Starring: John Abraham,Anil Kapoor,Ronit Roy,Siddhant Kapoor
Director: Sanjay Gupta
Producer: Ekta Kapoor,Sanjay Gupta,Shobha Kapoor,Anuradha Gu
Banner: White Feather Films,Balaji Telefilms Ltd
Music: Anu Malik
Shootout At Wadala Movie Review | Shootout At Wadala Review | Shootout At Wadala Movie
Shootout at Wadala is a perfect Bollywood entertainer. Do not expect much out of it and you will not be disappointed. This film has no connections with Shootout at Lokhandwala, except the presence of the same elements – gangsters, encounter cops and lots of action. For good measure director Sanjay Gupta has added three item numbers into the mix to keep everyone satisfied.
This film is adapted from the book ‘Dongri to Dubai’ by the renowned journalist and author S. Hussain Zaidi and that gives it a strong base to build on. Sanjay Gupta, however, takes liberty with the material in hand and dramatizes it a notch too much. Black Friday by Anurag Kashyap was also adapted from a S. Hussain Zaidi book. SAW is the story of Manya Surve (played exceptionally well by John Abraham). Manya is a student in 1970s Mumbai (or Bombay as it was known then). He gets convicted of a murder he didn’t commit and is sent to prison. While in prison Manya befriends Munir (portrayed competently by Tusshar Kapoor) and the two escapes together. Once out, Manya decides against working under any of the gangsters present and instead forms his own gang. SAW traces the rise and fall of Manya Surve, from an innocent, almost precocious young man, to a hardboiled gangster.
Shootout At Wadala Movie Review | Shootout At Wadala Review | Shootout At Wadala Movie
This film also portrays the first ever official encounter carried out by Mumbai Police, during which Manya was shot dead. SAW scores well on two fronts – for being a technically sound film and for good to excellent performances by the lead actors. As I already said Tusshar delivers a competent performance. Sonu Sood and Manoj Bajpai as Manya’s rival gang members, Dilawar and Zubair, are menacing. Then there is Anil Kapoor portraying the role of the trigger-happy encounter cop close on the heels of Manya. Kangana Ranaut plays Vidya, Manya’s love interest. Her screen time is quite short and she hardly gets an opportunity to make an impression. Ronit Roy, Mahesh Manjrekar and Jackie Shroff make credible guest appearances. But the pick of the lot is John Abraham as Manya Surve. John takes on a role for which he doesn’t seem to be the natural choice. But think back for a minute and you will be reminded of his convincing performance in a negative role in films like Dhoom and Zinda. John does a great job in bringing across on-screen the transformation of Manya Surve. His amazing physicality adds another dimension to the intense action sequences in SAW. And the action starts right from the word go.
Shootout At Wadala Movie Review | Shootout At Wadala Review | Shootout At Wadala Movie
There are enough knives, guns, blood and gore in the first 15 minutes to make you want some respite. Sanjay Gupta’s strength has always been action and he doesn’t disappoint on that count in SAW either. Where he should have been a little more careful was during the edit sessions. After maintaining a fast, uniform pace in the first-half, SAW starts slagging a bit in the second-half and this is really glaring in the climax, which could have been a lot tighter. The item songs are completely unnecessary as they hamper the flow of the film and none of the tracks are either a ‘Munni Badnaam’ or a ‘Sheila Ki Jawani’, which makes them even more cringe-worthy. Milap Zaveri, who is credited as the dialogue writer, has incorporated every possible swear word he knew into the film’s dialogue. If excessive gore and filthy language is not really your thing, then steer clear of this film. VERDICT: SAW shamelessly epitomizes its genre and that is the films biggest strength.
Shootout At Wadala Movie Review | Shootout At Wadala Review | Shootout At Wadala Movie
it is a complete Bollywood masala entertainer featuring good performances peppered with abundant action sequences. This is definitely not Sanjay Gupta’s best film, but it is up there with Kaante and Zinda. This weekend has couple of other films on offer so depending on your taste you could opt for this film.
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