Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara! Movie Review by Taran Adarsh

2.5

The Hindi film industry’s fascination with gangster films dates back to the 1970s. Ironically, this year has witnessed a plethora of gangster films invading our cineplexes, while a few of them were inspired by real-life characters as well. Additionally, the year also marks a substantial rise in sequels, since the original films have tremendous recall value.

Milan Luthria’s ONCE UPON AY TIME IN MUMBAI DOBAARA! takes off from where ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAAI concluded — the struggle for power. But unlike most gangster movies, ONCE UPON AY TIME IN MUMBAI DOBAARA! takes the precarious route of narrating a love story, with two criminals falling in love with the same woman, besides focusing on the game of one-upmanship between gangsters and the power struggle being played in the lanes and streets of Mumbai.

Does Milan Luthria’s take on the underworld live up to the humungous expectations? Let’s analyze…

ONCE UPON AY TIME IN MUMBAI DOBAARA! narrates the story of an underworld don, Shoaib [Akshay Kumar]. His only confidantes are his best friend Javed [Sarfaraz Khan] and former lover Mumtaz [Sonali Bendre]. He notices Aslam [Imran Khan] and takes him under his wings. Gradually, Aslam becomes one of his trusted confidantes.

Shoaib stumbles upon an aspiring actress Jasmine [Sonakshi Sinha]. Slowly, but surely, his attraction towards Jasmine goes on to becoming an obsession. This creates a rift between Shoaib and Aslam and results in the ultimate face-off between the mentor and protege.

First things first! Milan Luthria, who replicated the bygone era in his last two films [ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAAI and THE DIRTY PICTURE] successfully, seems like a complete pro in recreating the long-gone decades with flourish. Right from the ambiance to the outfits to the dialogue the protagonists or the assorted characters deliver, everything mirrors the 1970s and 1980s with accuracy and aptitude.

Unfortunately, the first hour doesn’t cut ice, focusing on the mandatory light moments, songs and dramatic moments that seldom seize your attention. However, Milan and writer Rajat Aroraa make sure they reserve the best for the second hour, packing the film with heavy-duty drama and conflict that makes it captivating and engaging. Also, Milan doesn’t resort to action and bloodshed — the key aspects that are inevitable for any gangster film — to carry the story frontward. These elements, although part of the narrative, are used as garnishing wherever essential. In a way, Milan attempts a gangster film, but steers clear of factors that could eclipse the love story, drama and conflict in the narrative.

Like I pointed out earlier, while the prequel held the spectators by its ears and eyes, ONCE UPON AY TIME IN MUMBAI DOBAARA! suffers because the grip is absent from the very start itself [which was the highpoint of the prequel]. Also, the villain [Mahesh Manjrekar] is just not authoritative or commanding enough here. But the writer springs a surprise by making the don [Akshay] vicious and vindictive towards the latter half, which adds a lot of weight to the proceedings. The final moments, starting with the fiery confrontation involving Akshay and Sonakshi, when she mistakes his friendship for love, right till the closing stages of the film, the graph of the film only soars upwards.

Milan gets ample support from the DoP [Ayananka Bose; top notch] as well as the art department [well done, yet again!] to impart his vision on screen. The styling is unflawed, while the background score enlivens the ambiance at numerous junctures. The high point, of course, is the dialogue penned by Rajat Aroraa, which contributed enormously to the last two films and makes a significant contribution this time too. The conversations are compelling, forceful and power-packed. Pritam’s music is in sync with the mood of the film. ‘Yeh Tune Kya Kiya’ and ‘Tayyab Ali’ [from AMAR AKBAR ANTHONY] are noteworthy compositions.

Milan is a connoisseur who extracts proficient performances from his actors and this is apparent in ONCE UPON AY TIME IN MUMBAI DOBAARA! as well. Akshay enacts the grey character with flourish. He adds a lot of novelty and uniqueness to his character, underplaying it magnificently and modulating his voice dexterously. After playing urban characters in his earlier films, Imran plays a desi character [his second this year!] this time, catching you by complete surprise yet again. It won’t be erroneous to state that he’s the dark horse. Sonakshi seems to be improving with every film. Besides exuding the right amount of innocence, she goes on to demonstrate that she can handle emotional outbursts really well, especially during the climax confrontation with Akshay.

Sonali Bendre Behl doesn’t get much scope, but shines in the powerful sequence with Akshay. Sophie Choudhry sizzles in a cameo. Sarfaraz Khan does well. Mahesh Manjrekar is wasted. Ditto for Abhimanyu Singh, who doesn’t get much scope. Pitobash, Hussain Shaikh, Mushtaq Khan and Chetan Hansraj are alright.

On the whole, ONCE UPON AY TIME IN MUMBAI DOBAARA! has a powerful second half and the drama/conflict helps the film regain ground, after a shaky first hour. However, the fact cannot be denied that ONCE UPON AY TIME IN MUMBAI DOBAARA! pales in comparison to its prequel.

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36 Comments
  1. Baba 11 years ago

    even before i saw the rating, i knew if mate has posted a review on outim, it must be less than 3 rating one

  2. sputnik 11 years ago

    @mate,

    I removed your post because I had already tweeted the link to this review and posted it on FB.

    Moved Baba’s comment to this thread.

    • mate 11 years ago

      No problem Sir, I too edited my comment. 🙂

  3. mate 11 years ago

    @Babaji Thanks for your kind remarks. 😀
    By the way, I rarely post anything on TQ and you have objection on that too. This is so unfair sir.

    • Baba 11 years ago

      where did i object? i just made an observation 😀

      • mate 11 years ago

        Sir, It’s a great privilege that you observe me. I’m totally blown away. 🙂

        • Baba 11 years ago

          you are welcome. i also know your to-do list for the next 2 weeks. dont think you doubt it 😉

          • mate 11 years ago

            HaHaHa. So it means I need to reschedule my upcoming plans, though plan will remain the same but execution and treatment will be different. 😛

  4. Baba 11 years ago

    if taran has given this a 2.5 then not good news for BO. i never liked its lacklustre promos anyway and neither the acting. lets see how the film does

  5. mate 11 years ago

    Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara – Disappointing, uninspired and boring
    Vishal Verma, IndiaGlitz [Thursday, August 15, 2013]

    What is it all about?
    Obviously Milan Lutharia and his writer Rajat Arora seem to have launched into this project backed by Balaji Motion Pictures with a faith in their own brilliance (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, Dirty Picture) but call it laziness, arrogance or over confidence they both allow the squishy love triangle to take center stage in this sequel. Big mistake. Further the resurrection is disappointing, uninspired and boring that fails to salvage any pride on its own be it an underworld potboiler or as a relationship drama…
    Sadly Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara (their spelling not mine) makes you believe that the writers have absolutely no faith in their characters or their own ability to take this sequel to somewhere new.
    The Storyline
    Rajat Arora takes it further from where it left.. Shohaib (Akshay Kumar), who killed his mentor in the past (Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai) to gain supremacy and is now the ruling mafia king. His influence and power has spread right up to the Middle East, today. Shoaib is now a flamboyant, suave man who is feared and revered.
    Shohaib’s only confidantes are his best friend Javed, who oversees his empire for him and his former lover Mumtaz (Sonali Bendre) who is now his closest friend. He often visits the poor Muslim areas where he grew up and it is on one such visit that he meets Aslam (Imran Khan). He takes him under his wings and gradually Aslam becomes one of his favourites.
    Shohaib stumbles upon a young actress – Yasmin (Sonakshi Sinha) so does Aslam both are immediately taken in by her freshness, beauty and candour. Slowly, but surely his attraction towards Yasmin goes onto becoming an obsession. This creates a rift between Shoaib and Aslam and results in the ultimate showdown between the mentor and prote’ge’.
    What to look out for
    Akshay Kumar’s bravado.. he is stunning.. his tone, accent, his look gives villainy in bollywood a new definition.. he is superb. Rajat Arora’s dialogues are as usual catchy. Technicalities are fine. Sonakshi Sinha is likable. Sandeep Shirodkar background is really good.
    What not
    Fails to derive any iota of strength from the original.. The original was fastidious in its quest to recreate the styles, manners, talk and cultural minutiae of the 70’s 80’s the ‘Deewar’, ‘Dharmatma’, ‘Oonche Log’ type of goonda movies we loved in our childhood and still do. There was a real spirit of using the film to transport the viewer into the past. It gave an exhilarating sense of the similarities and differences between then and now. This one is just plain and a pain for the audience tolerance. The dialogues are great but where is the situation…. the late 80’s and early 90’s feel is absent…
    The original had moments, sequences both for Ajay and Emraan including their introduction.. here after the inspired introduction the movie fails to engage the viewer in any way because of its meandering and unfocused storylines labeling the movie as a needless sequel..
    To add more salt to the wounds Imran Khan is a misfit. His approach to the role is so casual..
    Pritam’s music is forgettable. Taiyab Ali is such a waste.
    Conclusion: Apart from Akshay Kumar’s dashing looks and performance Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara has nothing to boost on its own as a sequel.. it’s an uninspired, boring and highly disappointing sequel you’ll ever see. Or not see, if you’re lucky. If you love the first film, seriously, do not see this one. You’ll ruin two movies at once.

    Rating 2/5
    https://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/review/13748.html

  6. sputnik 11 years ago

    Rediff Review by Raja Sen – 2 Stars

    Not very long ago, I rhapsodised about the words Once Upon A Time, and how a recent movie shone light upon them in rather sublime fashion. This week, a film releases with a name that starts with those very words and then makes a mockery of them. Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobara is effectively, of course, Twice Upon A Time.

    Now, having walked out of this new Milan Luthria film, I wish they had gone with the Twice Upon title — if only because of how convenient it would be to call it T.W.A.T: The Movie.

    The first Once Upon A Time In Mumbai was — while not a good film by any stretch of the imagination — a tolerable throwback to the dialogue-laden movies of yore. Things have gotten far worse this time around, with characters talking exclusively in the sort of aphoristic couplets found on auto-rickshaw stickers. Akshay Kumar makes some of those lines work, but the rest are beyond redemption.

    What is most upsetting is how the vital lines flounder the most: unrelated inanities pop up throughout, but it is when the script actually demands a line with some heft that there is none to be found. It is as if the writers copy-paste lines from railway station shayari books whenever they can, but at times of actual dramatic punch, nothing fits.

    Except, that is, Akshay Kumar. Kumar — despite his preparation for this film consisting merely of picking out the right pair of sunglasses — relishes playing villain. He says as much, too, in a rare good line about how the Hindi film hero only enjoys the final reel where things end happily while the baddie lives it up throughout the film.

    And so his Shoaib Bhai smokes and slithers and, for some reason, taps chairs repeatedly on the floor till he gets the attention of the room. A dreaded gangster, Shoaib is most impressed by those rare ones who stay impudent to his face — even after learning that those folks have no idea who he is, and seeing them cower like everyone else when apprised of his omnipotence.

    One such character is the film’s heroine, Jasmine, a thickheaded young actress with wide-eyes and a tendency to misconstrue most everything said to her. Sonakshi Sinha, who plays this exasperating actress, is quite wasted in this role — playing dumb to comedic effect isn’t up everyone’s alley — and a scene near the finale has her screeching like a possessed banshee. Why gangsters in our films fall for the most psychotic of women is, however, the story for another day.

    For now, a much more relevant question would be just what purpose Imran Khan serves in a movie like TWAT. Sure, Kumar’s a bad guy and there needs to be a hero in a film this formulaic, and I get that this film is ostensibly a love triangle, but so entertaining is Kumar’s swagger and so feebly does Khan deliver his lines that even if Khan’s character were completely excised, it wouldn’t hurt the movie an ounce. In fact, since it’d considerably trim the seemingly unending 160-minute running time, it’d be a massive plus.

    Shoaib is an all-powerful don who plagues Bombay with ease, getting rid of all who stand in his way. Imran Khan’s Aslam, a youngster Shoaib scooped off the streets a dozen years ago, is one of his most trusted men. Somewhere down the line, however, both men committed to life without love fall for the same girl. Ta-da. The film is constantly predictable — just like the first film in the series — but leans too heavily on a very hackneyed romantic angle. It isn’t often one gets to say this about a Bollywood actioner, but a few more gunshots could have been nice. Kumar more than makes up for the lack of Devgn, but despite having a similar first name, Imran really can’t match up to Emraan.

    It is nice, however, to see Tiku Talsania and Sonali Bendre back on the big screen, albeit in small roles. (Though neither gets as inexplicably thankless an appearance as the lady from Luthria’s Dirty Picture.) Also enjoyable are a Kapil Dev lookalike who clouts a cricket ball quite like the Haryana Hurricane used to (even though when this one hits it in the air it stays there for a few minutes before reaching the fielder), and, on a related note, the sight of the once-ubiquitous Rapidex English Speaking Course books.

    The rest is nonsense. No, worse: expensive nonsense.

    In the film’s finest scene, when there is an all-points bulletin for Shoaib’s arrest, the gangster, fed up by the police, strides defiantly into a police station and is… well, utterly ignored as he stands there and walks out again. Typical. We never quite knew what to do with our stars.

    Link

  7. Tulmul Memender 11 years ago

    Don´t tag me to read Taran´s review 😛 Tanqeed

  8. mate 11 years ago

    Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara! Review
    August 15th, 2013 by Mohar Basu
    Rating: 2/5 stars (Two Stars)

    What’s Good: It’s yet again a Once Upon… story where every line is a punch line and retro look is fantastic with its aroma of nostalgia!
    What’s Bad: There’s melodrama, overdrama and too much drama.
    Loo break: A few!
    Watch or Not?: Milan Luthria’s OUATIMD lacks the effervescence and naturalness of its prequel. The vibrancy of the script is diluted with hard-to-believe romance, minimal story; the film falters due to lack of action and the calamity that OUATIM reflected in abundance. This one isn’t really a dull bore but fails to spark off the enigma of the former edition! Crime thrillers and love dramas shouldn’t be mingled, it results in an insipid broth like this.
    Starting off from where Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai had ended,the film begins with Shoaib picking up a local urchin to build for himself a loyalist at crime becoming his Godfather. 12 years later, Shoaib is the biggest gangster of Bombay who handles in all the way from an Arab Nation (Presumably Dubai).
    Ditched by a man who plots to kill him, he makes a trip back to the city in order to eradicate his opponent.
    Meanwhile he and the urchin he had adopted fall in love with a budding actress, which indeed results in the strife that initiates between them – a war as to who will win the girl.
    This isn’t another love triangle of ordinary people. There is a gangster in love here and the story fierce-s itself with the love, passion and obsession of its characters to win, along with the police on the hunt for the man who rules Dongri.
    Akshay Kumar And Sonakshi Sinha in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara! Movie Review (Akshay Kumar And Sonakshi Sinha in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara! Movie Stills)
    Script Analysis
    There are very few euphoric moments in the film partly because of its lazy writing that is carried out rather shakily, and rest because it doesn’t meet the standards set by its colossal predecessor. I can almost count the number of times I felt that ecstatic high inside me during the film. There are dialogues put in which make no sense and some are actually offensive to your gray cells without being remotely entertaining.
    The film’s first part has a few good moments but nothing that the trailer hadn’t shown you. A few brilliant action scenes in the first half are done fabulously. There is a scene where Akshay and Imran leap off from one terrace to another, and that is perhaps the only place where the film shows some panache of what it had attempted on.
    The romantic angle was overtly done and somehow doesn’t have the required blaze. The chemistry between Sonakshi and her actors is not fabricated neatly and somehow it comes across as a shock when she declares her love for one and rejects the other! The screenplay had barely given any tender moments or delicate minutes of love and hence romance obsession seems quite out of the blue.
    The film fails to be a proper crime thriller or a love saga as it dismally flops at both doing absolutely no justice to either.
    Star Performances
    Akshay Kumar is so sleazy that he will crack you up with his dialogue delivery. It is outright hilarious. The actor fails to add depth in his character and couldn’t infuse charisma or persona in a role that Emraan Hashmi has immortalized. This Shoaib can at best manage to be a mock don but his over the top acting is such a flop show!
    Sonakshi Sinha goes wrong every time she is in a commercial film. One can be rest assured that her performance in Lootera is a fluke or a mere shadow of director’s flawless cinematic abilities that he could extract such a wonderful performance from her. In this film, she is a chatterbox replete with idioticity which the director frames as naiveness. She shrieks as if possessed in the climax scene as bombards all her good, if she had done any.
    Imran Khan is plain flat with nill emotions in his dialogues. His trying-too-hard-to-be-suave act will leave you yawning and doesn’t help in furthering the impression we have of him-his inherent inability to act. He could have done so much with the role but alas he painstakingly wastes every bit of it.
    There is only one solid scene that the director gave to actress Sonali Bendre and she was brilliant in it. She was the only one who delivered her role in a compelling and convincing manner. In few minutes, she added depth to her character and managed to convey the emotional wreckage Shoaib’s love had caused her!
    The supporting cast is needless and have nothing substantial to do. Mahesh Manjrekar’s buffonery was a pain in the literal sense of the word.
    Direction, Editing and Music
    Milan Luthria has given fabulous films before and this one feels stark and abrupt given his wonderful repertoire of fantastic films. His don shows off, has no charisma, his story lacks charm, the romance is not beautiful enough and fails to strike a chord and you will end up laughing at moments in the film’s most nailbiting moments. There is no simple way to present the fact but here it is – the film is a fiasco of sorts. Lesser than Himmatwala but nevertheless a damp squib that is the last thing expected from Luthria and Balaji. Rajat Aroraa’s dialogues felt labored and did not have the ease in its throw!
    Pritam’s music ain’t extraordinary and the editing could have been better. But it is the script, the direction and the acting that dooms it all for them!
    The Last Word
    Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara screams to Bollywood to do away with its ridiculous trend of Dobaara films simply coz this time the Dobaara was painful on its audience. I am going with a generous 2/5 for its novel concept which was built flimsily. I was left flabbergasted at how audaciously the film spends so much energy flaunting nothing that they give its real theme a miss! It is hard to point out whom to blame, but the bottom line doesn’t change – you can easily miss this one and save yourself a headache.
    https://www.koimoi.com/reviews/once-upon-ay-time-in-mumbaai-dobaara-review/

  9. mate 11 years ago

    Just look at a User’s comment below Taran’s Review.
    “But Taran Sir you are the best friend of Ekta Kapoor, Akshay Kumar…dont you feel a 2 star rating will ruin your relationship”
    😆

  10. Sanket Porwal 11 years ago

    That shocking moment when I get to know Taran had rated a film lower than me :O

  11. mate 11 years ago

    Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara Review
    So you have a hit film in hand, what’s the next plausible step? Make a sequel of it! Yes, that’s sadly the ongoing culture in Bollywood and even some of the top filmmakers are giving in to the lure of encashing the fame earned in their previous hits irrespective whether those films deserve a sequel or not. Milan Luthria is one such filmmaker who teams up with for the third time, this time around with the sequel Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara (OUATIMD). We tell you whether this Independence Day deserves the holiday weekend hype or not.
    OUATIMD takes off from where the first part ended. Shoaib (Now Akshay Kumar) who killed his mentor in the past to gain supremacy repeats history as he, in a similar fashion of his mentor, picks up a nobody from the streets and teaches him the tricks of the trade. 12 years later, Shoaib is the ruling mafia king from Mumbai all the way till Arab (read Dubai) and the nobody Aslam (Imran Khan) one of his favourites in the convoy.
    Shoaib’s quest to nail down his rival Rawal (Mahesh Manjrekar) brings him back to Bombay which is where he stumbles upon a young actress – Yasmin (Sonakshi Sinha). He is immediately taken in by her freshness, beauty and candor. Slowly, but surely his attraction towards Yasmin goes onto becoming an obsession. And little does his know that his own protegee Aslam will come in his way for the latter too takes an instant liking to Yasmin. This creates a rift between Shoaib and Aslam and results in the ultimate showdown between the mentor & protegee.
    The first installment of this franchise had become an instant hit with the masses purely for the stellar casting, astounding dialogues and tremendous performances. One still cannot forget the suave swagger of Sultan Mirza played by Ajay Devgn or the uninhibited hunger for power of Shoib played by Emraan Hashmi in the film.
    However, call it over confidence of the filmmaker Milan Luthria who apparently banked completely on the success of the first part to pay any attention to the second or sheer laxity and laziness that OUATIMD turns out to be not even half as entertaining and interesting its predecessor.
    A few days after the launch of the sequel’s first trailer, Luthria had launched its second promo citing that he received a lukewarm response for the first preview. Well, his insiders who actually gave him the buzz reports should’ve instead urged him to replace the entire film itself for throughout this looong 160 minute saga you see actors beating around the bush for no rhyme or reason.
    In a bid to give a romantic twist to a gangster plot, both writer Rajat Aroraa and Milan Luthria neither did justice to the gangster potboiler nor managed to bring out the conflict in romance and instead ended up with a highly uninspiring and unentertaining film which can lull you to sleep.
    While the story definitely doesn’t offer anything to look forth to, the performances turn into major let downs as well. Akshay Kumar does a downright shallow depiction of the character immortalized by Emraan Hashmi and fails miserably in all attempts to infuse a suave shade to his persona. The ample dialoguebaazi, a few interesting but mostly all puerile only make matters worse for him as he mouths them in such repetitive tone and accent that you literally get tired of all the excess talking that this film involves.
    Sonakshi Sinha who impressed one and all with her performance in Lootera goes back to essaying a dumb character in a commercial film. The portions of Yasmin are so loosely written that you really do not know what the filmmaker actually tried projecting.
    Surprisingly, the best performance (or the best of the lot) comes from the least anticipated character Imran Khan. Being criticized for his lack of acting capabilities, Imran tries way too hard to impress the audience with his happy go lucky natured character and though he falls flat yet again, he still remains the best of the three lead protagonists. Who would’ve thought such a day will come too!
    Call it the shortcoming of the filmmaker itself once again that he fails to extract even some good music from the hit composer Pritam. Except for a song or two, OUATIMD fails to please the mass with some lilting numbers as well.
    Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara, in short, is one film that one wouldn’t want to chance twice upon! Inane plot, force conflict and lazy writing can bore you to death. Take this time if you want undisturbed three hour long sleep in an air-conditioned hall.
    Critic: Mansha Rastogi (1.5 / 5) : Poor
    https://www.nowrunning.com/movie/9162/bollywood.hindi/once-upon-a-time-in-mumbaai-dobara/4357/review.htm

  12. mate 11 years ago

    Mayank Shekhar’s Review: Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobara

    Where’s the end? My only friend, the end…
    Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara
    Director: Milan Luthria
    Actors: Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan, Sonakshi Sinha
    Rating: * (1 star)
    By Mayank Shekhar

    Walk very gently into this film, if you must. There is enough plywood used for the sets and so much plastic around for performances that if you’re not careful, the whole picture might just collapse on your head. I think it did mine, still reeling as I am under the heavy assault of fake dialoguebaazi and even faker 1980s to think and write clearly about exactly what happened once upon a time in Mumbai when there was a don, whose name was Shoaib, he was not a terrorist, but pretty much a door-knob, who liked a woman, who was a movie starlet and an insufferable bore (Sonakshi Sinha).
    I am not sure if she liked him back, though it did seem so. I thought they had even made passionate love. But maybe I was dreaming, or they both were. Despite hanging out with him for days on end, she had no clue that he was a huge gangster. Yet, every few minutes he would tell his audience that the whole of Bombay lived inside his pocket: “Samundar ke baad Bambai Shoaib se jaani jaati hai. (Bombay is known for Shoaib, besides the Arabian Sea).” He would also refer to Bombay like his personal pet: Bambai yeh, Bambai woh, “Bambai huss rahi hai, Kumkum se Kimi Katkar ki tarah lag rahi hai!” But I don’t think anybody knew him in Bombay.
    My memory is hazy on this matter, but I guess he had come back from one of the Gulf countries to find his arch-enemy (Mahesh Manjrekar). The police was after him. After landing in the city he had to pose as a cabbie to hoodwink the cops. Soon thereafter he conveniently forgot about the man he had to kill and the police he had to hide from. He would walk around freely, chilling at Gateway of India, committing murder on a busy street in broad daylight, nursing a drink at a film awards’ night, living the good life.
    This don also had a trusted assistant Aslam (Imran Khan), in stone-washed jeans, wearing long side-burns, looking dumbfounded at everything around, which you couldn’t blame him for. He was also friends with the same starlet – that big fat bore, much like this film — who his boss fancied. To kill time, this boy and the girl, when not making inane conversations, would sit in a mud-pit underneath a railway track while the train passed over their heads. It must’ve been thrilling to do that. Given how well a certain second-rate romantic-action-comedy is doing at the theatres right now, a wit told me, that train passing over their head was Chennai Express!
    While my report is still fuzzy, you roughly know what this film is about. Two guys like the same girl, that sort of dead tiring rivalry thing, I guess. Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, this movie’s supposed first part, is much easier to recall. Filmed by the same director Milan Luthria (The Dirty Picture),the prequel was a loud, thoroughly entertaining homage to Salim-Javed scripts of the ‘70s: high on drama, breezy with one-liners, packed with masala. Ajay Devgn had played the central part in that movie. Devgn had also played the main role inspired by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, like the one here, in Ram Gopal Varma’s phenomenal Company. Those insouciant, cool kind of characters suit him because he doesn’t try too hard. You ought to first behave cool when playing cool, I suppose.
    In this picture, Akshay Kumar plays the Mafiosi. Long collars jutting out of his jacket, wide goggles over his eyes, he blows a pall of smoke instead of inhaling the tobacco in his cigarette, and always appears with a backlight and a half shadow over his face. You’re not sure if his character is a cartoon or a don. He talks as if he fishes out a book of poor rhymes and bad poetry when he has to even say hello: “Naam bataya toh pehchan bura maan jayegi… Daan kiya toh dhanda bura maan jayega… Jisne doodh mein nimbu daala, paneer uski.”
    But that is true for everybody else here. The drawl is infectious. But when Akki man pauses to parts his lips, you hold your breath for his next impersonation of Jeevan ‘The Rabert’ from Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), say it slowly, “Dactarrr, agar isko kuch hua, toh tera post mortem pucca,” “Mein woh hoon, jo sabki maa behn karna chahta hoon, Aslam. Villain hoon mein. Villain!” How can you not crack up? People in my hall did. The joke was sadly on the hero. So was the film. Each appearance of his on the screen is designed like a grand, elephantine entry.
    Talking of entries, to be fair the other one, Aslam, had warned you in his first scene itself, “Abhi toh meri entry hui hai. The End aane mein bahut time hai mere dost. (I’ve just entered. The end is really far, my friend).” Masla wahi hai (that’s the issue), screw the masala, there are 160 minutes of this to sit through. Where is the end? My only friend, the end.
    https://thew14.com/2013/08/15/mayank-shekhars-review-once-upon-a-time-in-mumbai-dobara/

  13. mate 11 years ago

    Movie Review: Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara!
    Cast: Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Pitobash Tripathy, Mahesh Manjrekar, Sonali Bendre

    Director: Milan Luthria

    The Indian Express rating: *1/2

    What did you expect from the sequel of Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai which came out in 2010? Given that its director and writer are the same, I knew that the clunkily-titled-and-spelt Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara! would tread the same territory: gangsters- muscle-flexing-in-Mumbai-which-used-to-be-Bombay, non-stop rat-a-tat of ’70s style dialogue-baazi, loud background music, and a plot riddled with predictabilities from beginning to end.

    What I wasn’t prepared for was just how similar it would be, despite the change in leads (Ajay Devgn and Emran Hashmi have been replaced by Akshay Kumar and Imran Khan, and instead of Kangna Ranaut, there is Sonakshi Sinha), and after a point, just how listless it would turn out to be.

    Hashmi’s brash I want-to-take-over-everything Shoaib is played by Akshay Kumar in the new film. The character, fleshed out with nods to the dreaded Dawood (those distinctive dark glasses, and a penchant for cricket and betting) is first seen lording it over in what we presume is Dubai. Shoaib is ruthless and ambitious, and master of all he surveys, but `Bambai’ calls to him because an underling (Manjrekar) who has dared to challenge him has to be set straight.

    Once in Bombay, he whistles up his faithful. One of them is Aslam (Khan), whom Shoaib had taken over when he (Aslam) and his best friend Dedh Tang (Tripathy) were youngsters. But before the script turns its attention to these `bhais’ duking it out in Dongri (or wherever it is that they hang out in large numbers), it comes up with a romantic distraction for both the main gents. The spirited Jasmine (Sinha) is new to Bombay, and a wannabe heroine. She is also more naïve than any young woman has the right to be.

    Unless, of course, she belongs to a film like this where logic is made to bow before masala and melodrama. Sinha does her by now all-too-familiar ‘susheel’-sassy-sexy act, and swings like a magnet between Shoaib and Aslam, and here’s where I have a quibble. Any self-respecting goody-two-shoes heroine like Jasmine locked into what used to be such a Hindi cinema staple—the triangle– should make her interest clear. Why confuse us? You should see this wench making up to Shoaib, and then screaming: ‘Par maine tumhe uss nazar se kabhi dekha nahin’, or words to that effect. Really? Then what was she doing batting her eyelids at him? And she’s a near-avuncular pal to Aslam before she gets all dewy all of a sudden. Such complexity in a lead actress of a movie like this is most unfair.

    I missed Ajay Devgn and Emran Hashmi of the original, who made credible ‘bhais’, and carried off those rhyming dialogues. Akshay Kumar lacks menace and quickens only when those glasses are off his face, which doesn’t happen too often in the film . And his delivery is a drone, crackling strictly in a couple of moments. Imran is too clean-cut to be a goon, especially one that’s meant to be grimy. Nice to see Sonali Bendre back, though, even if in a cameo: as Shoaib’s wife/consort, she is looking weathered, and more interesting .

    After all the shoot-outs and bang-bangs are over, you are left with a film which leaves you with so little new that you wonder if there’s any juice left in this style of retro gangsta flick. Or are we heading for a third-time-in-Mumbai-Tibara?

    https://www.indianexpress.com/news/movie-review-once-upon-ay-time-in-mumbai-dobaara-/1155839/2

  14. Author
    aryan 11 years ago

    Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara Movie Review by Komal Nahta

    Balaji Telefilms’ Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara! (UA) is a sequel to Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai. After Sultan’s (Ajay Devgan’s) death in the first part, Shoaib (Emraan Hashmi) has become the don of Bombay. This film traces the love story of Shoaib (Akshay Kumar in place of Emraan Hashmi of the first part). Aslam (Imran Khan), whom Shoaib had taken under his wings in his childhood, is the trusted lieutenant of don Shoaib who rules over Bombay city. Don Rawal (Mahesh Manjrekar) resents the growing hold of Shoaib on Bombay, and he (Rawal) is, therefore, out to eliminate him.

    Shoaib comes from abroad to Bombay and meets Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha) who is a new actress, working in DK’s (Akash Khurana) film. Jasmine’s simplicity and straightforwardness greatly impress Shoaib who, in any case, is a womaniser, and has his old flame, Mumtaz (Sonali Bendre Behl, in place of Prachi Desai of Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai), for company. Jasmine treats Shoaib as a good friend but she is neither in the know of his activities as a don nor aware that he has fallen in love with her.

    Aslam, who teaches Jasmine to speak English even though he himself is illiterate, also falls in love with her. Aslam meets her while he is helping his friend, Dedh Tang (Pitobash Tripathi), establish contact with Shireen, the girl he loves.

    All hell breaks loose when Shoaib tells Jasmine that he loves her and wants to possess her. She also learns of his underworld activities and is petrified.

    Shoaib soon learns that Aslam, his protégé, loves the same Jasmine whom he loves. Obviously, Shoaib’s frustratation increases. On the one hand, Shoaib has Rawal to settle scores with. He also has to contend with an unrelenting Jasmine and a junior, Aslam, who he thinks has back-stabbed him. Then, there’s Bombay police who is thirsting for Shoaib’s blood.

    What happens thereafter? Whom does Jasmine actually love – Shoaib, Aslam or none of them? Does she marry Shoaib or Aslam or none of them? Does Shoaib confront Aslam about Jasmine? Do cracks develop in the relationship between Shoaib and Aslam? What happens to Rawal? Does the police get Shoaib?

    Rajat Aroraa’s script concentrates on the love life of don Shoaib and almost completely remains away from his professional activities. Since Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai dealt with both, the personal and professional lives of Sultan, the audience which comes to watch this film as a sequel, may feel cheated because it is more about the personal life of don Shoaib. Also, although comparisons are odious, the viewers are bound to search for similarities in this film and OUATIM, and they will not find the screenplay of the sequel as engrossing, gripping and entertaining as that of the first part. No doubt, the love story is quite different from many love stories seen in earlier films but the mere novelty does not make up for the lack of entertainment value in the screenplay.

    Although the drama keeps the audience involved, it does get repetitive and boring at places. For instance, the scenes between Aslam and Jasmine are not half as exciting as those between Shoaib and Jasmine. The comedy of Aslam is quite boring. Also, the viewer, at places, gets the impression that the screenplay is one of convenience. For example, showing Jasmine to be so innocent and even more ignorant makes it a case of convenient writing. Again, Shoaib asking Aslam to pretend that he also loves Jasmine (which, the audience knows and Shoaib doesn’t know, is actually the case) is a bit too much of a coincidence.

    While Rajat Aroraa’s story and screenplay are not upto the mark, his dialogues are extraordinary. There is more humour and drama in his dialogues than in his screenplay. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that Aroraa’s dialogues are a major asset of the film.

    Akshay Kumar does a truly fantastic job as underworld don Shoaib. His facial expressions and body language, when he is livid, are a treat to watch. He has worked hard on his acting to make the character of Shoaib look different and the results show. Imran Khan is good in the role of Aslam. He comes up with an easy-going performance but needs to brush up his act in comic scenes. Sonakshi Sinha springs a wonderful surprise and shines in the role of Jasmine. She is brilliant in emotional and dramatic scenes and cute in the scenes in which she has to appear innocent. Mahesh Manjrekar get very limited scope and does well. Pitobash Tripathi leaves a mark as Dedh Tang. Sarfaraz Khan makes his presence felt as Shoaib’s Man Friday, Javed. Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh gets limited scope as the police inspector and he is earnest. Sonali Bendre Behl, in a special appearance, stands out in her scene with Shoaib in the post-interval portion. Vidya Balan makes a very tiny special appearance in a song. Mushtaq Khan is fair. Hussain Shaikh lends able support as Akbar. Sophie Choudry gets her expressions perfectly right in the role of the glamorous sex kitten she plays. Chetan Hansraj, Vidya Malavade, Tiku Talsania, Akash Khurana and the others provide able support.

    Milan Luthria handles the love triangle with maturity. His direction is able but his choice of subject is not very appropriate as the sequel comes with the formidable brand of OUATIM which was loved by the audience. Pritam’s music lacks hit songs but two songs – ‘Ye tune kya kiya’ and ‘Chugliyaan’ – are appealing, besides the remixed version of the super-hit ‘Tayyab Ali’ song of Amar Akbar Anthony. ‘Tu hi khwahish’ is a fair fast-paced song. Rajat Aroraa’s lyrics are of a good standard. Song picturisations (Raju Khan) are alright. Sandeep Shirodkar’s background music is very fine. Ayananka Bose’s cinematography is wonderful. Priya Suhas and Sunil Jaiswal’s sets are nice. Javed-Aejaz’s action scenes provide thrill to the masses and front-benchers but the audience would expect more action. Akiv Ali’s editing could’ve been sharper.

    On the whole, Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara! is an average film with dialogues and performances as its big plus points and the burden of Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai and limited action as it minus points. Its huge cost is probably its biggest problem as the merits are not enough considering the investment in the film (around Rs. 85 crore). The holidays (Independence day, Raksha Bandhan) will help boost its collections but the haphazard release (it opened in limited/small-capacity auditoria of multiplexes, that too, in very limited number of shows on Thursday) will reduce its box-office takings. Business in Muslim centres will be better. Considering all the pros and cons, it will barely be able to recover its heavy cost.

    https://komalsreviews.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/177/

  15. Author
    aryan 11 years ago

    Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara Movie Review by Rajeev Masand

    Characters in Hindi movies tend to be more naïve than the audience that’s watching them on screen. The audience will guess early on that the most earnest cop in the unit is the traitor who’s been leaking information to the bad guy. Or that the person who talks about living life to the fullest will be diagnosed with a fatal condition. Or that two best friends who swear never to let anything come between them will find their relationship tested. The characters on screen are always the last to know; they invariably figure out these things well after the audience does. It’s an accepted fact in storytelling.

    Yet the three protagonists in Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara aren’t just naïve, they’re plain stupid.

    This disappointing sequel to 2010’s Ajay Devgan-Emran Hashmi starrer is constructed around the premise of a love triangle…the laziest love triangle you could possibly imagine. Shoaib (Akshay Kumar) is a mob boss. Aslam (Imran Khan) is his loyal protégé. Both men develop feelings for struggling actress Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha), who is close to Shoaib and Aslam. But Jasmin doesn’t know that Shoaib is a don, or that Aslam works for him, or even that Shoaib has designs on her. Shoaib and Aslam, meanwhile, are unaware that they’re both in love with the same girl. That’s way too many clueless people in one film!

    The earlier installment, also directed by Milan Luthria, was nicely evocative of 70s nostalgia helped no doubt by Ajay Devgan’s insouciant take on a dreaded gangster. Akshay Kumar, on the other hand, replaces Devgan’s sexy nonchalance with in-your-face flamboyance. Dark glasses perched permanently on his nose, puffing away on a cigarette, Akshay swaggers into the frame as Shoaib, offering the promise of a deliciously unapologetic anti-hero.

    It doesn’t help that writer Rajat Arora, as if to compensate for the flimsy plot, goes into overkill mode with wise-ass dialogues. Unlike the earlier film, which paid homage to the Salim-Javed era of memorable one-liners, this sequel is a full-fledged assault of rat-a-tat punch lines. When asked by a flunkie why he’s recruited two young kids to join his gang, Shoaib responds: “Doodh mein nimboo jisne daala, paneer uski”. On the changing face of the city, he says: “Yeh bambai, Kumkum se Kimi Katkar mein badal gayi hai”, and on love he delivers this gem: “Pyaar aaj kal naukrani jaise ban gaya hai. Aata hai, bell bajata hai, kaam karke chala jaata hai.”

    If the love triangle isn’t particularly compelling, it’s because it’s hard to get to the real emotions of the characters, buried as they are beneath all that cockiness. Imran Khan as Aslam, ostensibly the hero of this film, appears ill at ease rolling those corny lines off his tongue, and resembling a rich urban kid slumming it out as a tapori at a dress-up party. Sonakshi Sinha’s Jasmine has got to be the most pea-brained woman you’ve ever met. She happily lets Shoaib rig awards for her, and thinks it’s cute when he turns up on her set and halts shooting. She hangs out with him at his home, takes lifts with him in his car, but claims to be outraged when he says he has feelings for her. Fresh off her terrific performance in Lootera, Sonakshi constructs a singularly contemptible character in Jasmine. Akshay Kumar, for all those sinister threats, ultimately turns Shoaib into a laughable cliché. He goes on and on about being a villain, but we never see him get truly down and dirty.

    The film does have a few strong bits, including an inspired cameo by Sonali Bendre, and a clever scene in which Shoaib walks into a police station intending to surrender himself. But these are small mercies in a major misfire as this. Too long at over 150 minutes, and way too predictable to ever surprise you, Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara is the equivalent of getting a root canal.

    I’m going with one-and-a-half out of five. Call me cynical, call me a spoilt-sport, but don’t call me if they decide to make Once Upon A Time in Mumbai 3!

    Rating: One And A Half

    https://www.rajeevmasand.com/reviews/our-films/threes-a-crowd-3/

  16. Baba 11 years ago

    22 votes and 1500+ views for this review LOL. these are mindboggling numbers. i think most of the 22 votes are by srk fans while the number of views is contributed by both srk and akshay fans. TQ rocks 😛

  17. Tulmul 11 years ago

    @Tanqeed

    You are adding fuel to fire, in other words helping moron taran’s fame and name. He gets name and fame and you Hits 😉

    Just Add Disclaimer for every review 😛

    I also added one more hit courtesy Baba, Saw his comment on Panel 🙂

  18. ank_16n 11 years ago

    Cheapness Re-defined by Some SRK Fans…….

    Really showing their Reall Faces……..Waise i always expect this from SRK fans 😀 😀

    That’s why they are the only Fans i hate…yes i hate SRK fans most in this world 😛

    • Reddemon 11 years ago

      Still better than Akshay fans who spread pirated link. #Aaakthuu

      • mate 11 years ago

        WoW @Reddemon bro, You’ve done it again. Take a bow. 😉

  19. Author
    aryan 11 years ago

    Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara Movie Review by Sukanya Verma

    Milan Luthria’s Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara is a complete drag, unintentionally comical and painfully verbose unlike the prequel which hit quite a few right notes, notes Sukanya Verma

    It all starts twelve years later when two teenagers who look nothing like Imran Khan and Pitobash Tripathy grow up to be just them. It’s the 1980s, you see, a period when it was perfectly normal to be born as Baby Guddu and grow up to become Rishi Kapoor (Nagina, anyone?).

    So if the intention is to recreate to the improbable sensibilities of that superficial space, Milan Luthria’s Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara is appropriately iffy. It’s also a complete drag, unintentionally comical and painfully verbose unlike the prequel which hit quite a few right notes with its slick take on the anti-hero against the half-hearted immorality of the 1970s.

    Rivalry makes way for romance in the follow-up but for a film set against the mafia, the predominant action is the yak yak coming out of Akshay Kumar’s mouth. Though the actor, saddled with an absurd script against a gaudy set in a jaded love triangle, is a treat though conveying an extravagant personality and remorseless menace as the underworld kingpin, Shoaib.

    As the ultra glamorous style bhai in over-sized glasses and pointed collars/retro suits, AK smokes incessantly to the point the cautionary sign begins to seem like a permanent watermark against Ayananaka Bose’s bright but banal looking frames.

    Unfortunately, despite’s AK’s glossy and gritty efforts to hold this 160 minutes of predictability, there’s a spent vibe to OUATIMD. That ‘designed for wolf-whistles’ tone of Rajat Aroraa’s dialoguebaazi tries too hard. The exchange, on many occasions, feels stilted and stuffy. Nobody talks in this film. Every one states. (No wonder one of the most impressive moments in the film is when Akshay simply walks in and out of a police station without anybody noticing.)

    Eventually this silly tribute to Salim-Javed and Kader Khan — Machchar jiska khoon peeta hai ussi ke haathon marta hai — gets flimsier than the wig on Mahesh Manjrekar’s ballooned skull.

    It doesn’t help that the only other agenda of OUATIMD besides Akshay Kumar and his book of quotations is a romance triangle involving his subordinate (Imran Khan) and an aspiring actress (Sonakshi Sinha).

    What primarily worked in the first one is the challenge and conflict Emraan Hashmi’s defiant personality provided to Ajay Devgn’s supremacy.

    But the sorely miscast Imran Khan fumbles in a role, which neither builds him up as a resilient Romeo nor showcases his spirit as a daring David up against the proverbial Goliath. For a seemingly significant member of an international criminal’s gang, he’s shown spending way too much time safeguarding his friend’s romantic life. No amount of facial hair can wipe off the vanilla in Imran’s essence.

    As for his chemistry with Sonakshi, the less said the better. Not because it’s that bad but because there isn’t any. In comparison, the comfort level between her and AK (her co-star of Rowdy Rathore, Joker) provides some amusement.

    What doesn’t is her moronic logic of rejecting someone because he’s a criminal and embracing another criminal to rescue her from the first one or that never-never-ending sequence in the hospital. It’s disappointing to see her squander in Luthria’s silly cash-in sequel so quickly after one of her best works (Lootera).

    When not seeped in implausibilities (and by that I don’t just mean Imran Khan single-handedly taking on a man the size of two Rami Reddys), Luthria’s OUATIMD is a crammed fare that wastes the lovely Sonali Bendre in a three-scenes role till it reaches its flat climax.

    In one scene, a character remarks how courage doesn’t need legs to move ahead. Perhaps. But for a movie to get anywhere it needs to have more substance than the vacuous cigarette smoke coming out of Akshay Kumar’s mouth.

    Rating: two Stars

    https://www.rediff.com/movies/review/sukanya-verma-reviews-once-upon-a-time-in-mumbai-dobaara/20130815.htm

  20. Aditya007 11 years ago

    Dna Film review: Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara is more likely to make you go ooh; instead of ouch ! By Sarita Tanwar

    Akshay Kumar plays the bad guy unapologetically. He is chilling as the dreaded don and endearing as the helpless (and later dangerous) man.

    Film: Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara

    Rating: ***

    Director: Milan Luthria

    Starring: Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan and Sonakshi SInha

    What it’s about:

    A sequel to Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai, Shoaib (Akshay Kumar) is
    the main protagonist in this one. While the earlier edition had more
    drama and action, OUATIMD focuses more on the love angle. The sequel
    is more likely to make you go ooh… instead of ouch! There are no
    bones being broken, skulls being smashed, clothes getting ripped (save
    in the climax). It’s a bold move – to attempt something so different from what the
    predecessor offered. The audiences generally go in expecting more of
    the same in a sequel. But who says gangsters can’t fall in love and
    show the chink in their armor? So you have mentor Shoaib and Aslam
    (Imran Khan) falling in love with Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha). Conflict
    follows. Loyalty is tested, as is love and courage. What’s good: Most romantic films end with a trip to the altar. Most endorse the fairy
    tale aspect of love. The romance in OUATIMB is real and good old style.
    Akshay Kumar plays the bad guy unapologetically. He is chilling as the dreaded don and endearing as the helpless (and later dangerous) man in love. The novel thing about the screenplay is that neither Shoaib nor Aslam are ready to sacrifice their love for each other. The film steers clear of the romantic clichés of self-sacrifice. The initial camaraderie between Shoaib and Jasmine is well captured – the whole part of her being the only person who doesn’t fear him because she doesn’t know his
    identity. And then Shoaib’s menacing act in the second half when he won’t let anything come between him and Jasmine – not even his “bachcha” Aslam. At first, Imran Khan feels like a miscast but then he grows on you. Kudos to the actor for urban boy for stepping out of his comfort zone
    and attempting something so daringly different. Sonakshi Sinha is
    superb – she is getting better with every film. She is at ease with both
    Shoaib and Aslam. Most importantly, she keeps her character from being annoying with her innocent appeal. OUATIMD’s crowning glory is Akshay Kumar who goes all the way with his “negative” act in one of his career-best performances. The scene where he walks into a police station in broad daylight and then
    walks out as casually is one of the film’s high points. The last 30
    minutes of the film belong only to him and he rises way above the script with his raw and gritty persona. The novel thing about the screenplay is that neither Shoaib nor Aslam are ready to sacrifice their love for each other. The film steers clear of
    the romantic clichés of self-sacrifice. The initial camaraderie between
    Shoaib and Jasmine is well captured – the whole part of her being the
    only person who doesn’t fear him because she doesn’t know his
    identity. And then Shoaib’s menacing act in the second half when he
    won’t let anything come between him and Jasmine – not even his “bachcha” Aslam.
    At first, Imran Khan feels like a miscast but then he grows on you.
    Kudos to the actor for urban boy for stepping out of his comfort zone
    and attempting something so daringly different. Sonakshi Sinha is
    superb – she is getting better with every film. She is at ease with both
    Shoaib and Aslam. Most importantly, she keeps her character from being annoying with her innocent appeal.
    OUATIMD’s crowning glory is Akshay Kumar who goes all the way
    with his “negative” act in one of his career-best performances. The
    scene where he walks into a police station in broad daylight and then
    walks out as casually is one of the film’s high points. The last 30
    minutes of the film belong only to him and he rises way above the script with his raw and gritty persona.

    What’s not: The film is inconsistent in its pace – at times it just chugs along
    aimlessly. The screenplay could’ve been much tighter for the impact to
    be enhanced. The film begins slow and then picks up slowly towards
    the latter part of the first half. The same is the case in the second half.
    Problem is that while OUATIMD stands on it’s own, it fails in
    comparison to the first part. Fans of the original will be disappointed because they will expect
    some serious gangster action, while this is an out-and-out love story.
    Perhaps the problem is in the communication. It should never have
    been projected as a gangster film. The soundtrack of this film also does
    not match up.
    The Bismillah song does nothing for the film and sticks out like a sore thumb. Rajat Arora’s dialogues are fantastic but they become the films
    biggest vice. There are just too many punches. Before you can relish one, another one leaps at you and you cannot savour any.

    What To do: Love stories are the flavour of the season (Aashiqui, Ranjhanaa and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani) and here’s another one to make you go ah!

    https://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/1875299/review-film-review-once-upon-a-time-in-mumbaai-dobara-is-more-likely-to-make-you-go-ooh-instead-of-ouch

  21. mate 11 years ago

    Film Review | Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!
    A ham of a don, his lifeless protégé and a brain-dead heroine —Milan Luthria’s new film is a disaster

    A triangle with no points
    The Dawood prototype in Milan Luthria’s new film, mindlessly titled Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!, is a raunchy playboy who transforms into a wrathful and obsessive lover. Not a diabolical underworld don by miles. There is something incongruous about a Dawood remotely akin to Rahul in Darr. That Akshay Kumar plays the role with a lot of relish does not really help. The ersatz, 1970s-style dialogue-baazi, many notches worse than those in Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010), combined with Kumar’s hammy, monotone performance—his tricks for the role include craning his neck to the left and a swagger that works only in slow motion—add to the banal claptrap that it is.
    Shoaib (Kumar) returns to Mumbai from Dubai—after realizing that a rival, Rawal (Mahesh Manjrekar) is trying to kill him. He hoodwinks the Mumbai police immediately upon entry and gets to the job. Twelve years ago, Shoaib had hired two teenaged boys, Aslam (Imran Khan) and his friend Dedh Taang (Pitobash Tripathy), who are now petty robbers on local trains. The don summons the boys and entrusts Aslam with the job of killing Rawal.
    photo
    Imran Khan’s best moments are while dancing to a remix of an ‘Amar Akbar Anhony’ classic
    Meanwhile, both Shoaib and Aslam separately meet a Kashmiri girl Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha), who aspires for Bollywood stardom. The two men are in love with Jasmine, a brain-dead woman, who has the peculiar knack of misconstruing everything ever told to her. Naïvely enough, she does not realize why Shoaib is helping her achieve stardom. Conveniently for writer Rajat Aroraa, she does not know that Shoaib and Aslam know each other. The two love stories move in two parallel universes until the obvious truth is discovered with much drama, leading up to a night of glass-crashing, headbanging duel between the two men on the streets of Dongri. In all of this, the Mumbai police, helmed by an officer played by Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh, watch helplessly.
    The screenplay moves without any logic, but besides the obvious loopholes in the story, what’s exasperating is the utter lack of wit in the writing. That’s the least you expect from a movie that is setting itself up as a masala don love story. You expect it to be humorous in a camp way, which Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and Luthria’s last film, The Dirty Picture, had plenty of. An entire sequence and crucial narrative point in the film is about the wrong use of the word “intercourse”—Jasmine mumbles it and blurts it out, Aslam labours over explaining what it means, and the don just doesn’t get it. Somewhere in downtown Mumbai, Shoaib gifts a highrise resembling a 1980s’ Antilla to Jasmine. The doltish maiden is flustered, and tells him she can’t accept it because she considers him “just a friend”. Don is shaky and livid. The teary and hysterical woman runs for her life. Scenes like these abound. The only scene that stood out to me is when Shoaib walks into a Mumbai police station while the entire police force is deliberating how to capture Shoaib. He stands there, nobody notices him, and he walks out.
    Kumar tries his best to own the dialogues, delivering them with an animated force, but their lack of sparkle is reminiscent of the dialogues in the films of Kanti Shah. When Shoaib returns to Mumbai, he observes how Mumbai has changed—“Mumbai Kumkum se Kimi Katkar ki tarah lag rahi hai”. Introducing himself to a woman at a cricket stadium, Shoaib mutters, “Main ab khiladi nahin, poora khel hoon”. He blusters to his flunky, in his kitschy inner chamber, “Subah ki local se leke raat ki botal tak, Mumbai mein ek hi naam hona chahiye, Rawal, Rawal, Rawal.” With every passing scene and every passing moment, unimaginative dialogues like these bog you down until the climax, which is just plain noise and melodrama.
    photo
    Kumar has no surprises or sexiness in his reprisal of an evil lusty don
    Luthria is a stylish film-maker, known to go for the big sweeps and the extra lighting. Ayananka Bose’s cinematography has flair, but barring a few scenes, there is hardly anything beautiful or mood-inducing about the visuals. Luthria’s storytelling is loose and sloppy.
    Then there’s the odd casting. Much as he tries, Kumar has no surprise or sexiness in his reprisal of an evil, lusty don. Khan’s staple expression in the film is furrowed eyebrows and a moony countenance. While dancing to the Amar Akbar Anthony classic Tayyab Ali Pyar ka Dushman suits him the most, a long monologue about love and fidelity inside a hospital room where Jasmine is lying comatose, exacerbates his performance to the level of a complete amateur. Sinha has her moments, but again, this is an uninspired, confused and pathetic character and matching that, she is just about mediocre in her histrionics.
    Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara! is the worst I have seen of Luthria. All his previous films are a celebration and relish of stylish pulp. This is a misfire in style as well as story.
    https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/TEkNGCZ9UtoFGBwy94NRoK/Film-Review–Once-Upon-Ay-Time-in-Mumbai-Dobaara.html

  22. mate 11 years ago

    Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai Dobara movie review: Akshay, Sonakshi fail to create magic
    Ratings- ** (2 stars)
    Star cast- Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Imran Khan, Sonali Bendre, Mahesh Manjrekar:
    Director– Milan Luthria; Music- Pritam
    ‘Agar main hero ban gaya to meri pehchan bura maan jayegi! Shoaib’s line to never betray his own identity might have a deeper meaning but for many it left their head’s tickling.
    There are other such one-liner dialogues that compliment the 80’s era where gangsters used to be filmy. Their shades never used to ditch them and formal suits used to be the dress code. What Milan Luthria expected was that the dialogues and portrayal of the similar era will be welcomed by its viewers.
    With Akshay Kumar, who isn’t a Khiladi anymore but is a ‘complete game’ as he says in the film, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara is unexpectedly a big time let down. We didn’t expect Luthria to peek in the minutes of the law-breaking world as he didn’t glance into it in the original Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai. What we anticipated from him was to maintain a similar verve in premise, which won accolades in the limelight of Ajay Devgn and Imraan Hashmi earlier.
    Like its original, the director has brought in the narration, which portrays his inspiration from the 80s era. He wants his characters to be filmy; he wants his actors to overact and to ‘maro lot of ishtyle’ like before. But this time he falters. The dialogues don’t have that vitality to infiltrate one to clap or whistle. Neither is Akki’s presence as don who tries hard to be evil.
    He comes back to Mumbai from Dubai to discover and assassinate his foe Ravan (Mahesh Manjrekar). He has Aslam (Imran Khan) a small town goon, whom he picked when he was teenager. Here Shoaib falls head over heals to an emerging actress Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha) who has feeling for Aslam. Now what will surface thereafter when Shoaib and Aslam come to know about their mutual lady love?
    As told, its personal, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara is about the love-triangle concept which isn’t new to Bollywood and has repeatedly worked many a time but here it is forcefully implemented and seems unauthentic. Neither the actors nor their chemistry looks influential.
    The dialogues look like being read out from the teleprompter, characters look like caricature. Even the teenage Aslam is fully ‘dialoguebaaz’.
    With this there are numerous departments where Luthria loses his grip. Thanks to the cinematographer Ayananka Bose, keen attention has been paid to the ambience of the 80’s, be it cars, the cabaret and other settings. Even Pritam’s music gives a good support in the background. But that isn’t enough to please its audience for 2 hour 40 minute duration which could have been easily trimmed.
    Though, Akshay Kumar’s performance is good but he doesn’t fit into the shoes of a don nor does the narration allow him to.
    The innocence and the intensity required for Aslam’s character isn’t fulfilled by Imran Khan.
    Nothing less could be expected from Sonakshi Sinha after ‘Lootera’ and here she goes back again. Sometimes you would feel that she isn’t the lady to fight for.
    Sonali Bebre’s special appearance has nothing to offer. Mahesh Manjrekar is wasted.
    I’ll go with two stars for Milan Luthria’s ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara’. It’s a dull crime saga with an uninspiring love angle. Look out for some other option this weekend.
    https://www.indiatvnews.com/entertainment/bollywood/once-upon-a-time-in-mumbaai-dobara-movie-review-9238.html

  23. mate 11 years ago

    Movie Review Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara
    Ratings: * (1/5)

    Milan Luthria has churned out some wonderful films in past such as Kachche Dhaage, Deewar, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai and The Dirty Picture. But this time, He and his writer Rajat Arora seem to have launched into this project backed by Balaji Motion Pictures with a faith in their own brilliance but call it their over confidence they both allow the squishy love triangle to take center stage in this sequel.
    Shohaib (Akshay Kumar) is now the ruling mafia king. His influence and power has spread right up to the Middle East today. Shoaib is now a flamboyant, suave man who is feared and revered. He only confidantes are his best friend Javed, who oversees his empire for him and his former lover Mumtaz (Sonali Bendre) who is now his closest friend.
    He often visits the poor Muslim areas where he grew up and it is on one such visit that he meets Aslam (Imran Khan). He takes him under his wings and gradually Aslam becomes one of his favorites. Shohaib stumbles upon a young actress Yasmin (Sonakshi Sinha) so does Aslam both are immediately taken in by her freshness and beauty. Slowly, but surely his attraction towards Yasmin goes onto becoming an obsession. This creates a rift between Shoaib and Aslam and results in the ultimate showdown between the mentor and legacy.
    Akshay Kumar shines in the role of Shohaib. He is simply stunning. Sonakshi Sinha is beautiful and charming (No doubts), But given a poor film, She has a limited scope to perform and disappoints. Imran Khan is a perfect ‘Mis-Cast’ in this one. Why? Because Imran Khan is a face that looks good when he performs role that are Classy and Porche. Imran Khan doesn’t at all looks like a Gangster. I have heard audiences whispering (In cinemas) “Gangsters in 80’s looked Sissy?’.
    Milan Luthria as i mentioned earlier, Tries to take you for a ride Big Time and delivers nothing but a film which you have seen several times. You wonder why he had to make such a bad sequel of the original which is not 20% of what you have seen in the original. The Music of the film is just okay and doesn’t live in your brains for a longer period of time. The camera work and production value of the film is outstanding. But we go to the Cinema Halls to watch Entertainment, Entertainment and Entertainment (As repeated in one of Milan Luthria’s earlier film The Dirty Picture). We don’t enter a Cinema Hall to watch Paintings, Photography, Slick Edits etc.
    Balaji Telefilms and Milan Luthria do nothing but successfully makes a fool out of you by showing you this film and en-cashing their brand. Please stay away from this one as i will not recommend this for a DVD view.
    https://www.page3bollywood.com/reviews/89-reviews/3384-movie-review-once-upon-a-time-in-mumbaai-dobara

  24. mate 11 years ago

    Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara Movie Review : Aslam, dobaara aisa galti mat karna!
    By Martin D’Souza, Glamsham Editorial

    Akshay Kumar as an underworld Don, Shoaib, is having a dhamaal time; A flashback in Mumbai and then somewhere in the middle-east. His well-gelled hair, parted at the side, dark sunglasses and well-cut suits which are ‘close-fit’ (the suits in the era shown, were loose and long) are carried off well. He modulates his voice a bit to a drawl, dragging his sentences to inject imminent fear.
    He also fixes cricket matches; the umpires wait for him at the toss, even though the captains are on the field; he knows when it will be a six, or when a batsman will score his century and when a wicket will fall. There is also a comedy upfront (I don’t think it was intended that way). His character cozies up to Sophie Choudry, who he asks to wear a black saree and everything red underneath. Now Sophie is going for his party that night with her husband, but she does not know who he is. She obliges!
    The writer, in the hope of inducing laughter has tempered the script with some smart, some not-so-smart one-liners to shape up the Don. A nice ploy, but overdone.
    Everything is going well for a time-pass genre of a film, when suddenly Milan Luthria decides to push Sonakshi Sinha onto the screen. It is like a double-handed push to an unwilling child, from an over-enthusiastic parent, who is backstage waiting for her chance to arrive, yet nervous and not knowing what to do.
    This is where, time-pass becomes dreary and like a Sehwag innings which starts off with a flurry of sixes, you see him attempting a reverse-sweep (over-confidence) and banging the bat onto his wicket. Milan Luthria, you have just done that; OUT… Hit-Wicket!
    Sonakshi knocks the wind out of Akshay’s josh, fishes around to mouth dialogues (which she knows at the back of her mind are taking her and the film nowhere), and just about manages to hobble with her act of a coy girl from Kashmir who is now wanting to act in Hindi films. Ridiculous is just an understatement.
    There is also Mahesh Manjrekar, a supposed don, but who can be best described as a clown. These two characters are the spoilers for this film.
    Shoaib is back in Bombay to avenge a botched-up attempt to kill him by his rival, Manjrekar. Dongri is his playground and Imran Khan and Pitobash Tripathy are his proteges, who he picked up from the streets of Bombay, 12 years ago as kids.
    Everything is nice; even Sonali Bendre is used shrewdly. But Luthria was itching to gusao the love triangle that he did not have the proper planning or appropriate screenplay for these moments.
    Also, though Akshay is presented well, he is not able to terrify, which is precisely what his role is meant to be. Instead, it ends up in a comedy.
    In comparison, Chennai Express looks like a work of art!

    Rating : 1.5/ 5 stars
    https://www.glamsham.com/movies/reviews/once-upon-a-time-in-mumbai-dobaara-movie-review.asp

  25. Aditya007 11 years ago

    ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAAI DOBAARA : Review by Anupama Chopra

    Halfway into Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!, Akshay Kumar playing the all-powerful, Dawood-style, murderous mafia don Shoaib,declares: “Villain hoon main,villain.” He says it with such a menacing relish that I wanted to applaud. More than anything else in Milan Luthria’s sequel, Akshay towers.

    Direction: Milan Luthria

    Actors: Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan, Sonakshi Sinha

    Rating: ***

    He chews up the scenery with his dangerous frown, flaring nostrils,
    dark glasses, flicked cigarettes and thunderous dialogue. Shoaib is gleefully evil. As he says: “Mujhe accha banne ka koi shauk nahin hai.” But the beauty is that underneath the swagger, Akshay also locates the loneliness and heartache of a monster hobbled by love. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed watching him this much. The rest of the film works in fits and starts. Like Milan’s earlier pictures — Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and The Dirty Picture — Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara! is full-throttle masala. Situated some time in the 1980s, the film revels in blaring background music, old-school machismo, glaring loopholes in logic (starting with that strangely spelled Ay in the title) and, of course, reams of whistle-inducing dialogues by Rajat Aroraa, who also wrote those two earlier films. No one here just talks. Every dialogue is a declaration, saying or metaphor. At one point, Shoaib says something like “Jo doodh main nimbu daalta hai, paneer usi ka hai”. Some of the lines were so twisted that I couldn’t even decipher the meaning behind the imagery. The pacing is bumpy — too many songs unnecessarily stretch the film to 160 minutes. The screenplay is clunky and for much of the first half, Imran Khan, who plays Shoaib’s protégé Aslam, is plainly out of his depth. Imran has a naturally sweet, vulnerable presence but the role requires drama and flamboyance. He makes for an awkward, hesitant gangster but becomes more convincing as the love story takes hold.

    What’s interesting is that this is a Mumbai mafia story but what drives it is the love triangle between Shoaib, Aslam and an actress — Jasmine— played nicely by Sonakshi Sinha. Yes, the film is over-wrought, melodramatic and designed as pulp fiction. But it’s intermittently fun. One of my favourite scenes was Shoaib going voluntarily to the police station. The cops are so busy trying to set up roadblocks to catch him that they
    don’t even notice that he’s standing there. It’s absurdly comic. And a
    special mention here of Sonali Bendre Behl, who shines in the few
    scenes she has. Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara! had me cheering for the bad guy. Which, at least in the movies, is never a bad thing.

    “The film gets one extra star for Akshay Kumar, who makes a stellar killer.”

    https://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Reviews/Anupama-Chopra-s-review-Once-Upon-Ay-Time-In-Mumbai-Dobara/Article1-1108821.aspx

  26. Aditya007 11 years ago

    ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAAI DOBAARA : Review by ‘TIMES Of INDIA’

    Rating : ***1/2

    Story: One deadly don. One young protege. Both in love with the same starlet. Who wins the girl in this felonious feat?

    Review: Once Upon a Time… Bollywood movies were enamored by dreaded D’s of the underworld. They still are. Whether the story is told in retro-rap, or with stylish designer double Dons, or with gloss-free rawness of realism. This endless ‘lawless’ love affair continues. In OUATIMD, a love triangle forms the bloodline of the story, replete with ‘donnisms’, molls with maal and an over kill of ‘loaded’ dialogues pe dialogues.
    After Shoaib (Akshay) vanquishes his own gang-guru (in the prequel),
    he becomes the reigning mafioso with his terror squad spreading far
    and wide. Of course, Mumbai city wrapped in glam, glory and blood-
    soaked crime files is still fancied by the bhais (“Samundar ke baad
    Mumbai Shoaib se jani jaati hai!”). Shoaib picks up young Aslam(Imran) from the chawls and takes him under his wing. Their ‘bhaihood’ is bullet-proof, only until years later when starlet Jasmine (Sonakshi) walks in and arrests Shoaib with her charm and gullibility. The rogue turns Romeo with obsession, but she’s already Aslam’s chosen ‘item’. Suddenly, the dons drop their other deadly dhandas to deal with crimes of passion instead (unbelievable!). Milan Luthria captures the essence of the period, packed with characters living behind ‘dark shades’ with an even darker conscience. This is a love story of a gangsta, it does not reopen dons’ crime diaries. The first part is more engaging; thereon, the sluggish pace lacks the same dum. The heavy-duty dialogues (Rajat Aroraa) punch drama in the story, though at times too overbearing. The background score (Pritam & Anupam Amod) pitches in dramatically. This film has its moments, but it’s not as compelling as the prequel. “Akshay does the bhai act with flamboyance and mojo. He gets a chance to do what he does best – herogiri (albeit less menacing, more entertaining), with charisma and clap-trap dialoguebaazi.”Imran looks too suave for the part, but eventually rolls up his sleeves to play a don
    with dil, performing well in emotional scenes. Sonakshi pulls off a dabangg act to stand strong between two daunting dons.

    “Watch this story of deewana dons and their dilrubas. There’s nothing
    criminal about it!

    https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/hindi/Once-Upon-Ay-Time-In-Mumbai-Dobaara/movie-review/21820641.cms

  27. mate 11 years ago

    ‘Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara’ review
    Gayatri Sankar

    Milan Luthria and Ekta Kapoor had woven the magical ‘Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai’ that featured Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi. The filmmakers also garnered applause for Vidya Balan’s ‘The Dirty Picture’.
    But the hit formula that they had devised seems to have gone awry this time around. ‘Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara’ is nothing but an out and out Akshay Kumar film with nothing more to offer.
    The film did open to a full house amidst a huge thunder of applause with fans of Akshay Kumar generously blowing wolf-whistles as he was introduced on-screen. But as the film progressed, it turned out to be a full-on Akshay Kumar show meant for appeasing his fans alone.
    Shoaib (Akshay Kumar), the dictator is the super boss of the dons and a messiah to many of his accomplices. He comes across as a power greedy fearless person, who dreams of “owning” the city of Mumbai, and being the ultimate king of the city. He believes he can buy everything and understands the language of compassion the least. All he loves is his own self until he meets Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha) an aspiring actress from Kashmir.
    Being oblivious of Shoaib’s real identity, Jasmine befriends him. The don who lives by terrorising people, loses his heart out to this girl and expects her to reciprocate similarly. But then, it’s a film after all. There have to be contriving twists and turns, no?
    Enters the third lead character, Aslam (Imran Khan), Shoaib’s protégé, who swears loyalty to his mentor. But as the saying goes, ‘love is blind’, Aslam decides to ditch his mentor for the sake of his love – Jasmine.
    But the question is who does Jasmine fall for? The rest of the film delves into this love triangle.
    Of the technical team, dialogue write Rajat Aroraa deserves a loud applause for adding life to an otherwise sombre and predictable script. Kudos to Rajat for making the film interesting with his catchy lines. And Akshay Kumar deserves a special mention for delivering the dialogues in a manner that can sweep people off their feet!
    As mentioned earlier, OUATIMD is all about Akshay Kumar’s character, Shoaib. His presence alone on the big screen is spellbinding and the 45 plus actor has proved yet again that he is versatile.
    On the other hand, it feels good to see Imran Khan experimenting with newer roles. Sonakshi Sinha looks her gorgeous best and has done a decent job as a naïve Kashmiri girl who wishes to learn English!
    Director Milan Luthria opts for a very conventional treatment to this film. The cinematic liberties taken in the film are anything but acceptable. The hide-and-seek game between the police and the dreadful don is quite unrealistic and it goes without saying that it’s total filmy!
    Pritam has produced a masterpiece in the form of ‘Yeh Tune Kya Kiya’ sung by Javed Bashir. The ‘Taiyyab Ali’ track is a good attempt to revive a vintage hit. But the rest of the songs, though hummable, look unnecessary. Luthria could have done without them thereby keeping the velocity of the film steady.
    Nonetheless, OUATIMD is a tale of a don who wishes to win over the love of his life! Watch it only for Akshay Kumar.

    Two stars.
    https://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/bollywood/once-upon-ay-time-in-mumbaai-dobaara-review-it-s-all-about-akshay-kumar-s-star-power_140967.htm

  28. mate 11 years ago

    Film Review: Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara
    Mumbai Mirror | Aug 16, 2013, 12.00 AM IST
    Karan Anshuman

    Ay, this repetition!
    The Milan Luthria/Rajat Arora director-writer combo is back; this time with an even more baffling titled film: Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara. Stare at that for a moment and see if it makes sense on its own and then in context with the film.
    If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. This mantra is entirely understandable from a producer’s point-ofview, but one wonders how many identical looking films can a creative mind keep cranking out. Unlike in Hollywood, where a franchise is usually handed over to another director while the original creator moves on, our filmmakers are content repeating themselves for most part.
    So here we are again – Akshay Kumar taking over the mantle of Daw… Shoaib – and this time entangling himself in a love triangle with an airheaded Mand… Yasmin (Sonakshi Sinha who inadvertently doubles up as comic relief) and his trusted aide from Dongri, Aslam (Imran Khan miscast but trying his utmost).
    We see a lot of Shoaib’s wealth and power, sanitised of all things evil. I won’t go so far as calling this glorification of a criminal but even if we’re to treat the film as pure fiction (as the makers insist we do) then we needed a better balance with the darkness that envelopes the character that is beyond his always-on black shades. The first film had some of this, but Dobaara is rather sanitised. The crux, the triangle, is ridiculously simplistic and depends far too much on trusted aides and girlfriends not sharing any information about their personal lives, rendering the premise unreal. All they share are wisecracks on mispronouncing English words, in-jokes and references that many young viewers will miss, and oneliners that are now the writer’s trademark.
    To be fair though, Arora’s writing is definitely a notch less hyperbole and an inch more realistic, a welcome break from every line being infused with metaphors and smugly uttered – complete with knowing pauses – by actors who have a remarkable foresight of audience reactions.
    Even Luthria’s direction is more assured than his previous endeavors and he shows restrain in handling this mega-budget enterprise. There is more cohesiveness between the scenes and he manages some dramatic moments that keep you engaged. Little touches that shape the period it is set in go a long way. He is helped considerably by Ayananka Bose’s excellent camerawork.
    Luthria also doesn’t let his actors go over the top and keeps their performances limited to their strengths. Sometimes though, this backfires and the menacing Shoaib is simply Akshay Kumar.
    To sum up, Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara is a better crafted film than it’s predecessor but unfortunately considerably shallower. It’s style keeps you reasonably occupied but for a runtime of 160 minutes, it needed a lot more substance.
    Rating: 2.5/5.
    https://www.mumbaimirror.com/entertainment/bollywood/Film-Review-Once-Upon-Ay-Time-in-Mumbai-Dobaara/articleshow/21850062.cms

  29. mate 11 years ago

    Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara movie review: Just another gloomy and mindless gangster flick!

    Milan Luthria’s lame attempt to recreate and better his original 2010 hit film bites the dust
    The Akshay Kumar-Imran Khan-Sonakshi Sinha starrer Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara is an excruciating experience. Considering Milan Luthria’s second instalment of his gangster flick has been riding high on good hype, Akshay Kumar’s star power and the fact that it’s a sequel to the 2010 hit film starring Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi, I consciously made up my mind to enter the cinema hall with no preconceived notions.
    After being completely besotted with Ajay-Emraan’s game of one-upmanship, dumdaar screenplay and dhaansu dialogue baazi in the first film, I expected an equal dosage of the same from Shoaib (Akshay Kumar) and his subordinate Aslam (Imran Khan), if not more, in this new one. But unfortunately, much to my dismay Luthria, dialogue writer Rajat Arora and producers Balaji Motion Pictures have left me disappointed…. big time.
    The comparisons between Luthria’s two representations of the underworld and its ruling dons based in Mumbai are inevitable. While Ajay was superlative as Sultan Mirza, Akshay as Shoaib, the new ruling mafiosi, is as overbearing as his character demands he be. Emraan Hashmi’s quest to outdo his mentor Mirza was effectively portrayed by the versatile actor whereas Imran is a total misfit as a gangster who prefers to stay loyal to his guardian Shoaib, even after getting beaten up by him in the climax for snatching away his ladylove Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha). The Lootera actor is good, as she invariably is, but has very little scope for showing off her talent.
    Milan has lost his finesse this time simply because more importance is given to glorifying the movie version of the dreaded gangster than actually showcasing his struggle to become the most feared underworld don. We have to wonder – with a giggle – which hardcore and ruthless criminal on earth would churn out one-liners at breathtaking speed while communicating with his colleagues, as Akshay does in this film. The sequel is painfully over-long and silly. So we strongly recommend that our readers watch the original instead of this two hour-plus unbearable mess Luthria calls a film! As for me, if I see a movie like this dobaara, mera profession bura maan jayega!
    Rating: 1 out of 5
    https://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip/once-upon-a-time-in-mumbai-dobaara-movie-review-just-another-gloomy-and-mindless-gangster-flick/

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