Shootout at Wadala is just another run-of-the-mill money grab that uses a historic event in the Mumbai crime scene, translating it into an underwhelming "film" or lack there of.
John Abraham is cast as Manya Surve, a well-to-do college student who goes by the books and according to him, does nothing wrong. Cast alongside Abraham as his love interest is Kangana Ranaut as Vidya Joshi.
The tempo is set early with Abraham being the last hope of his mother to establish himself as an honest man earning an honest living. However, Surve's brother, a gangster, is attacked by local thugs and as Surve pulls one of them off, the brother stabs the bandit and thus Surve is held accountable alongside his brother.
After what seems like a brief stay in prison, Surve escapes and begins his life as a new member of the Mumbai underground. Along the way, the story sees Surve undergo a very abrupt and unrealistic development as a character. The so-called nice guy becomes a complete power hungry alpha-male-mentality driven gangster that gets it all and manages to lose it as well.
Now, a Bollywood Action-Thriller would not be complete without some songs and a lot of slow-mo. The Item songs are okay, but they add nothing to the plot of the story. In years past, the songs would at least provide some sort of connection to the overall story. But in today's day and age, it's all about having item songs that showcase gorgeous women in skimpy outfits. Not only that, but this film had a lot of awkward sex scenes. Bollywood has long been known as a very conservative film medium and the various innuendo and straight forward sex scenes in this film just made the viewing very awkward, especially the make supposed lust-filled make-out session between Abraham and Renaut. It also seems as though Indian cinema has become very accustomed to using slow motion and bullet time. It would be bearable if it occurred here and there to emphasize intricate fighting scenes. Unfortunately, a large portion of the minutes in this film are used to show John Abraham running shirtless in slow motion, or to showcase every single hit no matter how weak in really slow motion.
Overall, Shootout at Wadala is a film that could have been done much better, yet falls way too short in terms of plot and character development and fails to really get anything across beyond fighting, cigarettes, sex and lots and LOTS of unnecessary slow motion.
John Abraham is cast as Manya Surve, a well-to-do college student who goes by the books and according to him, does nothing wrong. Cast alongside Abraham as his love interest is Kangana Ranaut as Vidya Joshi.
The tempo is set early with Abraham being the last hope of his mother to establish himself as an honest man earning an honest living. However, Surve's brother, a gangster, is attacked by local thugs and as Surve pulls one of them off, the brother stabs the bandit and thus Surve is held accountable alongside his brother.
After what seems like a brief stay in prison, Surve escapes and begins his life as a new member of the Mumbai underground. Along the way, the story sees Surve undergo a very abrupt and unrealistic development as a character. The so-called nice guy becomes a complete power hungry alpha-male-mentality driven gangster that gets it all and manages to lose it as well.
Now, a Bollywood Action-Thriller would not be complete without some songs and a lot of slow-mo. The Item songs are okay, but they add nothing to the plot of the story. In years past, the songs would at least provide some sort of connection to the overall story. But in today's day and age, it's all about having item songs that showcase gorgeous women in skimpy outfits. Not only that, but this film had a lot of awkward sex scenes. Bollywood has long been known as a very conservative film medium and the various innuendo and straight forward sex scenes in this film just made the viewing very awkward, especially the make supposed lust-filled make-out session between Abraham and Renaut. It also seems as though Indian cinema has become very accustomed to using slow motion and bullet time. It would be bearable if it occurred here and there to emphasize intricate fighting scenes. Unfortunately, a large portion of the minutes in this film are used to show John Abraham running shirtless in slow motion, or to showcase every single hit no matter how weak in really slow motion.
Overall, Shootout at Wadala is a film that could have been done much better, yet falls way too short in terms of plot and character development and fails to really get anything across beyond fighting, cigarettes, sex and lots and LOTS of unnecessary slow motion.