Bang bang

Yes, there is a Tarantino feel to Shootout at Lokhandwala. But only a wannabe feel…..a desperately wannabe feel

Nishi Malhotra Delhi

Shootout at Lokhandwala fails to come alive as a film of even average substance because Apoorva Lakhia, the director, appears to have had only one thing in mind when making it - to find different ways of filling the screen with gratuitous violence. Everything else – the story, the cast, the camera work and the screenplay had to fit around this basic idea.

This is not the way intelligent films are made – in films, the action has to fit the story. This is the way pornography is made – it is in blue films that the story has to fit the action.
Ten minutes into a film from the latter genre are enough to tell a viewer what to expect from the rest of the film. Ten minutes into Shootout at Lokhandwala, there is little doubt as to the rest to come also. There is practically no room for dialogue (dare I say, as in a blue film again) - only the constant and unrelenting ‘bang bang’ of guns, magnified by a deafening, monotonously unvaried and upbeat background score. I wish I could say this makes the film a James Bond meets Reservoir Dogs, but there is no panache, emotions, humour (dark or otherwise), slickness or professionalism here - the only unfortunate word to describe what happens is ‘crude’. 

To be fair to Lakhia, he does have a story to peg the action on, even if the story is more like one single wham bam event. But it is obvious why this old and tired event from 1991, which had been discussed and buried in the media several times already, appealed to Lakhia: an encounter between five criminals and 286 policemen translates to not only a lot of firepower but a virtual blood and gore fest! Not to mention the killing sprees the bad guys have to go on before the final encounter.

Unfortunately, Lakhia managed to sell this testosterone thumping idea to several other big boys in Bollywood too, because they seem to have lined up to join the film’s cast – right from the thickheads to the very cerebral Big B.

Aftab Ahmad Khan (Sanjay Dutt) is the police chief of the Anti-Terrorist Squad who puts a team together (Sunil Shetty and Arbaaz Khan) to go after Dawood’s Mumbai henchman Maya Dolas (Vivek Oberoi) and his gang (Tusshar Kapoor, Rohit Roy, Shabbir Alluwalia, Sameer Dattani). He succeeds in doing so in an encounter in Lokhandwala, but not before the camera has lingered long and lovingly on assorted munitions (including RTGs and AK47s) and gazillions of cartridges (spent in slow motion showers of gold), vivid close-ups of blood bubbling up from the mouths of the dying, flies humming over corpses, shattered skulls of police informers, and stakes driven through the necks of gangsters. No wonder there is an enquiry (there should be one for Lakhia and producer Sanjay Gupta too) presided over by advocate Dhingra (Amitabh Bachchan). 
The leading ladies are supposed to be inconsequential, so let’s not even go there. But what was Abhishek Bachchan doing in that two minute role?

Is this film enjoyable? Sure, for some people, it is and will be. In the same way as there is voyeuristic pleasure to be derived from reading the gory details of the Nithari killings. What is unfortunate is that it will be seen widely, despite its unapologetic ‘A’ rating, by young and old alike and will, possibly, have some kind of a fallout.

Quentin Tarantino, who Lakhia no doubt worships, has also been criticised by the media in the US for the violence in his films and their influence on society. His answer to the criticism was: "What if a kid goes to school after seeing Kill Bill and starts slicing up other kids? You know, I'll take that chance! Violent films don't turn children into violent people. They may turn them into violent filmmakers but that's another matter altogether."

Somehow I find that hard to agree with.