Rating: * *

Once upon a time in Mumbai is like that string of firecrackers that begins with making a lot of noise but goes bust somewhere in between. And then while most crackers fail to take off, few towards the end do.
 
The movie begins with an irresistible old world charm that you wish you could be a part of. We start liking the character of Sultan Mirza almost from the beginning. Even though he is a gangster, we find his sense of justice and fairplay quite appealing. Within about half hour of the film starts we plunge into the love story between, Sultan and Rehana. And that is one of the most engaging parts of this film. While we might it surprising that it is the love story in an underworld film that stays with us much after the film is over but so it is. And this love story truly deserves commendation.

The chemistry between Devgn and Ranaut is unbelievable. But Once Upon a Time in Mumbai does to you exactly what a wrong train does. So you know that you bought a ticket for another place but the train is taking you elsewhere. You still figure out your way and are just about to fall into sweet slumber when the train suddenly shifts tracks, waking you up with a jolt. The moment you begin to feel a sense of paisa vasool and find comfort in something you hadn’t intended to see, the movie shifts gears. And it is here that we meet, Shoaib or Emraan Hashmi or the show spoiler. From this point the movie starts to unveil its true patchy nature.

The director totally loses track of the film here, not that he was on it when he wasted almost an hour in showing us a love story but we were still ok with it. After about the first hour, hour and half, the filmmaker’s desperation to pick up the central theme he forgot about seems apparent. But in this desperation, he ends up giving us a patchwork of half baked scenes and characters. The romance vanishes and a poorly treated and conceived underworld story begins.

Some scenes still catch our fancy, such as the one where Shoaib smuggles stuff out of Sultan’s house in VIP cars but overall, the loopholes keep increasing. The one thing that remains constant in the film is the powerpacked, absolutely marvelous, well thought, poetic dialogues. They are one of the biggest strengths of this film. Ajay Devgn doles out another memorable performance. Once Upon a time we saw him as gangster Malik in Company and he manages to play Sultan with equal elan. Kangana has looked and performed her best in this film. The two disappointments are Emraan Hashmi and Prachee Desai.