Once Upon a Time in Mumbai (2010)

A smuggler rises to power in in 1970s Mumbai, a younger gangster seeks to overthrow him, and a police officer is caught in the middle.

Director:

Milan Luthria

Writers:

Rajat Arora (as Rajat Aroraa), Bhrigu Brinda (story screenplay and dialogue)

Stars:

Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut

1 win & 20 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ajay Devgn	...	Sultan Mirza
Emraan Hashmi	...	Shoaib Khan
Kangana Ranaut	...	Rehana (as Kangna Ranaut)
Prachi Desai	...	Mumtaz
Randeep Hooda	...	ACP Agnel Wilson (Special Appearance)
Naved Aslam	...	Patrick
Sanjeev Wilson	...	Chandru (as Sanjiv Wilson)
Allauddin Khan	...	Alaudin (as Allaudin Khan)
Rajeev Yadav	...	Yakub Atha
Sushil Pandey	...	Iqbal
Mehul Bhojak	...	Javed
Anjum Sharma	...	Khichdi
Dheerendra Dwivedi	...	Gattu (as Dhirender Dwivedi)
Sumit Kaul	...	Rajan
Ravi Khanvilkar	...	Vardha

Storyline

During March 1993, after his Ambassador car is being fished out of water, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Agnel Wilson, narrates to the Commissioner as to how he commenced his investigation against an underworld gangster, Sultan Mirza. He details how Sultan had survived floods in Madras, shortly after Independence; his arrival in Bombay; and his employment which earned him a mere 25 Paisa daily. Agnel's attempts to rein in Sultan fail, but he keeps tabs on him and his romance with Bollywood actress, Rehana; as well as his new recruit, Shoaib, the son of Sub-Inspector Khan. Agnel will find his investigation slipping out of his hands after Sultan temporarily delegates complete responsibility to Shoaib.

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Plot Keywords:

police | gangster | police officer | actress | smuggler | 

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Taglines:

Where it all began...

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Bhojpuri Hindi

Release Date:

30 July 2010 (India)

Also Known As:

Once Upon a Time in Bombay

Filming Locations:

Parikhara, Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, India

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£54,780 (UK) (30 July 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Balaji Motion Pictures, SS Film Fectory, Shiv Shivam Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

134 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Stereo (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Emraan Hashmi's character Shoaib Khan is loosely based on the underworld leader, Dawood Ibrahim. Dawood Ibrahim was on Forbes 2008 list of The World's 10 Most Wanted criminals. Ajay Devgan who plays Sultan Mirza and Randeep Hooda who plays ACP Agnel Wilson also played characters based on Dawood Ibrahim in Company (2002) and 'D' (2005).

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Goofs

In a scene Kangana's fan tears a 1000 note, considering the time the film is set 1000rs notes were not available then.

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Connections

Featured in Ek Villain (2014)

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Soundtracks

I Am In Love
Written by Neelesh Misra
Composed by Pritam Chakraborty
Performed by Karthik
Courtesy of Super Cassettes Industries Limited (T-Series)

User Reviews

More than a one-time-good movie with great music & good dialogues

If you like storytelling, you are going to enjoy it. Once Upon a Time in Mumbai is all about the rise two smugglers / gangsters in Mumbai i.e. Sultan Mirza (played by Ajay Devgun) and Shoaib Khan (Emraan Hashmi). Movie begins with ACP Agnel Wilson (Randeep Hooda) narrating the life stories of these two smugglers. Sultan Mirza, a poor boy, who enters into this business at a very small age becomes very strong and powerful man of mumbai due to his strength, bravery & wisdom. He also divides mumbai into different zones and allocates each of them to different smugglers and chooses the seashore of mumbai for himself. Sultan soon becomes messiah of mumbai by rescuing poor from difficult situations and giving charity to needy.

On the other hand, Shoaib Khan, spoiled son of a police inspector, becomes a thief. Shoaib's father requests Sultan Mirza to help him in this regard and Sultan helps shoaib in establishing a electronics shop which shoaib in unable to continue due to his temperament & reputation. Shoaib requests Sultan Mirza to let him work with him in smuggling business to which Sultan agrees. Here the plot of the movie resembles with that of film Company in which Ajay Devgun inducts Vivek Oberoi as his worker and The Company gets more strengthened. Shoaib Khan soon proves that he is fully capable of working for Sultan Mirza and Mirza's reliance on him increases till a time comes when Sultan goes out of city to execute his future plans and makes Shoaib the caretaker in his absence. This is the point where the problem starts between the two.

Director (Milan Luthria) has done a wonderful job by recreating the era of 70's & 80's. First half of the movie is better than the second half due to well-balanced comedy, romance, action; nonetheless, movie does not loses grip in the second half. Rajat Arora (writer) has also done a good job with good dialogues; nevertheless, end of the movie could have been made better. Idea of Sultan Mirza's character seems to have been inspired from life of Haji Mastan Mirza who was a smuggler of Mumbai and had nothing to do with underworld (that is drug, narcotics etc). Ajay Devgun has been given the same look which Haji Mastan Mirza was famous for i.e. white dress, chauffeur driver Mercedes car, imported cigarettes in hand, big donor / charity worker. Haji Mastan also married a bollywood actress and so does Sultan Mirza in the movie who marries top actress of his time Rehana (played by Kangana Ranaut). Although roles of both ladies Rehana and Mumtaz (Shoaib's love played by Prachi Desai) are very small; both actresses have fulfilled their duties. Here, credit also goes to costume designers who were successful in giving the actors & actresses the accurate 70's / 80's look.

As far as acting is concerned, this is one best movies of Ajay Devgun's career (performance wise) and its seems that this role could not have been suited on any other actor apart from Ajay Devgun. Two negatives of the movies are 1) Emraan Hashmi - who gave his best in the movie but (unfortunately) couldn't break his lover boy's image 2) Randeep Hooda - who has not been utilized properly. It would have been better if Shoaib Khan's role was given to Hooda due to the arrogant, anger look on his face.

Pritam's music is one of the strengths of the movie. All the tracks have been composed wonderfully and according to the moment at which they have been placed in the script. Singing great Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's "Tum Jo Aaye" & "Pee Loo" by Mohit Chauhan was splendid.Last but not the least, apart from the songs, superb background score was the biggest plus of the movie especially in the latter half.

Conclusion: Highly recommended to all the cine goers especially to gangster / mafia movie lovers.