Watched Shootout at Wadala on Thursday night. I was expecting a brutal gangster intriguing movie and I got the same, save intriguing. The movie started of as usual, how a young innocent boy becomes a gangster and his rise and fall. We all knew that it would be the story, but the treatment was what we were looking forward to. Unfortunately the treatment is a let down. There are more than one hiccups in the screenplay. The script use to just hurried onto you without proper flow. In fact the flow of the movie is very bad. The director tried to put in dialogues which should have created whistles, but instead there were abuses and abuses. There were few, but it looked like so forcibly done that it removed the charm out of it, the lackluster dialogue delivery not helping either.
There are 3 item songs, yes 3. The Laila song is bearable (because of catchy song, Sunny Leone is just a show piece without any dance moves), the other 2 songs becomes unbearable. One cant take more than one item song anyways. So music is not a great show here, neither is the background. Cinematography is very good and so is the whole retro setup of 1970s and 80s.
Performances can be debatable. John gives his best, but the character which looked great on the face value, was not the same in real terms. Anil Kapoor with his overacting doesn’t help one bit, so does Ronit Roy. Tushar Kapoor, as we all know has to be in the movie or else his sister wont finance the movie. His performance is irritating. Kangna Ranaut should win the worst actor award for this movie. Dont know why she was in the movie in the 1st place. The only shining spot in terms of performance is the duo of Manaoj Bajpai and Sonu Sood. Manoj Bajpai performs exceedingly well in otherwise a lackluster script. Sonu Sood too was brilliant with his angry young man image and acting, made me remember old Big B when he was young that is.
On the whole, the movie tried to achieve the hard hitting, brutal, gangster movie but it fails miserably. Sanjay Gupta directed Kaante before and I dint liked it one bit and so is this.
Ratings – 1.5/5
Tags: Anil Kapoor John Abraham Manoj Bajpai Member Reviews Reviews Ronit Roy Sanjay Gupta Shootout at Wadala Sonu Sood Tusshar Kapoor
Rediff review – Shootout at Wadala – Shootout At Wadala fails on all counts. Gives zero ratings. Following is the complete review –
Sanjay Gupta’s new film Shootout at Wadala documents the rise of crime in 1970s Mumbai [ Images ] and how, after local cops gunned down feared gansgter Manya Surve, the term ‘encounter’ entered the Police lexicon.
However, instead of engaging the viewers with a well-written screenplay, the film’s story runs all over the place with horrendous dialogues peppered with the most crass expletives that sound more inconsequential than sinister.
John Abraham [ Images ] plays Manya Surve, a bright student with a promising future who turns against the system after being wrongly framed in a murder case.
This dramatic transition in character and an overnight shift in ideologies — as a student he wouldn’t even cheat during exams — is one of the many flaws of the movie.
After his stint in jail where he bulks up with the help of a trainer (who by the way looks more like a poor man’s Hulk Hogan), Manya escapes prison not as a reformed man but as a maniac armed with Tusshar Kapoor [ Images ] for a sidekick.
More petty thieves are picked up along the way to paint the city red, with blood.
Anil Kapoor [ Images ], Ronit Roy and Mahesh Manjrekar [ Images ] play the cops while Manoj Bajpayee [ Images ] and Sonu Sood [ Images ] are rival mob-bosses who appear on screen as infrequently as ghosts in a Vikram Bhatt [ Images ] film.
Kangna Ranaut [ Images ] plays one expression for the entire duration of the film irrespective of what the scene demands.
In the middle of all the gory scenes where everyone kills everyone else because they are in a Sanjay Gupta movie, three women in bizarre clothing — Priyanka Chopra [ Images ], Sunny Leone [ Images ] and Sophie Choudry [ Images ] — gyrate to songs that sound similar.
Yet another standout element that fails to work in the film’s favour is the dialogue. It’s difficult to determine exactly what the writers were aiming for with dialogues like “Inkee Tehzeeb mein bhi Tezaab Hai” and “Maafi ke pehle do aksharon mein bhi MAA hai.”
The exaggerated action scenes and over-the-top violence makes it difficult to believe that the film is inspired from journalist S Hussain Zaidi’s non-fiction book Dongri to Dubai [ Images ].
To top that, Gupta, quite audaciously, rips off one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history — Sonny Corleone’s assassination in The Godfather.
As far as performances are concerned, John Abraham lives up to expectations by adding a realistic mustache. Rest of the cast is average with only Sonu Sood standing out.
Master filmmaker Christopher Nolan once said, “The mind is the scene of crime”.
Instead of this self-indulgent gore-fest, we would have appreciated a little more focus on the gangsters’ psyche.
Rediff Rating: No stars
Link – https://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-shootout-at-wadala-is-a-mindless-gore-fest/20130503.htm
I totally agree with the review of rediff. There is a climax scene wherein Anil and co. opens fire on John, the action sequence was copied from the 2011 released Sherlock Holmes – Game of Shadows (the bullets hitting the tries and the perpetrator running in slow motion).
Stupid movie… The story started wit a bang but the director could not get hold and grip and in the process made a mess of it.. Item songs are forced… The story is not in sync with the characters nd does not gel with the it at all.. Direction is shoddy.. Music is below average, performances are flawed xcpt for bajpai nd sood.. Slow boring and repetitive action… Unimpressive ending… All in all a disappointing movie.. The story is not