Shootout at Lokhandwala.. what a movie it was...

Director : Apoorva Lakhia

Starring : Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Arbaaz Khan, Viveik Oberoi, Tusshar Kapoor, Rohit Roy, Shabbir Aluwalia, Aditya Lakhia, Amrita Singh, Diya Mirza, Neha Dhupia and Abhishek Bachchan (as far as I could remember)

A movie I had been wanting to watch for a really long time, almost 2months finally happened today.. I had picked up the dvd from my library and decided to see it today.. had seen and heard the songs before, love the Ganpat song a lot..

A real life incident made into a movie called ‘Shootout At Lokhandwala’ has a huge starcast and is a thriller from the minute it starts to the last scene… Has you totally involved and watching every scene without blinking your eyes.. It’s a re-creation of the Lokhandwala shootout of 1991, in which underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s henchmen were killed by cops.

The first scene is in an old tattered apartment building where we see brooms and buckets of water used in cleaning dried blood and bullets in Lokhandwala . News reporter Meeta (Diya Mirza) reports that some 3000 rounds of ammunition were discharged by a large police squad at a previously peaceful residential locality.

The film then moves to the office of former chief justice turned private prosecutor Dhingra (Amitabh Bachchan) where he interviews the three leading members of the Police ATS, Inspector General Shamsher Khan (Sanjay Dutt), Inspector Kaviraj Patil (Suneil Shetty) and Javed Sheikh (Arbaaz Khan). The entire movie is kinda like a flashback of what really happened being narrated by the Cops part of the ATS team, who were involved in the shootout.Starts with how Inspector Abhishek (played by yours truly Abhishek bachchan) was killed by the underworld and goes on till the chase is complete and Mumbai is rid of the biggest gang ever....

The story is of the seasoned dedicated driven Khan, who with this team of handpicked cops like Inspector Kaviraj and Javed engaged in bringing down the gangsters in a residential locality of Mumbai and says they have made Mumbai a better city to live in. The gangsters being Maya (Absolutely phenomenal performance by Vivek oberoi), and his highly skilled partner, Buva (Tusshar kapoor who’s fitted into this character very well) who are cold-blooded killers, who wouldn’t give up without a fight and the only person they answer to this Bhai who controls their activities from Dubai, who towards the end is the reason for their death.

Thus begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game where neither side shows any overt aggression but tries to disable the adversary by tactical maneuver. Khan launches "visits" to the criminals' families to try and "persuade" them to counsel the criminals to surrender. In turn, Maya and his men return the "visit" by approaching the cops at social situations. Maya visits Khan at a restaurant where Khan is having a eat out with his family. Maya quietly tells Khan: "This is between your men and mine. Leave the families out of it."

The constantly-charged adrenaline-driven narrative moves across gullies and roads with a ricocheting effect. The ear-splitting soundtrack reverberates with sounds of guns and ganas. The item songs in the beer bar are a rude reminder of how much the original true-life material needed to be re-worked for it to be audience-friendly.

Interesting aspect of this movie is how much attention has been paid to recreating the city as it was back then, detailing of the period…the phone booths, the crumbling buildings, the smoky skyline …all reminding us that the more things change, the more they are the same.

I could go on and on about each scene, but I would be spoiling it for you if you read this before watching the movie.. so go on, pick up the dvd or vcd , if ur really lucky and its still running in theaters, go run for it.. watch it.. savor every scene… get lost in lokhandwala and come out a changed person.. Mind blowing, I can only imagine what it was like in real..

Sivaji- The Boss .. is finally here…

Director Shankar, who has made it a point to highlight social issues in his films like Gentleman, Mudhalvan, and Anniyan, has done it yet again with Sivaji, except that I think he has taken it a bit far in this venture.. watch it and you will know what I am talking about… here is a little bit from my experience… :)

We had been wanting to see the movie but were waiting for my uncle’s to land from various parts of the world and then well, we couldn’t get tickets.. wedding happened and then yippee, we got tickets.. booked em online @ Satyam and made our way to the theater that rainy evening.. it was a night show, so not much of traffic and luckily we got to park right in front of the theater.. Crawled inside and got into the theater to discover our seats were abt 5rows from the screen, Oh,well, cant complain.. we atleast had loads of leg space… lol..

Because of rains and some last min hitches, movie started only around 10.45 as against the scheduled time of 10.15.. And from then on till the final titles it was fun, some scenes were really cool(oh,that’s THE WORD in the movie btw) and some were like “Oh,Gosh,why oh why do Indian movie makers do this copy paste”…. But the sets, costumes, special effects had us all in awe, gaping at the screen… Looks like 85cr really did go into making the movie…

In this movie, Sankar, he highlights the perils of black money and corruption.Rajni on his part has done a good job and no matter what, you will be awestruck by the sheer lavishness in the movie…

A rich NRI from America, Sivaji(Rajnikant) lands in India with a mission to accomplish. He wants to do something good for the downtrodden and the poor. His dream projects: a university and a hospital to benefit the poor, free service for all . Principle partner in the venture is his own uncle (Vivek at his all time best, his role is almost on par with Rajni). Of course, the project has the blessings of Sivaji’s parents, played by Manivannan and Vadivukkarasi.

In comes the villain, Adiseshan (Suman),who pulls out all the stops to ruin Sivaji’s plans. In desperation, Sivaji goes to the extent of selling his property so he can pay the bribes demanded by all just to realise his projects. But Adiseshan succeeds in making Sivaji a pauper. So powerful is he that he even changes the Government to stop Sivaji(unbelievable scenes). The defining moment of the film is the scene where Adi tosses a one-rupee coin to Sivaji and asks him to beg on the streets and how Rajni uses that coin to turn the table about.(This scene is not to be missed )

In between all this,Sivaji falls in love with Tamilselvi( demure Shriya) They get married ignoring the prediction by the astrologer than harm would come to Sivaji if Selvi marries him. The way Sivaji goes abt to get the consent of Tamilselvi’s parents is filled with humour and imagination. And their neighbour who keeps coming forth saying “if not here,then come to my house, I have 2daughters, mingle with them, if you don’t like them,we can remain friends”.. hilarious… J

First half of the movie Adi manages to keep pace with the larger-than-life screen persona of Rajni but in the second half, Rajni dominates. Then, it is Rajnikant all the way, right down to plotting his own death to being reborn…

Music by A R Rahman, as always grows on you… The introductory song in Rajni movie always is the most peppy and lively number, here too the song “Ballelakka”, sung by SP Balasubramaniam and Rahman’s sister Raihana has us tapping our feet and enjoying the beats…The other numbers are not so bad, keep listening to em and you’ll enjoy em eventually…

The movie finally ended around 1.30, we got back home, did a bit of hashing of the movie and then called it a night..

A movie so grand and flamboyant that it gets us thinking “is this a tamil movie”… Watch it and freak out…