Mumbai Saga: Stylish Mass Entertainer
Yogendra is freelance writer
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By Yogendra
First publised on 2021-03-24 09:55:43
About the Author
Yogendra is freelance writer
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The Sanjay Gupta film Mumbai Saga, based on true events in the city in the nineties, is both lucky and unlucky. It is lucky because being a mass, big-screen entertainer, the pleasure of watching it would have been lost if it was released on OTT platforms. Luckily for it, cinema halls have reopened up to full capacity and since the movie was not made a long time back, it does not appear dated. But it is also unlucky as just before its release, India is in the grip of a second Covid wave and it is too much to expect that cinegoers, especially in the biggest territory Mumbai, will watch the movie in cinema halls.
But Mumbai Saga needs to be watched, especially by those who like gangster movies that have a high dose of dramatics, swag and dialogue-baazi and are not repelled by gore and flying and dead bodies. Sanjay Gupta is not like Ram Gopal Verma. His films have more style and dialogues than Verma's, whose are more gritty and realistic. Here, too, Gupta uses John Abraham and Emraan Hashmi to mouth paisa vasool dialogues. When his younger brother Arjun (Pratiek Babbar)is almost killed by goons, Amartya Rao (John Abraham) takes it upon himself to usurp the monopolies of the existing gangs in Bombay, as it was then known. Fear is the key and Amartya does both, instill fear in the opposing gangs and diminish the fear in the minds of the common man by telling them not to pay hafta to them.
But he has to contend with other gangs and a kingmaker in Bhau (Mahesh Manjrekar). In the racy first half, Amartya establishes himself as the top gangster in the city. The second half marks the entry of Inspector Vijay Sarvarkar (Emraan Hashmi), an encounter specialist deputed by the police to put a bullet in Amartya' head. On being asked whether he will be able to kill Amartya, Sarvarkar says that he is not wondering about that but about what he will do with the Rs 10cr reward money for killing Amartya. The film is full of such swaggy dialogues and at times the story takes a back seat.
John Abraham is excellent as Amartya. His dialogue delivery is, for once, good and barring emotional scenes he does a good job. Emraan Hashmi is equally good in his role and carries the swag with his customary elan. Mahesh Manjrekar is excellent as the kingmaker. Suneil Shetty impresses in a cameo and so does Gulshan Grover. If you are yearning for a mass entertainer of style and substance and if you can manage the Covid protocol, catch Mumbai Saga at a big screen near you.
