Once Upon ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!
- Director
- Milan Luthria
- Studio
- Balaji Motion Pictures| distributor =
- Release Date
- 14 August 2013
- Running Time
- 152 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
- Budget
- ₹85.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹91.70 Cr
Review
Milan Luthria returns with a sequel that understands the appeal of its predecessor—the intoxicating charm of a morally compromised protagonist—yet struggles to justify its own existence beyond that premise. Akshay Kumar brings genuine magnetism to Shoaib Khan, a crime boss whose descent into obsessive love feels more plausible than many Bollywood romance arcs, and the film's best moments arrive when it allows this contradiction to breathe. However, the narrative meanders between crime thriller and romantic drama without fully committing to either, and Deepika Padukone's Jasmine remains frustratingly one-dimensional despite capable performance work. The supporting cast, particularly the ensemble of Khan's crew, deserves better material than what's offered here.
What ultimately hampers the film is Luthria's indecisiveness in tone and pacing. The police procedural subplot with Imran Khan feels obligatory rather than organic, interrupting the central tension between Khan's personal desires and criminal empire with heavy-handed sequences that don't land with real consequence. There are sequences—a mid-film confrontation, a moment of genuine betrayal—that hint at the psychological thriller this could have been, but they're diluted by unnecessary glamour shots and a runtime that tests patience. The film made money, and it's slicker than most, but slickness alone cannot compensate for a story that retreads familiar ground without offering fresh perspective on it.
Rating: 5.8/10
Storyline
So basically, this movie picks up right where the first one left off. Shoaib Khan is this super charming crime boss who's been ruling the underworld for over a decade, expanding his operations all over the Middle East. He's got this smooth, sophisticated vibe going on, surrounded by his loyal crew and his ex-girlfriend Mumtaz. When he decides to come back to Bombay to take out a rival named Rawal, everything gets complicated because he ends up falling hard for this stunning rising actress named Jasmine.
Khan becomes absolutely obsessed with Jasmine and uses his connections to boost her career in every way possible, even if it means playing dirty with awards and showering her with expensive presents. Meanwhile, he sends his trusted guys out to handle Rawal, but things go sideways when one of them accidentally kills the wrong person and then gets caught by the cops. The police have been chasing Khan for twelve years and they're determined to finally catch him now that he's back in the city, so they start playing mind games to flush him out of hiding.
As the net tightens around him, Khan starts getting paranoid about whether his own people are working with the police to take him down. When he suspects one of his closest allies might be a rat, he decides to kill him, but his younger protégé Aslam volunteers to do the job himself to help ease the pressure on Khan and throw the police off the scent. Things are about to get really messy as everyone's got their own agenda and the stakes keep getting higher.
