Shootout at Lokhandwala

Shootout at Lokhandwala came recommended, as a part of the new-age Bollywood wave. Hard-hitting and gritty depicting of a 1991 ‘encounter’ between Bombay ATS (Anti Terrorist Squad) and a bunch of mobsters. I quite disagree on its new-wave status.

SAL is a Sanjay Gupta film. SAL is also a Ekta Kapoor film (duly stamped with a Tushar Kapoor presence). As it turns out its just a hashed up soup of plenty of ingredients from both their books. I quite well accept Sanjay Gupta films, in general. Zinda was awesome, Kaante rocked. He positions himself as the Indian equivalent of Quentin Tarantino, the man. Its quite another story that he is not as prolific in constructing stories (but ripping them off, very well actually !!). Nevertheless, an adulterated Sanjay Gupta film (if there is such a term), I will watch.

I am not really a fan of Ekta Kapoor genre of movies, whichever way you were to define it. My limited exposure to it has vacillated between uncontrolled laughter (not for comedic content, mind you!!) and an uncontrolled headache. Krishna Cottage was an exercise how to scare the shit out of the audience, by its jarring sound effects and pathetic plot twists.

SAL falls somewhere in between the two genres (again the word genre loosely used here). It aspires to be a hard-hitting, no-nonsense no-kitsch fare but it meanders exactly those by-lanes. There are the familiar item-numbers, glamorized swagger for the mobsters (notice how Vivek Oberoi’s Maya Dolas is forever swinging to an unheard hip-hop tune), the forced under-the-belly humor bits, the token ‘big movie star’ cameo.

But the problem with it is not just this superficiallity. SAL is supposed to be about the shootout. It only spends about the final 20 minutes on the event. The rest is supposed to be the buildup for it. Nothing wrong in it, but the screenplay doesnt quite manage a decent build-up. We start off things with a caricaturish Amitabh Bachchan as lawyer grilling ATS members on their gun-happy past. Sanjay Dutt playing ATS chief along with Arbaaz Khan and Suniel Shetty (members of ATS) defend their actions.

The story subsequently unfolds in flashbacks (Bollywood’s favorite formula) uncovering sub-plots. The track between Sanjay Dutt and his harried house-wife, badly played by Neha Dhupia is trash. There really was no need to have this subplot but to attempt to give Dutt a more well rounded character, which really fails.

The meatiest part goes to Vivek Oberoi, who plays Maya, the upcoming mobster of Bombay. Vivek is a decent actor, although I have no particular liking of him. He plays Maya as a megalomaniac with the swagger that goes with it. Cool glasses, black body hugging attire reduce him just to an over-the-top caricature. This is not entirely his undoing, the director is equally to be blamed.

Tushar Kapoor plays his sidekick, Buar. Gosh, this is miscasting at its best. Supposed to be the best sharpshooter in business, instead of a streak of ruthlessness, he portrays a moron. Rolling out expletives, he evokes un-intended  amusement. Then there is the item-girl Arti Chabria, who adds nothing to the story. The other sidekicks though not as much comical as Tushar, still don’t inspire an awe of danger and menace.

Sanjay Dutt attempts to bring in a flavor of realism with his character, but it doesn’t really add up to salvage the production. Still I feel he is pretty much the best thing here. Although at the very end, he does take on a more heroic act fighting hand-on-hand with the antagonists. Infact the last 15 minutes are really what ensure there remains no doubt that this is a mainstream masala sambhar. Token shots of the other residents of the building caught in the cross-fire still dont attack the biggest issues of the event. Dia Mirza as a daring journalist is supposed to add to the realism, though its hard to see through her barbie doll looks.

Apoorv Lakhia, the director has earlier made a couple of movies – Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost (which I havnt seen) and Ek Ajnabee, which was similarly hyped as a hard-hitting drama, but was really a similar carwreck. I have serious doubts his next production will sell with the same label(new-age realism) again.

I wouldn’t recommend watching this movie, unless gangster dramas is what you digg at any cost. Mindless Popcorn charade at its best.