Film Review | Once Upon A Time in Amritsar

Once Upon A Time in Amritsar:A blunder happened

~Deep Jagdeep Singh~
Rating/Go to the Last Line Please

Once Upon A Time in Amritsar (OUATIA) revolves around two young college going boys Ranjit (Dilpreet Dhillon) and Gurjind (Gurjind Maan), who are two best friends, belongs to two different family backgrounds and faces the ups and downs of life all together. After finishing their college,

 

they are hopeful to get a good job, to fulfill the expectations of their families, but fate takes an unexpected turn. After losing all hopes, they go to Golden Temple to seek blessing, but there they encounter a suspicious man (Ashish Duggal), who has a wicked plan to disturb the peaceful fabric of Punjab by blowing off the Holy Temple. Both try to convince the tough cop (Pawan Raj Malhotra) to crack down the plan, but in the absence of concrete evidences they himself have to bear the wrath of Punjab police. Taking it as God’s call to save their motherland both jump into a deadly trap. Bad luck follows them their too, instead of being heroes, they become terrorist in Public eye. OUATIA tries to unfold the mystery, who is the mastermind of brutal plan? Will they be successful in stopping the wicked plan and save Golden Temple? Will they be able to come out clean? Will they return back home? 

These synopsis might sound interesting, but curtail your expectations because after disgustingly ‘enriching’ Punjabi Cinema with two all time most pitiable films like Jatt Airways and Sirphire, Director Harjit Ricky very confidently carries forward his legacy of making wrecked movies for the third time in a row. This drama film begins with a hardcore criminal suspense thriller element and you start expecting more twists and turns unfolding the mystery. Wait, wait, Film has just begun and right after this crucial thriller punch, director gets backs to clichéd track of college romance, romantic song, a little family drama, out of the track comedy and dramatic struggle of heroes to get employed. 
You completely forget what happened in the beginning and start cursing yourself for getting into the cinema. Suddenly, a chase sequence begins, and then you again start expecting something is going to happen. But soon with the demise of faith you just start sailing with whatever is happening. Meanwhile second half passes, only final fifteen minutes remain when the story takes a sudden twist shaking the whole narrative upside down. Finally that moment comes, which director has kept under the table to surprise you that makes the whole earlier narrative irrelevant and unrelated. When you learn that just to tell you this simple one liner unconvincing twist director has tortured you for almost 105 minutes, instead of having sympathy for poor heroic protagonists, you just want to scream, “Who in the hell hired you as a director?” I beg a pardon Mr. Ricky, but my limit exhausts here.

Performance wise Gurjind and Dilpreet both needs a long way to go. They could not even touch the skin of their characters. No Amritsary accent, out of sync body language and unrealistic expressions. There is no space for Tanvi Nagi and Sonia Kaur in the narrative. Even if director provided Sonia Kaur a few extra shots, he kept her mute (speech disability). Seasoned actors like Ashish Duggal, BN Sharma, Shivendar Mahal and Dolly Minhas are completely wasted. The only saving grace is Pawan Raj Malhotra, in his limited screen presences he kept the spirits high. Prince Kanwaljit Singh complemented him equally. Background score struggled to keep the right tone. The cinematography is strictly okay and editing had no much scope. VFX is simply down-market. 
Rating? Sir, I need a brain massage first. 

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