Directed by : Milan Luthria
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1891884/
Akshay's superb Villianeous act makes this a very good watch.
Read at your own risk, post is full of spoilers.
Having loved the 1st part, the expectations were high. I wasn't quite happy when through trailers I came to know that this part will be more on tried and tested formula of love triangle, and not on underworld. But I knew there will be great punchlines and the setting of 80s to cover up for it.
To replace Ajay and Emraan wasn't going to be easy, while Akshay very much lived upto the standard of the role, Imran failed miserably which was quite expected.
I like the screenplay, despite being a love triangle.. they presented it in such a style that I kept interested in it till the right end. I enjoyed 1st half more, mainly because the love triangle comes into existence during 2nd half. Some great punchlines written by Rajat Arora. Yes at places, its overdone but I found that in the first part too. Only dialogue I didn't like was when Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha) shoots for a movie, and her director tells her that a guy can never differentiate between love and friendship. Thora generalisation jyada ho gaya. And that one where Shoaib says 'villain hoon main', there was no need to mention it.
The climax had a surprise element in it, and I didn't mind it. But I would had preferred Shoiab (Akshay Kumar) not getting hit by 2nd bullet. I am assuming that they have killed Shoaib character, though close up shot of him dead wasn't shown. I hope that's not the case. To be frank, I would had loved something else in the finale, like Shoaib escaping alive and enjoying.. that final frame of 1st part with Emraan far away from Mumbai at a place safe and full of power. I missed that in this finale, when he says 'Jis tarah jeet li mumbai dobara, jasmine ko bhi jeet lunga'.. it didnt give any strong impact because his enemy Mahesh Manjerakar was not powerful at all.
Milan Luthria has shot the film very well, once again giving the 80's touch.. I didnt like Taiyyab ali song audio wise, but the way its shot.. I enjoyed watching it. Also, the idea of keeping Akshay mostly wearing a goggle was very good one, gave a added meaner touch to his character. The shots of foot of a person walking in anger, a famous person coming out of car in style looking at gathered public, and the extreme close up shots of Akshay during start of the movie.. was all very well done. Manish Malhotra's costumes were great as always, colorful to Aslam, while Shoaib mostly in blazers or shirts, and Sonakshi mostly in suits though she sneaked in a dreamy sequence wearing her favourite sarees. She actually looked very beautiful in the suits.
My favourite moments were, when Aslam (Imran Khan) meets Shoaib for first time, mainly for my fav background score that comes, and then the cricket scene only for the bg and style of Akshay again otherwise the actors playing the commentator were over-acting. Police-Shoaib/Imran chase scene. The interval sequence where Shoaib tells what he would do to Aslam in the end of movie. The scene where Shoaib says 'shoaib toh pyar bhi pyar se nahi karta'. And the way Shoaib kills his main enemy in pre-climax. The parallel cut of Aslam's talks to Jasmine in hospital to Shoaib's gang spreading fake news about Aslam-Jasmine, and later cut to Shoaib thinking what he would be saying to Jasmine.. reminding of similar sequence in 1st part. Special mention to the scene where Shoaib enters police station and leaves.. though very un-real, it was cinematically awesome to watch it.
Special Mention to the scene where Jasmine says 'bas dua mein yaad rakhna', and Shoaib goes into the memory of Sultan with the shot of Ajay Devgan shown. It was super, and also I thought the opening credits could had shown 1st part highlights in fast forward with background theme running, that way they would had included Emraan Hashmi too.
Music was a dissappointment, I specially missed a 'Parda' kind of enegertic cabaret track. The only song I loved was Bismillah, which was only for the voice of Anupam Amod, otherwise it was a decent track only.. and it was used badly in narrative too.
The background score however was brilliant once again, they kept main one absolutely same like in 1st part while there was another theme they used from 1st part that comes when Mumtaz's first scene is shown. And the new theme they used just in this movie was right at beginning in the bike chase, that theme is later used at few other places too. My fav remains the main theme, but I loved other too. For me, along with Akshay and Sonakshi, it was background score that kept me happy.
Akshay Kumar is tailor made for these kinda of roles, the way he walks, his mannerisms or the dialogue delivery.. he brought additional style into the character, more of a extension to what Emraan had done to the character in the final portions of 1st movie. Only 2-3 places, he hammed but that's very much neglectable. I specially loved the scene where he gets angry at one of his person Jimmy 'Ghanta, ghanta tere haath mein tha.... hass rahi hai mumbai, ki ghanta shoaib raaj karega mumbai par'. Also, the pre-climax portion where he wants to finish off Aslam (Imran Khan).
Imran Khan looks good in the romantic portions, but in gangster part.. he looked uncomfortable and out of sorts. For instance, that scene where he shows anger at his friend Dedh Taang (Pitobash) for betraying Shoaib, how badly he acted there when Pitobash on other hand was bang on with his part.
Sonakshi Sinha was superb, I would like to say that this was her best role among all the masala movies she had done till now. This one gave her ample scope to even shine in a masala movie, though Lootera can't be surpassed. Her first conversation with Shoaib is hillarious, then the way she calls her at awards party or the dumb innocence at inter-course word, and also the adjustment of her voice at places, be it when she says to shoaib 'baatein bhi acchi kar lete ho' or when she accuses him 'tumse bura aadmi maine kabhi nahi dekha'. The cuteness on her face when she says to Aslam 'main logon se milti hoon, ginti nahi hoon'. I think she could enter my league of favourite actresses, if she keeps doing these kind of good roles, always felt she had talent unlike the socialite people who find ways of speaking crap on her looks. Acting matters boss, and she has it in her.
Pitobash was superb in supporting role, love that dialogue involving him 'ladki jab roti hai toh bahut reasons hote hai, par ladka roye toh reason ladki hi hoti hai'.
Sonali Bendre gets 2-3 scenes only in the movie, but I liked them, for it showed the matured relation Shoaib-Mumtaz shared with each other.
Chetan Hansraj was hamming to the core, totally miscast. So was Sophie Chowdhary, but she looked smashing hot in that black saree.
Vidya Malvade is wasted in small role. Mahesh Manjerkar is fine, loved his 'No tension' dialogues a lot, and those 'ha ha' after every dialogue. Abhimanyu Shekhar gets wasted too, unlike Randeep Hooda in 1st part.. he doesn't get good enough screen time. If he got it, he would had done well..
Vidya Balan gets a nice special apperance.
Mushtaq Khan, Hussain Shaikh and Sarfaraz Khan do well in supporting roles.
Overall, Once upon a time in Mumbaai Dobara works only due to Akshay's villianeous act, Sonakshi's great contribution and excellent background score. For me 1st part is still better than this one.. but I can watch this one again and again for the mentioned reasons.
Verdict : NICE
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1891884/
Akshay's superb Villianeous act makes this a very good watch.
Read at your own risk, post is full of spoilers.
Having loved the 1st part, the expectations were high. I wasn't quite happy when through trailers I came to know that this part will be more on tried and tested formula of love triangle, and not on underworld. But I knew there will be great punchlines and the setting of 80s to cover up for it.
To replace Ajay and Emraan wasn't going to be easy, while Akshay very much lived upto the standard of the role, Imran failed miserably which was quite expected.
I like the screenplay, despite being a love triangle.. they presented it in such a style that I kept interested in it till the right end. I enjoyed 1st half more, mainly because the love triangle comes into existence during 2nd half. Some great punchlines written by Rajat Arora. Yes at places, its overdone but I found that in the first part too. Only dialogue I didn't like was when Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha) shoots for a movie, and her director tells her that a guy can never differentiate between love and friendship. Thora generalisation jyada ho gaya. And that one where Shoaib says 'villain hoon main', there was no need to mention it.
The climax had a surprise element in it, and I didn't mind it. But I would had preferred Shoiab (Akshay Kumar) not getting hit by 2nd bullet. I am assuming that they have killed Shoaib character, though close up shot of him dead wasn't shown. I hope that's not the case. To be frank, I would had loved something else in the finale, like Shoaib escaping alive and enjoying.. that final frame of 1st part with Emraan far away from Mumbai at a place safe and full of power. I missed that in this finale, when he says 'Jis tarah jeet li mumbai dobara, jasmine ko bhi jeet lunga'.. it didnt give any strong impact because his enemy Mahesh Manjerakar was not powerful at all.
Milan Luthria has shot the film very well, once again giving the 80's touch.. I didnt like Taiyyab ali song audio wise, but the way its shot.. I enjoyed watching it. Also, the idea of keeping Akshay mostly wearing a goggle was very good one, gave a added meaner touch to his character. The shots of foot of a person walking in anger, a famous person coming out of car in style looking at gathered public, and the extreme close up shots of Akshay during start of the movie.. was all very well done. Manish Malhotra's costumes were great as always, colorful to Aslam, while Shoaib mostly in blazers or shirts, and Sonakshi mostly in suits though she sneaked in a dreamy sequence wearing her favourite sarees. She actually looked very beautiful in the suits.
My favourite moments were, when Aslam (Imran Khan) meets Shoaib for first time, mainly for my fav background score that comes, and then the cricket scene only for the bg and style of Akshay again otherwise the actors playing the commentator were over-acting. Police-Shoaib/Imran chase scene. The interval sequence where Shoaib tells what he would do to Aslam in the end of movie. The scene where Shoaib says 'shoaib toh pyar bhi pyar se nahi karta'. And the way Shoaib kills his main enemy in pre-climax. The parallel cut of Aslam's talks to Jasmine in hospital to Shoaib's gang spreading fake news about Aslam-Jasmine, and later cut to Shoaib thinking what he would be saying to Jasmine.. reminding of similar sequence in 1st part. Special mention to the scene where Shoaib enters police station and leaves.. though very un-real, it was cinematically awesome to watch it.
Special Mention to the scene where Jasmine says 'bas dua mein yaad rakhna', and Shoaib goes into the memory of Sultan with the shot of Ajay Devgan shown. It was super, and also I thought the opening credits could had shown 1st part highlights in fast forward with background theme running, that way they would had included Emraan Hashmi too.
Music was a dissappointment, I specially missed a 'Parda' kind of enegertic cabaret track. The only song I loved was Bismillah, which was only for the voice of Anupam Amod, otherwise it was a decent track only.. and it was used badly in narrative too.
The background score however was brilliant once again, they kept main one absolutely same like in 1st part while there was another theme they used from 1st part that comes when Mumtaz's first scene is shown. And the new theme they used just in this movie was right at beginning in the bike chase, that theme is later used at few other places too. My fav remains the main theme, but I loved other too. For me, along with Akshay and Sonakshi, it was background score that kept me happy.
Akshay Kumar is tailor made for these kinda of roles, the way he walks, his mannerisms or the dialogue delivery.. he brought additional style into the character, more of a extension to what Emraan had done to the character in the final portions of 1st movie. Only 2-3 places, he hammed but that's very much neglectable. I specially loved the scene where he gets angry at one of his person Jimmy 'Ghanta, ghanta tere haath mein tha.... hass rahi hai mumbai, ki ghanta shoaib raaj karega mumbai par'. Also, the pre-climax portion where he wants to finish off Aslam (Imran Khan).
Imran Khan looks good in the romantic portions, but in gangster part.. he looked uncomfortable and out of sorts. For instance, that scene where he shows anger at his friend Dedh Taang (Pitobash) for betraying Shoaib, how badly he acted there when Pitobash on other hand was bang on with his part.
Sonakshi Sinha was superb, I would like to say that this was her best role among all the masala movies she had done till now. This one gave her ample scope to even shine in a masala movie, though Lootera can't be surpassed. Her first conversation with Shoaib is hillarious, then the way she calls her at awards party or the dumb innocence at inter-course word, and also the adjustment of her voice at places, be it when she says to shoaib 'baatein bhi acchi kar lete ho' or when she accuses him 'tumse bura aadmi maine kabhi nahi dekha'. The cuteness on her face when she says to Aslam 'main logon se milti hoon, ginti nahi hoon'. I think she could enter my league of favourite actresses, if she keeps doing these kind of good roles, always felt she had talent unlike the socialite people who find ways of speaking crap on her looks. Acting matters boss, and she has it in her.
Pitobash was superb in supporting role, love that dialogue involving him 'ladki jab roti hai toh bahut reasons hote hai, par ladka roye toh reason ladki hi hoti hai'.
Sonali Bendre gets 2-3 scenes only in the movie, but I liked them, for it showed the matured relation Shoaib-Mumtaz shared with each other.
Chetan Hansraj was hamming to the core, totally miscast. So was Sophie Chowdhary, but she looked smashing hot in that black saree.
Vidya Malvade is wasted in small role. Mahesh Manjerkar is fine, loved his 'No tension' dialogues a lot, and those 'ha ha' after every dialogue. Abhimanyu Shekhar gets wasted too, unlike Randeep Hooda in 1st part.. he doesn't get good enough screen time. If he got it, he would had done well..
Vidya Balan gets a nice special apperance.
Mushtaq Khan, Hussain Shaikh and Sarfaraz Khan do well in supporting roles.
Overall, Once upon a time in Mumbaai Dobara works only due to Akshay's villianeous act, Sonakshi's great contribution and excellent background score. For me 1st part is still better than this one.. but I can watch this one again and again for the mentioned reasons.
Verdict : NICE
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