Mumbai Saga Review: Underwhelming & Unnecessary!

Mumbai Saga on Amazon Prime Video is the 2021 Bollywood action crime film starring John Abraham and Emraan Hashmi in the primary roles with Suniel Shetty, Kajal Aggarwal, and others filling in as the supporting cast. Directed by Sanjay Gupta, the story is set in the 80s and 90s and shows the changing phases of Mumbai by closing mills to make malls and high-rise buildings.

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On the critical side of things, Sanjay Gupta doesn’t seem to know who his star actor is and what he is capable of, despite having worked with them before. Emraan Hashmi, who we last saw in the 2019 disaster The Body, is probably the only redeeming factor of this movie. Also, speaking of under-utilizing actors, I felt super angry at how they wasted Suniel Shetty in a cameo that could have been done by anyone else.

I was so excited to see Suniel Shetty and John Abraham sharing screen again after sixteen years (last seen in 2004’s Lakeer). Prateik Babbar’s character was badly written, and the rest of the actors, including Kajal Aggarwal, got to add very little to the overall story, however, in the end, Mumbai Saga still gave me a half-baked vibe.

The runtime is chopped down to two hours to make it crisp, but ironically it works against the film. The dialogues are good, though. The “cool dude slow-mo shots” do not land well, since I did not connect to the characters enough to cheer in favor of them or feel bad for them.

Sanjay Gupta probably wanted to create another Manya Surve by casting John Abraham as a “random guy who becomes the Don.” God, I hope he doesn’t make another movie with John. And I also hope John also quits making mindless commercial movies, but then again, Satyameva Jayate 2 is releasing soon. So, let the cringe-fest unfold.

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All in all, underwhelming, unnecessary, and most importantly, Mumbai Saga follows the same commercial movie template from the 90s which makes it horrible to watch. The movie falls on the strong shoulders of Emraan Hashmi and John Abraham, who do most of the heavy-lifting, watch it at your own will. Watch ‘Mumbai Saga’ on Amazon Prime Video here.

Review by Natasha Baria
Follow Nat on Instagram – @natasha_baria
Co-written by Surya Komal

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