Movie review: Shootout at Lokhandwala

Ok , it was my fault. Having earlier endured Apporva Lakhiya's Ek Ajnabi , I was taking a gamble by braving another one of his directorial attempts , at considerable risk to my mental sanity. But then surely there was no way that it would be another Ek Ajnabi , a blatant rip-off of the Hollywood film "Man on Fire". After all, it was supposed to be based on an actual incident embedded firmly in our very own Mumbai city's memory. A leading daily had also given it a four-star rating. And when you spend only 45 Rs. on a movie (G-7 , Bandra ), at least you know that you can laugh off the normal dross that comes from Bollywood, with the hope of finding at least one gem at a similar price, someday. (A lesson well learnt and implemented religiously for every Bollywood film after spending 150 bucks for self-inflicting the sheer mental trauma that was K3G )

So, the movie began with a perplexing declaration "All characters in this story are fictitious and ……Blah Blah". Wait a minute.Wasn't this supposed to be a realistic movie based on actual true story that took place at Lokhandwala? No, I learn.My fault, though . I actually missed the film's tag line "Based on true rumors". Not a true story then , but true rumors. Silly me. Err but hold on ..... what on earth is a "true rumor"? No time for mulling over such petty matters as graphic scenes of spilled blood start flooding the screen.

The story mainly follows 3 members of the Anti-terrorist Squad , ACP Aftab Ahmed Khan (Sanjay Dutt) , Inspector Kaviraj Patil (Sunil Shetty) and Constable Javed Shaikh (Arbaaz Khan) and their fight against dreaded gangsters Maya Dolas (Vivek Oberoi ) , Dilip Buva (Tusharr Kapoor) and their gang. The film opens with a lawyer (Amitabh Bacchan) inquiring into the alleged human rights violations committed by the 3 in the Lokhandwala shootout case. (what the actual charges are is not clear even until the end of the film) Initially , we are shown the fight of ACP Khan against Khalistan militants, formation of the ATS by Mr.Khan using his handpicked officers and the effect that the strenuous police job has on the trio's families. On a parallel track, we see the rise of Maya Dolas from a small henchman in the Dawood Gang , his extortion racket against the Mumbai builders and his gradual straining of relationships with Dawood . Maya wants to be the overlord of Mumbai and his actions lead him to an inevitable confrontation with Khan's ATS as well as Dawood himself. Ultimately Dawood betrays Maya by informing Khan of his whereabouts in Lokhandwala which leads to the climatic shooutout scene in which Maya and his accomplices are killed. Later,Khan and his associates are discharged of any excessive use of force/human rights violation by the high court.Thats the story in a nutshell.

As for the performances, Vivek Oberoi is once more quite realistic (sometimes bordering on the verge of overacting , though) in his now quite familiar role as an underworld gangster. His scenes are some of the best in the film. Sanjay Dutt puts in a competent performance , but his dialog delivery and style seem too similar to that of the gangsters for my liking. Suniel Shetty and Arbaz Khan can surely do nothing to mess their quite limited roles (not that they dont try to, mind it). Amitabh and Abhishekh Bacchan have minuscule roles and the only reason they are there in this film is for the obvious commercial implications of their presence. Diya Mirza looks cute and honestly potrays her limited role as a TV reporter. The background score and camera work is quite engaging and helps to maintain the break-neck pace at which the story develops. Thats it, this is all the good things I can think of.

The film is far too gory and loud for my liking. I love action flicks but there is a fine line between class and crass. Tusharr Kapoor should stick to being invisible (Gayab) or dumb (Golmaal), in my opinion. The perennial contender for the "Struggling Actor of the year" award is a pain to watch as the "dreaded" gangster Dilip Buva. The songs are meaningless and are present only for Aarti Chaabria to display her matkaa-zhatkaas as she does precious little else in the entire film. Amrita Singh plays the character of Maya's mother well , but the character in itself is so unbelievable that no wonder the real gangster 's mother filed a case against the film's producers. No real mother will encourage her son down the path of crime unless she is mentally unstable or something , and no mention is made of this anywhere in the film. The part where the cops and gangsters pay "cordial" visits to each other's families and engage in some rather friendly banter is simply baffling to say the least. And why oh why in the end , with so may cops surrounding their hideout , does the director resort to convert the climax into a normal masala Bollywood action sequence with the 3 supercops almost single-handedly fighting the gangsters in a hand to hand combat? The super cops simply run out of bullets and the film disintegrates into "Wrestling at Lokhandwala".

But the most disappointing part is the lame excuse of promoting police encounters in that our justice system is inept and hence the gangsters will go scot-free. The scene in which Arbaaz Khan is taking a captured , unarmed Aditya Lakhia to the police van and then Sanjay Dutt stops him to kill him in front of press and public is quite disconcerting. However much you argue, you cannot justify the cold-blooded killing of an unarmed man, whatever the reason or whoever it is. Killing in self-defense is one thing but such encounters do little to differentiate the cops from the very evil menace that they are trying to eliminate.


To summarize it all, the same plot in the hands of a more able director like say, Ram Gopal Verma would have been quite exciting.The addition of the usual Masala elements to what was a good story simply spoils the fun. My friend told me that for such movies "you just deposit your brain outside the theater and enjoy what is being shown in front of you". So, its just my fault then.
"Yeh Kambakht Dimag rukne ka naam hi nahi leta !!"