"The gangster sequel that unfolds into a triangular love story"
Milan Luthria is back after the success of both the first instalment of Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai (2010) and The Dirty Picture (2011). After receiving much praise and positive reviews for these previous super hits, there was a great deal of expectations held for his next big release. But did it do enough to achieve the same success?
Akshay Kumar who plays the lead antagonist of the underworld mafia Shoaib, is portrayed as the villainously cynical dark character of the film. A man who never really reveals too much about himself, and utilises his pair of shades throughout as a way of keeping his distance from all is what sets his character apart. Shoaib controls and manipulates whoever he wants whenever we wants and if anyone dare goes against him they are immediately struck off with the strike of a bullet. He feels no remorse or regret, and with one master plan in his mind his only desire is to own the city of Mumbai.
To help him with attacking his enemies including the Mumbai police, fellow investigators and the conniving Rawal, Shoaib relies on the noble assistants of his right hand partners in crime, one of them including the young Aslam (played by actor Imran Khan). Aslam who was hired by Shoaib at a young age feels obliged to help 'Shoaib Bhai' through all calamities. From extinguishing Rawal to protecting the mafia, Aslam stands by the fact he can never betray Shoaib. But what happens when love strikes a chord?....
Aslam begins to fall for a simple Kashmiri bred woman known as Jasmine, (played by actress Sonakshi Sinha), who has moved to Mumbai to pursue her acting career. Unable to speak too much English, and quite a poor judge of character, Jasmine is nevertheless a girl of substance that Aslam can't help but falling for. Over several encounters with one another their friendship increasingly grows. But little does Aslam know is that Jasmine's friendship is increasingly blossoming with Shoaib too.
The man who never fails to obtain what he sets out to achieve is keen to obtain Jasmine's love too! Jasmine, who remains unaware of Shoaib's background and mafia status warms towards building a friendship with him, unaware of Shoaib's true intentions. At this point of the film and thereafter, Aslam and Shoaib are respectively found to be attached to the same woman. The question is, will Aslam give up his love for his desrest Bhai Shoaib, or will the ever so powerful Shoaib forgive Aslam for making this grave mistake?
The love triangle as such is exactly what the film revolves around, but the fact that the film only unravelled this post interval is what made the film appear somewhat slow moving in the first half. I must confess, however, it became interesting in the second half to see exactly how the story would unfold, as it kept you engaged with the two key protagonists chasing after the same woman they love. The action scenes were fast paced, energetic and powerfully executed and I think this is what made Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai Dobara watchable to a certain extent.
Akshay Kumar depicts the character of Shoaib in his deep and husky voice tremendously well. He not only looks the part but plays a dark and snaky yet somewhat chivalrous character with great conviction. He is in all honesty the man who made Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Dobara the film that it is- and is the key ingredient to making audiences want to watch the movie. Imran Khan has also grown vastly as an actor and portraying the character of Aslam, Imran has had the opportunity to play something that has insofar been out of his reach. Imran's versatility is indeed expanding and Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara is the film that has enabled him to prove himself in more ways than one. Sonakshi Sinha who plays the character of Jasmine depicts her characters fragility and innocence with so much honesty and poise. Her character throughout the movie has the opportunity to express increasingly more till the very end and she does a good job of playing the struggling actress hailing from Kashmir. There was of course Sonali Bendre who also made a special appearance, however, given a small amount of screen presence one could not appreciate her role to great lengths.
The music of the film by Pritam didn't quite live up to great expectations either. The first instalment had some great numbers, however, songs in this film such as Tayaab Ali and Bismillah were not as great as they could have been. Yeh tune Kya Kiya- sung by Javed Bashir was by far the best songs of the movie and worked well to resonate with the storyline. Overall, the story of the film was pretty average. The Hindi film fraternity has been keen to showcase films that somewhat mirror Dawood Ibrahim's mafia status, and Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai Dobara also pretty much reflects the same. There wasn't something incredibly new or original in the story and as the story transformed into a love triangle it didn't quite match up to being a gangster movie. Luckily, with Akshay Kumar in the lead role the film will nevertheless attract many of his fans worldwide!
Hence, go catch it for Akshay Kumar.
Ratings: 2.5/5
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