Once Upon a time in Bombay they made films which were not very sensible.
Folks flocked as the stories were pleasant and backed by some great music and
supported by some fine acting. The story was predictable. The love triangles
and the love tragedies then gave way to the anger and angst of a young angry
man and the script of a duo who told of a simmering social order. Then Once
Upon a time in Mumbai they started telling the stories of mafias and the grey
lives they lived.
We have now have an entire genre of the cinema dealing with the under belly of
Mumbai. The stables of the likes of Mahesh Bhatt and RGV have told the tale in
different moods at different times but always telling how there is more black
to grey.
The film starts on a wrong note. It seems to advocate that the philosophy of
the Mahatma has outlived its utility. The protagonist Vikki (Harman Baweja) is
in conversation with soul mate Lakhwa (Sunny Deol!! Yes Deol). He suffers patriarchal
rejection from Gandhian (Rajit Kapoor) and is enticed by the local war lord
Mota Tony (Prashant Narayanan). The gang war of the warl lards include Gujjar
(Rajesh Vivek – cliched), Rocky Chu (Anand Tiwari), Iqbal Khalifa (Sumeet
Nijhawan) Who is double crossing whom and how long. Why is he doing it and how
successfully, is what the script is all about. Then you also have a parallel
love story of a bold cigarette smoking Meera (Ayesha Khanna) with Vikky.
There is the intriguing disconnect in this world between talent and acceptance
(or success as the world may chose to call it!). The grossly under marketed
Dishkiyoon is not without its positives. The problem is that the intrigue gets
too complicated and the shoot seems disjointed. The script fails the narration.
The tale is not very fresh but is told with a certain degree of style and
panache. Now with some one like Sunny Deol (of dhai kilo ka Haath) leading the
cast you would imagine that you are not going to get much from the cast but
that is exactly where the film scores. Sumeet Nijahawan, Prashant Narayanan,
Anand Tiwari all do fine jobs of half etched characters. Ayesha Khanna is a
welcome addition to the heroine club and very sincerely hope to see more of her
films. She has a Chitrangadda kind of persona and does brilliantly for a
debutant. Kudos to Shilpa Shetty for finding some one very unlike her to be the
heroine of the film. She too has very little screen time and presence but does
complete justice to what is offered. Hemant Baweja is an amazing surprise. The
guy has talent. It is indeed unfortunate that he makes news only for the person
he is dating. Our cinema needs to give him a better chance and more
opportunity. It would be richer with his contributions. He has the looks, the
body and beef and can dance. No reason for summary rejection as has happened
thus far. Queer are the diktats of our cinema. Hopefully like legendary
examples he will survive the low phase, get better films and in the process be
noticed. Success is just a hit away. The film may have too many bullets and
guns but it also has some emotion packed moments that make for a heady cocktail
for entertainment. Where it looses out is the narration gets too intriguing and
meandering. Such films would require supply of a note book and a pen for making
notes on who is killing whom and how …
L. Ravichander