ONCE UPON AY TIME IN MUMBAI DOBAARA MOVIE REVIEW

Post delivering back to back successes with Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (OUATIM) and The Dirty Picture, director Milan Luthria and producer Ekta Kapoor join hands again for the second installment of the ‘Mumbaai’ series, called OUATIMD in short. This time Akshay Kumar dons the role of Shoaib Khan, done by Emraan Hashmi in the first part and he is joined by ‘lucky charm’ Sonakshi Sinha and Imran Khan. 

 

After ruling the Middle East for over a decade as a hotshot don, Shoaib looks at reclaiming the Mumbai throne as well. He lands in India with big dreams and the main opponent standing in his way of total domination, is Rawal. One of Shoaib’s loyal young proteges Aslam, whom he picked straight off the streets, is with him as his trusted ‘Man Friday’.

 

With Shoaib’s eyes affixed solely on power, authority and dominance, comes a naive young Kashmiri girl, Jasmine with dreams of making it big in Bollywood. After her entry, things aren’t the same anymore and the inevitable element of romance is added to the proceedings. 

 

With Shoaib looking at attaining Jasmine by any means, the action heats up and Aslam is left stranded in two minds on what next to do ...

 

It’s an Akshay Kumar show all the way as he lords over the movie completely. He takes stylish villainy to a whole new level and his blazer suits, properly partitioned hair, black glasses and the swagger are a treat to Akki fans. All those killer dialogues have been given a different dimension by Akki’s diction and his narcissistic ways. His ruthless body language and forceful means even when it comes to romance, are a revelation. 

 

Imran Khan tries his hand at action and comes through unscathed. The action scenes atop the train and the chase scene featuring Akshay, Imran and the cops are very well choreographed. He is typically at ease in the light-hearted scenes with Sonakshi. 

 

Sonakshi Sinha shares good chemistry with both Akshay and Imran and she scores in the second half particularly, in the emotional scenes. Her half-baked English conversations with Imran are entertaining, particularly the repetitive usage of the word ‘intercourse’ in a wrong context. It is implied that she might share a connection with gangster Sultan Mirza from the first edition (played by Ajay Devgn), thanks to the dialouge “Dua Me Yaad Rakhna”

 

The portrayal of a don in OUATIMD is along expected lines with the references to match fixing, womanizing and casting decisions in new Bollywood films.

 

Pritam’s melodies such as ‘Yeh Tune Kya Kiya’ and the groovy ‘Bismillah’ make a mark while his BGM score follows the template set in the first edition of the movie. One must say that these ‘Mumbaai’ movies can be characterized by the foot-tapping background theme music. 

 

The choreography by Ayananka Bose and the color tone of the movie are excellent and it’s a visual feast all the way. It’s hard to take your eyes away from Akshay whenever he is on screen. 

 

In all, OUATIMD holds us in its grip for most of its running time and it has all the elements of a typical Bollywood gangster recipe. Fans of the first part won’t have much to complain and it’s a ‘must watch’ for Akshay Kumar’s admirers.