YOU’RE A BIG BHAI NOW
The rise of organised crime in Mumbai is chronicled in a so-so drama saved by its dazzling surfaces.
AUG 1, 2010 – WHEN MILAN LUTHRIA TITLED HIS AMBITIOUS gangster drama Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, he was referring, clearly, not only to long-ago days of crime but also long-ago days of cinema. His film is as much a gloss on the rise of Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim (though a disclaimer attempts to dissuade any such associations) as an homage to Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, who smuggled into urban-Bombay cinema the machinations of mythmaking. The lines in Luthria’s film aren’t just intended to advance plot or announce emotions (though they certainly do that). They are carefully wrought to showcase language while shaping the mythos of this criminal universe. The police officer Agnel Wilson (Randeep Hooda) might have simply said that crime doesn’t pay, but instead, he muses, “Jurm ke raaste kitne bhi makhmali kyon na ho, khatam to jail ke kambal mein hi hote hain.”
The sun around which the Salim-Javed universe spun was, of course, Amitabh Bachchan, and there are moments expressly calibrated to bring back memories of the angry young man who took to crime when abandoned by the System. (There’s an amusing mention here about a new actor on the scene, named “Amit.”) And thus, when Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgn) appropriates a Benz, its license plate bears the number 786, which adorned Bachchan’s badge in Deewar, and as a child, Mirza worked with coals, like Bachchan in Kaala Paththar. Even Sultan’s heroic introduction sequence is calculated to bring to mind the Bachchan of the seventies. He removes portions of railway tracks to drive a truck (carrying contraband) through, and yet, in order to save the innocents in an oncoming train, he replaces the tracks in a hairsbreadth manoeuvre. Once Upon A Time harks back to a time heroes weren’t metrosexuals but men – manly men.
The problem, though, is that Devgn, on screen, is a laconic brooder. Give him a line like “Waqt kahan badalta hai… Sirf guzarta hai,” and he perfectly locates the weariness of a man for whom life doesn’t so much evolve as elapse. But he cannot channel the intensity that Bachchan wore like a second skin, with blazing eyes and a baritone to match. And Sultan Mirza is intended to be intense. He is, after all, the man, who, for all purposes, birthed the underworld as we know it today – and Devgn come off as less someone who makes things happen than someone to whom things happen, a creature not so much of drive as destiny. As his skittish protégé and partner-in-crime, Emraan Hashmi (playing Shoaib Khan) has an equally tough time putting across such self-showcasing lines as “Sher se hal chalaoge to kisaan to marega hi.” The cockiness behind this don’t-mess-with-me sentiment is nowhere in sight – all we see is someone trying too hard to be cool.
Once Upon A Time is hampered by disappointingly life-size actors grappling with lines meant for mythical (anti)heroes, and also by a structure that devotes most of the first half to romantic entanglements, getting to the nitty-gritty of crime only in the post-interval portions. Large swatches of screen time, early on, are committed to Shoaib’s run-ins with Mumtaz (Prachi Desai, who gets to preen in Pritam’s best song, Pee loon) and Sultan’s wooing of Rehana (Kangna Ranaut, playing an actress in the film’s most interesting performance; and perhaps it’s no coincidence that her name, along with her lover’s name, conjures up the infamous seventies starlet Rehana Sultan). For a story that seeks to chart the growth of organised crime in the city, the gangster goings-on in this first half are entirely nominal, in a bare handful of scenes like the one where Sultan Mirza amicably divvies up Mumbai amongst fellow criminals.
For a while, we seem to be in the presence of the most benign mobsters in history (or movie history), and it’s only in the second half that we actually see hands getting dirtied with blood. (And as if in compensation, the love interests now get short shrift. Are there repercussions from Shoaib’s one-night stand with a pretty girl at a party? We never learn.) And even in these stretches, we miss a sense of violence or danger. The life of crime appears almost too easy. The only heavy lifting is apparently in the case of girlfriends who routinely need to be dealt with when they bring up the prospect of retirement. Even the cops are barely a presence. Wilson’s purpose is solely to provide an awkward, and completely needless, framing device for the story. “Apne aap se bhaag raha tha,” he sighs at the beginning, hinting at heavy existential underpinnings – and he’s then reduced to a mere narrator.
But the moral dimensions shine through. Where Deewar infused a core of morality through the Mother who was lost when the son went after quick gains, Shoaib’s weak father is simply lost amidst the proceedings – and that’s perhaps fitting for a character as amoral as Shoaib. This is not a man to be cowed down by conventionalities (though you would never guess this from Hashmi’s puppy-eyed performance). Sultan, on the other hand, hews closer to a familiar moral template. He is presented as a moral man because, like Don Corelone, his conscience won’t allow him to traffic in drugs. And he has a place in his heart for the beggar woman down the street, along with the others that the System has no time for. Evil in his profession and yet good to his people, he embodies the benevolent-monster archetype we know from the gangster movies.
And it’s these movies and their memories, ultimately, that enliven Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai, which echoes Once Upon A Time In America (young kids from an impoverished neighbourhood rise through the criminal ranks; there’s also the actress-girlfriend) and Nayakan/Deewar (boy from Tamil Nadu flees to Mumbai and becomes a harbour-based gangster) and especially Goodfellas (a boy drawn to a life of crime), whose rapid-fire docu-approach Luthria strives to emulate. Like Scorsese’s epic, this is a film of dazzling surfaces derived from an age of floor-show cabaret dancers and Chori Mera Kaam hoardings. The men come dressed in outrageously patterned shirts, with the double pockets with flaps last seen in Guru. The women wear knotted blouses, proffering their breasts like Christmas presents to be unwrapped. And, save for a corrupt Home Minister, there’s not a Hindu in sight. That, truly, was once upon a time in Bombay.
Copyright ©2010 The New Sunday Express. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Ramya
July 31, 2010
The women wear knotted blouses, proffering their breasts like Christmas presents to be unwrapped.
Hahaha!
LikeLike
dfdfdfd
July 31, 2010
You are motherfucking idiot who considers Abhishek a natural actor, please fuck off.
LikeLike
Srinivas
August 1, 2010
You forgot Chandru..the second hindu :)..But yes, what was all this hype and rave about, I did not understand…
LikeLike
Hermoine Granger
August 1, 2010
totally unrelated…..Did you hear Endiran songs and watch all the 3 trailers ? Any comments ?
LikeLike
bran1gan
August 1, 2010
Eagle-eyed Srinivas: Ah, Chandru, yes. But I was talking more generically – as in none of the main players were Hindu (not that that’s a problem).
Hermoine Granger: Nope. I didn’t know trailers were out. Will check out.
LikeLike
rameshram
August 1, 2010
robert paadalgal: Ragumanukku finalla completea kayandu poidutthu.
LikeLike
ManWithNoName
August 1, 2010
rameshram: It is a Thalaivar Padam album. There is only so much that can be done and I think 3 songs are definitely good. Much like Sivaji’s.
Baradwaj: The trailers are here.
LikeLike
rameshram
August 1, 2010
who? king tut? 😀 ragu-man has always underperformed in some of king tut’s films. padayappa,baba..etc.
this is for all the rajini fans..
LikeLike
Venkatesh
August 1, 2010
“proffering their breasts like Christmas presents to be unwrapped.” – Brilliant.
Will the read the review properly after seeing the film but the trailers looked exciting , the other one which looked really good was “Dabanng”
LikeLike
Raj Balakrishnan
August 1, 2010
Hi, sorry off-topic – did you know that they are remaking Magalir Mattum in Hindi after all these years. Caught the promo yesterday – looks bad with Celina Jaitley, Isha Kopikkar and Javed Jaffrey (yuck)!
LikeLike
Prajakta
August 1, 2010
As always, loved reading this brilliant review! “Once upon a time in Bollywood” would’ve been a more appropriate title for Luthria’s attempt at narrating a tale of times past, that too through the lens of old Bollywood style movies.
To me, the film fell woefully short on both counts. As a film that needed to stand independently irrespective of contexts and allusions, it was neither gripping nor entertaining. Plotless, wordy, yet without enough stylization to hold it up, unlike the Amitabh classics.
A note: Ajay’s heroism in putting back the train tracks felt entirely unconvincing because he didn’t look like he intended to do it until Vardhan commented on his selfishness.
LikeLike
Vivek
August 1, 2010
Ranaganji, please do catch Udaan.
LikeLike
pr3m
August 2, 2010
haha dude, the boobs comment was the bomb.
haven’t seen the movie, but it doesn’t sound necessarily terrible, on the face of it.
LikeLike
Vimal
August 2, 2010
Definitely check out the Endhiran music (high experimental/Western like VTV which is EXACTLY what I like!!)…the traielrs look amazing too…looks like one of the best (commercial) Indian films….@ Man With No Name….Muthu, Padaiyappa are classic soundtracks…Sivaji is solid..Baba is awful…so their track record is good…..also..very mean to insult Rajni for his looks…i mean, is Steve Buscemi good looking? No, but he’s a great actor.
LikeLike
bran1gan
August 2, 2010
Raj Balakrishnan: You mean, they’re ripping off Nine to Five, just like MM did 🙂
Prajakta: Yeah, Ajay’s heroism at the train tracks was a good scene that needed a more alive (i.e. “heroic” or “mythic”) actor. Like I said in the review, both Ajay and Emraan came off as very life-sized.
Vivekji: I did. More in this week’s BR.
Vimal: Heard the songs saw the trailers. Actually, I agree with rameshram on this one. ARR-Rajini has not really worked for me. A few songs here and there. Even this album I don’t see returning to all that often (though it’;s certainly fun in parts). I think the songs will be much better on screen with all of Shankar’s trademark picturisations. BTW, VTV I liked far better and this album is nothing like that IMO.
LikeLike
rameshram
August 2, 2010
you know which shankar ARR album I could compare this to? Indian.(with its asattu pisattu “maya Michhi-indra” lyrics and crazy music) with some of the most average(psst: woshtu) songs which from propaganda ALONE became big hits.
LikeLike
rameshram
August 2, 2010
although, to be fair to ARR-Big tamil star collaborations, the one album I liked(but which didn’t do too well) was Thenali(including the uyirin moocha aahi vaa song)
LikeLike
ManWithNoName
August 2, 2010
Vimal: Hmm. I think we fundamentally disagree on what a “classic” soundtrack is. Muthu – Seriously? Well, except for SPB’s infectious energy in Oruvan Oruvan Mudalali…there is nothing in the album to revisit.
Padayappa – Probably for Nithyashree’s Minsara Kanna, but that is about it.
This is far better but no where near VTV.
Baradwaj: Oh yes. Absolutely. Read somewhere that ARR was not all too happy with Shankar requesting him to sing Adhiradee and was not at all impressed with the way the song came, but with the visuals ARR was completely blown away.
rameshram: What is it? uyirin “moocha” aahi vaa? Really? 🙂
LikeLike
bran1gan
August 2, 2010
ManWithNoName: Ah, a fellow fan of sophomoric humour. ROFL. Your astute observation takes me back to childhood when, one Sunday, DD screened a Marathi movie named Shyamchi Aai. We just couldn’t stop giggling at the name 🙂
BTW, did you read that Rahman bit in my piece here?
“He’s usually happy with the final product he delivers, and even if there are problems, “We usually have enough time to fix things.” But after finishing Adhiradee, the song that he sang, he never liked it. “The director [Shankar] could imagine it, but I could never get the picture he had in mind. But when I saw it, I was blown. He had taken it to some other level.” “
LikeLike
rameshram
August 2, 2010
no typo. 😀
LikeLike
rameshram
August 2, 2010
I liked muthu(meena: how can you resist suttu viral nee kaatu sonna padi aaduven un adimai naan endru kaiezzuthu poduven? 😀 ).
and I thought arr sounded appropriately street in adhiradee.
LikeLike
ManWithNoName
August 2, 2010
Baradwaj: Ah, I should have guessed it. Yes Sir. Where else could I have read it?
LikeLike
ManWithNoName
August 2, 2010
rameshram: That is “Oru Naalum unnai…” in Ejamaan
Instead of I liked Muthu, I think you wanted to write “I liked Meena…” 🙂
LikeLike
Mambazha Manidhan
August 2, 2010
BR , Movies watched in theater more than once this year so far?
LikeLike
rameshram
August 2, 2010
mwnn
no I meant what I said.
proposition 1 : I liked the muthu songs because of meena.
proposition 2 : I like meena because who can resist …etc.
please let me make my statements instead of you making them for me?
thx.
LikeLike
Raj Balakrishnan
August 2, 2010
‘Nine to Five’ – ah, I completely forgot!
LikeLike
Arun
August 3, 2010
Here is another piece on ARR , quotes you a lot.
http://roswitha.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-r-rahman.html
LikeLike
munimma
August 3, 2010
I have to check this movie out esp for those dialogs.
totally hijacked comment thread 🙂
ARR is skilled in giving what is apt 😉
Has Rajini gone with any other MD in recent years?
LikeLike
Pradyumna M
August 3, 2010
Off topic : I thought there would be a couple of Bitty ruminations on Mohd. Rafi and Kishore kumar.Do you intend to write one..?
LikeLike
Harish S Ram
August 3, 2010
i was having a discussion with a friend of mine about reviews and also defending my opinion that reviews should not just summarise the movie and lay out the plus and minus like bullet points. I went one step ahead and said it should be like an article on a movie and yet fall under the category of a review by not revealing/spoiling the plot. But the reply i got was – . a review only layout points which will decide whether they should watch or not watch a film. it should not resort to discussing the film.
So now confused here. Because on the top layer both seems to be correct. help plz 🙂
LikeLike
kamil
August 4, 2010
Rangan – Any new interviews on the anvil? Been awhile hasnt it. Whats happening, has the BR bits replaced occasional chats?
LikeLike
bran1gan
August 4, 2010
Mambazha Manidhan: AO, VTV, Raavan and Raavanan 🙂 I might check out Inception again if time permits.
Arun: Yeah, I had a longish chat with the author.
munimma: But I must say that after long, ARR gave an instantly catchy love song in Kaadhal Anukkal. Love the way Shreya sounds. It took me back to the 90s ARR, whose songs for Shankar films I used to trip on.
Pradyumna M: Haven’t had much free time of late for Bitty posts…
Harish S: There isn’t one way to look at reviews. A lot of people (the majority, probably) subscribe to the view that reviews should say “go to the film” or “don’t go.” I think that’s pointless. I find it more interesting to discuss the film, both in the review and in the comments with readers.
kamil: No interviews planned as of now.
LikeLike
Raghav
August 4, 2010
t’was long rumoured that Rajni wanted to play a villainous role.I guess this movie’s the one he’s gonna go for.Also dunno if I’m right in thinking that there’s a lot of pandering to the overseas audience..I mean its the folk in South that have made him the demi-god he is and the audio launch is in Malaysia? Money speaks and *everyone* listens I guess..
LikeLike
Nandita
August 4, 2010
BR- off the topic. I saw you are giving a talk for Madras Week on Tanglish in Tamil cinema. Any chance we could get a video or even a transcript posted here? 😀
LikeLike
Harish S Ram
August 4, 2010
so how does it make the people who haven’t watched to read the article? i dono how i will react if i read your article before watching the movie. Are you actually concentrating on writing for people who have witnessed or for everyone. To be direct do you fix your audience? if you does your paper allow that?
LikeLike
rameshram
August 4, 2010
re film reviewing, one day, I’ll grow up and become the ayatollah of film culture. That or the ayn rand of all things film.
haven’t decided which yet.
LikeLike
bran1gan
August 5, 2010
Raghav: Doesn’t Malaysia have a ton of Tamils too? Yaadhum oore etc. 🙂
Nandita: It’s not a serious talk or anything. More like an anecdotal thing.
Harish S Ram: Ideally, you’d read this kind of review after watching the film. I personally don’t like reading reviews before watching a film. (Unless I’m sure I’ll never watch it.) Colours your perception too much.
LikeLike
vachas
August 5, 2010
rameshram: Are you a last word freak?
LikeLike
Harish S Ram
August 5, 2010
its intriguing how you are able to convince your firm when it is required from a reviewer to write for people who haven’t watched the film.
LikeLike
rameshram
August 5, 2010
vachas
um..no NKI
LikeLike
Raghav
August 5, 2010
@BR:ya agree..Malaysia’s truly TN :-).
Also following up to what Nandita says-what’s your take on Hindi cinema having English almost everywhere..the titles are in english,trailers all english,dialogues mostly english..hell even the interviews!Some credit to the Khans(Aamir and SRK)that they can speak atleast Hindi.atleast that doesn’t happen “down South” cinema!
**end of rant**(God!that felt good!)
LikeLike
bran1gan
August 6, 2010
Harish S Ram: Because my editors so far are like me. They belieeve that an essayistic approach to one’s experience of a film is far more worthwhile than a recommendation-based appraoch. Besides the latter is futile anyway. Just because I say a film a good, there’s no guarantee you’ll find it good too. The biggesst myth surrounding a critic is that he’s a lightning rod for public taste. If that were indeed the case, wouldn’t we know, every time, which movies will do well and which won’t?
Raghav: Actually, it’s only the multiplex films that are English heavy (and that too in parts). And that’s a very valid representation of a certain segment of society. (You wouldn’t expect the characters in Wake Up Sid to speak 100% Hindi, would you?) I don’t subscribe to the theory that a film is somehow un-Indian if there’s English in it.
LikeLike
Padawan
August 6, 2010
Baradwaj: Will K2K ever release or is it going to be like Marudhanayagam?
Late last year — This Summer — July, 2010 —
http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-news-1/aug-10-01/divya-spandana-yuvan-shankar-rajal-05-08-10.html
LikeLike
Raghav
August 6, 2010
@BR:ya baddy- but I guess I wasn’t articulate enough.what I meant was when our current “superstars” like Abhishek Bachchan does a movie like Raavan and comes on Zoom TV/star news and replies to Hindi Q’s in English..and they do it a number of times(so do Ranbir,Imraan etc)it can get very repulsive,because I get the feeling that they cannot speak good conversational Hindi***which gets them their bread and butter***.(I mean..I speak more in English than my mother tongue!)
And I’m completely with you on the ‘English is not un-Indian’ part..I mean ‘Vaaranam Aiyiram’ was almost like a hot-wire to my heart..and he speaks to his parents in English..beautifully done!(so that’s what I was trying to convey!:-))
LikeLike
vipul vivek
August 7, 2010
I was thinking about another parallel that this Sultan/Haji-Shoaib/Dawood could suggest. Sultan’s is a welfarist approach — and not Robin Hoodesque — so that even though it is a system against the System, it still imbibes its rhetoric from the same apparatus. On the other hand, Shoaib is full of “animal spirits” (http://nyti.ms/DNVtW) betokening the arrival of the New Economy. As if this economic debate is a palimpsest for this criminal Iruvar, what say?
LikeLike
Raghav
August 7, 2010
@BR:this is a link I found for folks interested in Telugu movies.
Apologies BR for posting the link on your website-but I just thought that there was so much common between you guys-the respect for the past masters and honesty in writing – that readers of your essays might also connect to this..Thanks! :-)(sorry guys if you are already aware of this link!..am a late bloomer!)
http://www.idlebrain.com/celeb/realstars/
LikeLike
bran1gan
August 7, 2010
Padawan: Poruthaar boomi aalwaar-nu kelvi. Box office-aavadhu aala mudiyudha-nu paappom 🙂
Raghav: You can know a language because you were brought up in a milieu, but you may be more instinctively at ease with English. I;d have more of a problem if Abhishek of Ranbir didn’t know how to “emote” in Hindi — using the vernacular. What they say in interviews isn’t important to me, probably because I never watch these interviews anyway 🙂
vipul vivek: I’d advise you to be very, very careful making such statements in these parts, or you may be accused of overanalysing. I speak from first-hand experience. :-p
LikeLike
vipul vivek
August 7, 2010
@BR I totally agree with you if it is my reference to Iruvar you are talking about. Cent per cent. For even I felt the same way just after I posted my comment. But why would you say so about the economy-as-palimpsest bit?
LikeLike
Pradeep
August 30, 2010
Great Review! My wife says your review tells a person exactly what she liked and disliked about a movie, and this time I agree. Yes, this was a movie about mythical characters, yes it was a movie about the bollywood of the seventies, and yes of course Emraan Hashmi does not have the persona to carry it off….
However, long after I left the theater ruing what might have been, the movie stays in mind, and there is a feeling that there was brilliance somehwere…..
And Ajay Devgan, I felt, was brilliant. Of all the scenes, the ones that will remain in memory will be the ones where he holds the train together, and the other one where he asks Shoaib to walk up to him. His whole body spoke, and his eyes only repeated what his body said, so that in the end no words were necessary.
LikeLike
munimma
September 21, 2010
Finally caught the movie. I thought Ajay did a good job. Amitabh B has spoiled it for us, wanting that same intensity in all underdog heroes. Emraan came across as a Sultan wannabe, hating failures and wanting very badly to be on top, although a little more cockiness in his attitude would have helped. And Randeep, to me was a little more than the narrator, the one who connects shoaib to sultan, an over-reaching over-zealous cop.
What did you think of that Helen wannabe? I loved everything about that song’s use here, except for that one sore point.
LikeLike
bran1gan
September 21, 2010
munimma: You mean Gauhar Khan? Didn’t mind her. I was really impressed with the staging of the song alongside events in both the men’s lives, ending with Kangana’s hospitalisation. BTW, Gauhar Khan was wonderful in Rocket Singh. Seen that film?
LikeLike
munimma
September 21, 2010
Yes, liked that movie too. I would have been ok with her doing a different song, but she was so trying to be Helen here 🙂
LikeLike
Sev
August 17, 2013
I’m surprised you were unfazed by Hooda in the movie. I thought he was brilliant; I wonder what he’d do with the role of Sultan. He has more range (or so it would appear) than Devgun who I agree, is impassive to the point that it appears that it’s not an act. He just doesn’t know any different/better.
LikeLike