Rating: ★★★ Genres: Action, Love Story, Revenge, Drama Censor: A Duration: 140 min. Studio/presenter: Udaydada Lad Producer: Somnath Chitra Director:  Sushrut Bhagwat Writer: Udaydada Lad Screenplay: Aashish Pathre Music: Ashok Patki, Yogita Chitale Cinematographer (DOP): Ajith V. Reddy Cast: Umesh Kamat‬, ‎Mahesh Manjrekar, ‎Mrunal Dusanis‬, ‎Rahul Mehendale‬, ‎Ramesh Bhatkar‬, ‎Deepak Shirke‬, ‎Sanjay Mone‬, ‎Kishor Chougule‬ Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

There have been many films made, on Gangsters in Mumbai. Three years ago, there was a film ‘Shootout at Wadala’, which was based on middle class graduate turned gangster of Mumbai Manohar alias Manya Surve. John Abraham had played his character  in this film. The film presented detailed story  of this gangster, showing his final encounter with Mumbai police.

Now, producer Udaydada Lad and director Sushrut Bhagwat have made a film ‘Mumbai Time-A revenge Story’ which is based on another qualified youngster turned gangster,  Amar Bhargav Surve. The film has declared in the beginning of the film that no character in this film resembles any person dead or alive.  Also,  the director of the film has denied that the character of Amar has any  relationship with late Manya Surve. But,  the crime records available on internet, show that Manya Surve had a step brother , Bhargav dada, who was also a gangster.

In the film, there is a character of Bhargav dada( Played by Sanjay Mone) , who is shown as the father of lead character Amar ( Umesh Kamat). He is shown returning from jail, to begin his business, as a bar owner. In the film, Amar’s mother( Ashwini Ekbote) encourages her son to take up a good job, after completing his education. And, Amar does try for the same, being an intelligent youngster. But, his father’s name and his past comes in the way of his getting good job. One day, Amar goes out with his friend( Advait Dadarkar) and when his friend is being attacked by local goon Ravdya ( Kishore Chougule) belonging to notorious gangster Anna( Deepak Shirke), he intervenes and injures Ravdya. Later, Amar surrenders before the police. But, ravdya takes revenge, by killing Amar’s parents.

At this stage of this film, we see the beginning of the revenge story, with Amar joining the Khan ( Ramesh Bhatkar) gang, pleasing Khan,  by eliminating the members of  Anna gang, one by one, using his skills. His father’s right hand( Rahul Mehendale) also joins Amar, in this revenge drama. But, the right hand of  Khan – Dattu Fighter( Rahul Gore) , is unable to bear the closeness of the film’s hero with Khan and he keeps on playing his dirty tricks.

There is a special Police officer Mr. Inamdar ( Mahesh Manjrekar) called from Nagpur to stop the Gangwar, but instead of solving the case, he wastes his time playing chess and drinking tea with Amar. No freehand is given to his character.  Similarly, Mrunal Dusanis, who plays Amar’s girlfriend, keeps on supporting Amar, even in his shoot out revenge story.  Towards the end of the film, we find Dattu Fighter  swearing for revenge; though all members of Anna gang including his chief are eliminated. In the climax, we clearly find a clue being given, that the sequel of this film will be made, by the makers of this film to go with the present trend.

‘Mumbai Time’ has lot of resemblance to many past Bollywood films on gangsters, including recently released film ‘Dagadi Chawl’, especially the concluding part. There is lot of violence in the film, with firing of bullets in most of the scenes. Umesh Kamat has played his role convincingly. Good support comes from Ramesh Bhatkar, Sanjay Mone, Deepak Shirke, Ashwini Ekbote, Mrunal Dusanis,Kishore Chougule and others.  The character of Police officer played by Mahesh Manjrekar is not well defined in the film, which goes on to show that police have been given less importance in this gangster dominated film. Even the character of a school master, is just for name sake in the film.

Technically, the film is well made, with good editing work by Rajesh Rao and well captured photography by Ajith Reddy.  Ashok Patki & Yogita Chitale have provided well suited  music, to few songs in this film. All in all, the filmmaker has been able to create an atmosphere of Gang Wars in Mumbai, during 80s, with some of the  dialogues in Hindi, especially,  those uttered by the character of Ramesh Bhatkar and few others. Only those, who love to watch action films, on such subjects, may like this film. The film could have been more gripping and entertaining.