood are known for brutal murders, stripped off chic, revengeful hero, instant gunshots, AK-47, crazy mouth, flesh & life wailing for a good screen presentation. However, this one was an underworld story with intense emotions, locking the big mouths of audience.

‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai’, also known as ‘Mumbai Rewind’ is brainchild of Rajat Arora, where a tale of two gangsters is narrated by once DCP Agnel Wilson (Randeep Hooda) using strong elements of human life in Bombay, from beggary to stardom, from slavery to kingship & from sane values of a ‘good’ gangster & the evil one within the dark shadows of underworld. While one gangster lives & thinks like a real Sultan, the other tends to play Hitler, Wilson blames himself for the disastrous condition of Mumbai. The story begins with Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgan), who grew up in dungeons of dock as a porter, where he fried woods night & day & smuggled goods for the underworld under the mark of his innocence. The painstaking darkness of the dock made him humble inside while he became the biggest man of underworld. White-clad attire & an equally shining heart, Sultan fearlessly ruled the sea & divided the land into others to rule. The Robin Hood of the poor, the Romeo of love & the drum of generosity, Sultan has a special diversion towards Mumbai city, which he often calls his ‘Mehbooba’. The big guy has the weirdest man tailing him while he falls in love with Bollywood actress Rehana (Kangana Ranaut) & walks into her life like a wannabe lover.

Shoaib Khan (Emraan Hashmi) plays the other gangster, who is exactly the opposite of Sultan Mirza. A diplomatic man with no values, Shoaib is a petty crook who is in love with Mumtaaz (Prachi Desai), a salesgirl in a jewelry store. Shoaib dreams of becoming like Sultan Mirza or probably someone bigger & tends to go out of his way to achieve that level. Sultan hires him for the underworld jobs, while Shoaib readily becomes brutal each day. The two contrasts with values, beliefs & imagery of the film, making the audience sit on the edge & watch them.

Sultan Mirza's Mumbai

There is a lot happening beyond the borders of a tiny underworld tale in the film. Each character has a separate genre of drama depicting a revolutionary Bollywood flick. The politics uses a dwindling space, while the romance has its qualifications with faithful & unfaithful love. Sultan & Shoaib keep creating a gorge of restlessness among the audience as they clash & meet, back & forth. The story doesn’t deviate at all but throws unbelievable climaxes each time. The silences maintained by Devgan are practically the best element of the film, where he looks sharply, observes mildly, speaks carefully, walks ordinarily yet elegantly & sways grandly. The dialogue delivery by both the gangsters is unbeatable & the expressions make a masterstroke. The story reaches a stage, where the narrative slowly coincides with a plot packed off with wild guesses & an anxious mind.

The story is outstanding & screenplay is tight and the watertight direction by Milan Luthria has given an amazing flick to Bollywood. The camera moved smoothly throughout the film with simple & smart compositions. However, I felt that the lighting didn’t do complete justice with the screenplay of the film. There were few places where I wondered why the director didn’t concentrate on lighting for such an important scene. The casting was perfect, though I also felt that they could have done better without any chic in the film. Hats off to Rajat Arora for scaling out such wonderful script that raves so much beyond love & violence.