Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbaai Dobara

Rating : 3/10
Release Date : 15th August, 2013
Time : 160 minutes
Director : Milan Luthria; Writer : Rajat Aroraa; Music : Pritam, Anupam Amod
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Imran Khan, Sonali Bendre, Mahesh Manjrekar

Or Alternatively Titled

Gangster ban gaya Champu

Or

How Weird Spellings Don't Change the Fate of a Bad Film

Or

In Which Nothing Much Happens

Or

Kahaani Kahan ?

Or

The Case of the Bombastic Dialogue Overdose

Or

Majnu vs Ranjha

Or

Sirf Romaance. Dobara. Phir Dobara. Aur Dobara. Phir Se Dobara. Dobara Dobara…

Immediately after sorting the cast in this one, they probably hired a very good dialogue writer. But forgot to develop the story. So throughout the film, there is dialogue after dhansu dialogue….but rapidly, since there is really no context to it, it begins to fizzle and ends up boring the living daylights out of you

Akshay is Don. Who is on a major self-praise trip. About how powerful he is. Also Brainy. Intelligent. Villainous. Though we never really see much of what makes him all of that, just repeated references by himself. And a few instances of that display of the power, people paying obeisance etc. He uses and abuses women. Till he meets Sonakshi. He also drags a promising young kid, Imran, off the streets and includes him in his gang, kind of brings him up. And the kid falls in love with the same woman. That’s what the whole movie is about…

Very incidental, and almost comical are the scenes involving attacks on Akshay by a rival leader, Mahesh Manjrekar. And also the cops in Mumbai. Who one minute force him into elaborate disguises, trickery etc when he wants to meet his old flame, Sonali Bendre (small but dignified cameo). But in the next frame, he is strutting around at a televised film awards show, having drinks, mingling with guests while assorted journos float around etc. Its that kind of film…

Whats most galling are the flimsy characters created. You feel no sympathy for Akshay. Who apart from looking good in some very expensive threads, does little to make us like him. Or Imran, who seems like a total misfit in the whole film – can understand why he was cast but it doesn’t work. There is something about Imran’s demeanour which makes everything he says / the way he moves more cityslicker than tapori. One of the characters at the end even tells him ‘tu abhi bachcha hai’, which doesn’t bode that well for a guy who is supposedly a criminal and is being touted as Akshay’s Vazir ? Sonakshi does reasonably well (till the climax) with her innocent looks, cleavage etc but again you don’t quite understand her motives either. The climax is laughable, downright ridiculous.

There are a couple of nice songs (found Taiyyab Ali quite awful, not a patch on the old one from Amar Akbar Anthony) but again they just overdid the whole soulful sufi, romantic looks, dream sequences, lustful longing. There are some funny moments – Akshay has most of the clever dialogue (to tera plan use kishton mein maarne ka hai ?) but the whole story, barely enough for a thirty minute feature, simply bores you. Aygain. And Aygain. And Aygain…