Director: Milan Luthria.
Language: Hindi.
Release Year: 2010.
Rating *1/2 (Only for Ajay Devgan).
Now, I was willing to put myself through this guillotine called Bollywood movie ,only for the lead actor Ajay Devgan and him only. I knew beforehand how the movie will pan out, despite having a solid concept at its core. So, I’m not going to waste my talent at picking movies apart, and just get it over with, with as few words as possible.
Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgan), drifts into the Mumbai waters after a deluge in his hometown. Subsisting on petty jobs, he starts to reach for the bigger and riskier piece of pie. Sinking his teeth into the smuggling business, he soon becomes a name to be dreaded by all the antagonists, and to be revered by all in need. An innate philanthropist, people look up to him as their savior, despite his shady profession, and all he asks in return is for them to pray for him. He’s a stern follower of the principle: If you can do away with by being friends, then why make enemies? He follows every word of it religiously. Thanks to him, all the warring factions within the city are kept in check, by delegating a part of the city to each gang, while Mirza keeps his stranglehold on Mumbai’s sea.
Shoaib (Emraan Hashmi), the anti-Mirza in terms of his approach to realize his ambitions, forms the other side of this coin. Irascible by nature, he quickly gives in to violence, with a devil-may-care attitude toward the aftermath. Committing petty crimes, and later on, gangs up with the Mirza clan, hoping to climb the ladder to the top with whatever means he deems fit in getting the job done. Soon, a righteous and a no-nonsense cop ACP Agnel Wilson (Randeep Hooda) is appointed to keep these antisocial elements from taking the whole of city to ransom. His initial attempts at coming down hard on these gangsters, Mirza in particular, are met with embarrassing failure. However, after the fallout between Mirza and Shoaib, Agnel decides to play bystander, while these two forces are en route to a collision, where only the weaker and the older power will yield, leaving one less scum to deal with for the police. This lapse in judgment by the cop, results in dire consequences, both for the police and the city of Mumbai.
Now, such an interesting concept, loosely based on the real-life gangsters Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim, and the eventual violent souring between the two, could have been made into an engaging watch. Alas, the director doesn’t have the chops to keep the integrity of such a story intact, while transitioning it from paper to the screen. Certain aspects of the bygone Mumbai era were faithfully revived, but that wasn’t enough to save the movie. Among performances, Kangana Ranaut as Mirza’s moll does an okay job at filling the screen for the time being. Prachi Desai as Shoaib’s gullible love, does as much justice as it was possible for a one-shaded role she was given to play with. Randeep Hooda exudes confidence, but the screenplay and those terrible, threadworn punchlines he’s made to spew every time he makes an appearance, does an irreparable damage to his contribution to the movie. There are some scenes where he does shine, and lifts the movie to an admirable height, but the effect ceases to exist as soon as he comes up with yet another infantile crack. Emraan Hashmi as Dawood’s fictional embodiment breezes through the movie with one wooden expression, and hams it up while delivering those, yet again, corny oneliners. Honestly, a serious misjudgment on the writer’s part to make every Tom, Dick and Harry sound like a philosopher of the modern Dark Age, played a huge part in evoking derision and embarrassment.
The only saving grace, and the only element that made me stand this torture was Ajay Devgan. He, too, is made to quip, but the director was benevolent and sensible enough to give him some smart wisecracks and not platitudes. Every scene he appears in, makes it your worth while. His performance can be compared to his flawless take on an underworld don in Ram Gopal Varma’s eternally classic “Company”. The only difference is that his character in the other movie wore dark humor and radical philosophies on his sleeves. Here, Ajay Devgan’s character romances, goes all “gaga” at the sight of his love, and has a slightly bright disposition. With his unearthly eyes that speak volumes, and the charisma he personifies in his portrayal, made this movie a tad bearable for me. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even look at the movie’s poster.
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