*Intro
*Organized crime is a profession. At least for few.
What is common between a criminal & cop? Both are professional, violent, sinful, corrupt, unethical, lethal . A guy with enough intelligence, guts, passion in his blood can either be a good cop or a good criminal. The differentiating factor is misanthropy. Misanthropy is extreme opposite to Philanthropy.
(Though after SAL- I understand another factor, cops take bath & look clean; criminals don’t shave or take bath).
Both of these professionals exercise violence as tool to send a message of fear to each others community. Both kill . The difference is in the objective or motive. Cops are trained to face & fight criminals & expected to protect the society & reinstate people’s faith in the system. Criminals extort society to generate wealth & benefit of a few handful stalwarts. There’s nothing called respect in these two profession. It’s all about misanthropy & fear.
Producer Sanjay Gupta & the director Apurva Lakhia & probably tried to venture into this aspect of crime & punishment, where ethics, code of conduct & humanity are buried under sheer misanthropy, resulting brutal killing of 5 criminals in a residential locality of Mumbai by a large team of cops, mercilessly.
*Story
*An incident truly happened in 1991 at Andheri, Lokhandwala- a residential western suburb of Mumbai. The movie is a semi-narrative(semi- drama) of the incident based on “true rumors”. Still, the movie surprisingly starts with a usual disclaimer stating it’s a work of fiction etc. Khan is a honed police officer who has cherry picked cops from various departments to build his ATS team to eliminate organized crime from Mumbai. Maya Dolas is an upcoming gangster who reports to a, Dawood- look- alike don in Dubai. Khan kills Maya & 4 of his key members in a daylight shootout, consequently facing charges of violation of human rights by activists. Lawyer Dhingra is the dry sarcastic defense counsel who hears Khan & his sidekick’s version before passing his findings in the court.
*The shoot-out
*I will not waste the reader’s valuable time telling about the Cast & Crew. By now everyone probably knows about it. If you don’t, do check the official website- https://shootoutatlokhandwala.com.
I'll rather convey what I liked & disliked in this movie.
*Bull’s eye
- Sunjay Dutt as Khan**- Extremely natural in his role of a no-nonsense cold blooded cop. He is not a supercop, but a slick professional with his goals clear. His performance greatly reminded me of his role in Mission Kashmir. Also he is extremely clean & neatly dressed in suits & in white shirt while encounters. He is an example that cops can be well dressed too.
2. Violence & blood- Graphic scenes are plenty, even wrt Bollywood standard. Shooting mercilessly, breaking skulls, handling mutilated torsos like garbage are gruesome to general viewers. Still it’s a long way from “rotten” stuff like cutting off ears or burning someone alive. But it’s a good start, nevertheless.
3. Shabbir Ahluwalia- I think he comes in TV soaps. To me he was the most convincing looking criminal. He did a noticeable job. Reminded me of Satya.
4. E Ganpat…. chal daru la- well, I think I am not the only person who likes this song ! The voice & the theme touched me softly(for obvious reasons;). *Ice kam, soda zyada, pani bhi mila….e Ganpat, chal daru la. Poetic & useful.
5. Big B- Cool & sarcastic. Good but too less importance.
Missed target
1. ATS was formed in 2004 by Govt of Mharashtra. Information source- https://mumbaipolice.org/special/anit_terror_squad.htm The incident of Lokhandwala happened in 1991, but it is portrayed in the movie that ATS existed in 1991. I don’t have much research on this subject but hopefully the official website of Mumbai police is not lying.
2. Producer Sanjay Gupta- As usual he does it in style. Yeah, his favorite men Dutt & Shetty. Real men smokes & walks in style, together. They kill in style. Remember Kaante, Musafir, Zinda? I like him because he is obsessed with cult classics like Reservoir Dogs, Usual suspects, The killing, U-turn, Old boy etc. When the inspiration is from masterpieces it shows. Where it’s mostly all male, all smoke & all alcohol. However, SAL does not reach the style of Kaante or Musafir.
3. Director Apurva Lakhia-I had great expectation after his desi Man of Fire, EK Ajnabi. He had style & polish in the movie. However his 3rd attempt in direction is a big time blunder. Flash backs & Flash back-backs & flash-flash backs about the characters were absolutely unnecessary in the first half which dragged the movie & choked me. Some killing scene of sardar terrorists, a 15 day stubbled Abhisek, Neha dhupia as Khan’s wife were extremely meaningless. There are tremendous & numerous detailing errors & continuity goofs. I can name some-
a. Any service in uniform does not allow men in stubble. Shetty & Abhisek looks like more urchins than a cop.
b. Flashback- Arbaaz khan get shot in the shoulder in a check shirt, goes bloody. Later wears the same shirt. I wanted to know the name of the detergent & the tailor who mend the hole.
c. Criminals look like as if they don’t have money to buy soap. Vivek looks like a version 2 of Kunal Khemu is Traffic Signal. Rest of the gang members are comical.
d. the language though consists of bc -mc wordings, fails to capture the Mumbai underworld lingo. A terrible job by the dialogue writer & the actors.
4. Tusshar Kapoor- If Buwa is a master shooter(who blows up an old fiat instead of Khan with rocket launcher…lol), then, I am also a fighter pilot or Elvis Prisley. Gimme a break!
5. Dubai don- I think dons in exile have better things to do than moving around in dressing gowns aside tiny plunge pools with bikini clad babes doing nothing.
6. Tanki ke Kutte- The criminals indulged into really bad song & dance twice! But they are never into realtime sex . Except for Tusshar who gets out of bed to pee, midway of his foreplay). Abnormal.
7. Dia Mirza- Journalist as Meeta Matto. Name's bad enough to turn off.
8. Camera work- Excessive steadycam use.
Goli khallas
It’s a dud movie. Watch it if you love only violence and/ or Dutt. Else go for a tea break- Chini Kum.If you want to watch a good gangster film- rent the disk of Satya. Even Aan- Men at work will also do. Better watch anytime.The review title is a verbatim translation of my fav gangster movie- **Reservoir Dogs. Relevant as the criminals get kutte ki maut.
*FE's Trivia-
+Lokhandwala**- It’s actually comes from “Lokhandwala Builders” who developed substantial real estate in the area.
- Amrita Mard Singh- still looks sexy & rocks my boat, even as a mother of a criminal.
