A mast outing for you and me by Puneet Rajhans . Review on Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai

The movie blast from Mumbaai: You and me can connect to this

What keeps the interest alive on a take on underworld that has reneged on mindless violence and mayhem? Hard to decipher since most of the flicks on mafia and their henchmen from the factories of Mumbai have an overflowing dose of blood on streets.

A refreshing attempt has been made to deal with a subject that essentially defined the landscape of Bombay in the 70s and 80s and now having gone into a retreat.

Here you have a colossal drop of dialogue delivered moments strong enough to make you rehearse the line(Provided you got it right) and relive those moments once you step out; the serenading of their love interests and subtle ways with which the Mafiosi works with the man of the season taking a step backward when the conscience tails him.

Time in Mumbaai opens with Wilson, the cop, turning the clock back to the 70s commotion in the underworld terrain. With the floods in Madras, a boy fled to base himself in Bombay. The boy's rise in the Mafia world(the character of Sultan is played by Ajay Devgn) is scripted by events during childhood. A hand to mouth existence secured him a steely resolve to rule over the city. Like him there was an entire tribe that had never been on the radar of government. He uproots a rail track to let the smuggled goods truck pass and restores back against an approaching train from Ulhas Nagar . Here was the messiah to whom people turned to as their faith in the system had long eroded. Fascinations simple, he won't settle for hard cash on all occasions.

A car he took fancy to(Merc MRH 786); the leading super star Rehana(Kangana Ranaut) he wooed by settling for aloo gobhi for 18 consecutive days. Brutality doesn't figure in his scheme of things. And the cops are keeping a tab on him. ACP Wilson tries to nail him down by downing shutters on film projects his love interest was working only to realise that she is of a different mettle.

Mumtaz(Prachi Desai), the love interest of Shoaib(Emraan Hashmi), works at Nizam Collection, jewellery showroom, and he showers her with expensive gifts. A fracas over a stolen jewellery that Mumtaz is sporting which Shoaib stole from a doctor's house is enough to turn him wild. This is the turning tale to his life and he seeks to be a part of Sultan's empire. "Maine to Bhagwan chun liya hai, ab aap insaan chune."

With Rehana on one side, and Shoaib, fascinated by the charms of the underworld he groomed, the business moves with a line to draw. " Main un cheezo ki smuggling karta hoon jinki sarkar izzazat nahin deti, un cheezo ki nahin zinki zameer izzazat nahin deta, " is Sultan's riposte to those who try to smuggle liquor.

Contrast this with Shoaib who had drowned himself in power and lust to no end.

"Zindagi ho toh smuggler jaisi. Saari Duniya raakh ki tarah neeche aur khud dhue ki tarah upar." If licence raj gave Sultan enough handle to play with the system, it gave Shoaib the opportunity to shamelessly dig into the underworld crosscurrents.

As time flies, Sultan has a tightrope walk to do. Standing on the shores he puts a poser on retreat from underworld(he has travelled a fair amount of distance and torn between love and empire) something hard to secure overriding with the belief that this city would continue to stand by him if he wishes to have a tryst with political world. Henceforth he leaves for Delhi and hands over the levers to Shoaib as his trust in him has grown manifold. An uncontrolled freak unleashes reign of terror in the city. This is where the testy relationship between the two gets amplified. His overstay in Delhi coinciding with Shoaib's unchecked criminal foray has spawned a divide where the protege decides to remove the mentor's imprint for all times to come. With the noose tightening he flees the country.

Take a walk through an effort where the heavy landline instruments ruled the day, though fewer conversations take place(mind you some of us would still settle for this); where ambys, fiats and standards took to the roads; Kaka(Rajesh Khanna) was in his prime; and Bobby had made its debut. One amrood for char aana for which Sultan pays a whopping 400 Rs and a fan tearing the one thousand Rupee note as it has Rehana's autograph. Single rail track with no electrification is as illustrative of those times as the police vehicle or the machines in which the protagonists move being tailed by an amby or a fiat.

But there are two situations where the link is not seen. First when Shoaib goes to a five star hotel to eliminate a man for whom he has taken a supari; here is a water flask that doesn't belong to that period. Second, when Wilson accosted by his junior comes to board his jeep with an amby in the background. The make is of the 90s. Except for these aberrations the movie is an out and out mast endeavour.

All the four numbers: "peelon tere neele, neele naino ki shabnam "; "tum joh aaye mei zindaagi mein baat ban gayee"; "duniya mein dokha ho jata hai"; and "baburao mast mast hai" are surefire hits. The fifth one not shown on promos earlier and added from this Sunday onwards "i am in love" is an amalgamation of different situations.

No doubt the Sultan character is the most powerful connect to the entire effort not diluting the unfettered innings that Shoaib intended to play in the underworld and coming up really well in "Mast hai mast hai, Baburao mast hai" number.

While Sultan's white Safari Suit brings a close resemblance to some outings by Rajnikant, the Paithani Suit has fewer appearances. The Sultan felling to the bullets is a tough one to take as the curtains come down on this 130 minutes magic.