Once upon a time in Mumbaai begins with a disclaimer that the story is purely fictional and bears no resemblance to the life of Haji Mastan whatsoever, which ofcourse only buttresses the prevailing feeling that the movie is indeed a memoir of his life.
Ajay Devgan stars as Sultan who fulfils a meteoric rise from the life of a boy working in coal mines to the most powerful Don in the city. Emraan Hashmi stars as Shoaib, the son of a policeman, a brash and uncouth youngster who’s only aim in life is to be like Sultan. Although like always Devgn is compact in his performance, it is Hashmi who really rules the roost in this movie. He puts in a domineering performance as the young understudy and even exhibits miniscule shades of Tony Montana from Scarface. The female characters are pretty much relegated to pretty meaningless roles in this one and often border on helplessness which is really a huge chink in this film’s armor.
However the movie does adequately manage to recreate the atmosphere of 1950-60s Bombay with shiny pastels and old-fashioned sunglasses. The dialogues are crisp, however going overboard at times and bordering on ostentation. Although the movie does provide some good moments, it eludes belief in some parts where everything seems to fall into place too easily. The background score is catchy however it is a riff you may have heard already.
To conclude Once upon a time in Mumbaai is a decent mafia flick and worth a single watch atleast considering the voluminous production of absolute non-watchers from Bollywood recently.
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