Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sasheh Agha, Rishi Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Amrita Singh, Anupam Kher, Deepti Naval, Swara Bhaskar, Sumeet Vyas

Story and Direction: Atul Sabarwal

Music: Amratya Rahut

Rating: **1/2

It looks like after harvesting cine themes pertaining to "glittery and grey" lanes of, Mumbai, now the fascination of our cine thinkers have shifted to National Capital Region, which is slowly and steadily turning into the breeding ground for some of the novel cine ideas. And "Aurangzeb" is recent cop-mafia nexus cine cantata, which has found its roots in this new found wild-west of Bollywood.

After seeing "Aurangzeb" it won't be wrong to say that, it's an amalgamation of two of the most adored fascinations of the Bollywood, one the "Delhi Love" and another one dating back to 70s and 80s, that is of double role. After seeing, Arjun adroitly performing in, "Ishaqzaade", cine buffs were quite eager to see "Aurangzeb" on celluloid.


Besides, Arjun, it was, Sasheh Agah and her somewhat sassy avatar which amply warmed the buzz market with the apprehensions pertaining to "Aurangzeb." After inducing ample ripples in the grapevine, this maiden cine stint of debuting director, Atul Sabarwal opened with an approximate occupancy of 17% at the multiplexes.

Soon after the unveiling of the promos of, "Aurangzeb" buzz arena got fumed with a fragrance that, it is somewhat an inspired cine saga which owns a conceptual resemblance to two of the memorable cine flicks of the golden era i.e "Don" and "Trishul." And frankly telling, while watching "Aurangzeb", traces of these two memorable movies keep on popping in your head (provided you have seen them). But at the same time there is no denying the fact, that "Aurangzeb" is painted in altogether a different texture keeping in mind the orientation of the Gen-X audience.

Anyhow, leaving the comparative arena, let's come back to "Aurangzeb." The plot of "Aurangzeb" is a fair combination of ambitiousness, vendetta, greed, corrupt practices, familial bonding and cop-mafia tug of war. Premise of "Aurangzeb" takes off with a voice-over, narrating the identity of characters, Ravikant Phogat (Rishi Kapoor) and his family of policemen and Yashvardhan Singh (Jackie Shroff) who is otherwise a business tycoon but governs an illegitimate world of mafia while being under the guise of a gentleman and has a debauched son Ajay (Arjun Kapoor).


With proceeding ahead of the story, audience have a rendezvous with the tale of Ajay and Vishal ( Arjun again), the twins who were separated soon after their birth, as their mother, Veera (Tanvi Azmi) opted to turn into a police informer for, Vijaykant Phogat (Anupam Kher) in order to get rid of her criminal husband Yashvardhan Singh, but end up falling in love with Vijaykant and running away from her husband's home.

The story of "Aurangzeb" marks its real onset, when Arya (Prithiviraj) another son of Vijaykant (Anupam Kher) has a rendezvous with Ajay's look alike Vishal. Subsequently clicking of an idea to Arya and his uncle Ravikant, to plant Vishal at Ajay's place in order to unmask, Yashvardhan and his parallel illegitimate world of land Mafia. And follows is tale with numerous twists which keeps audience gaze glued to the celluloid.

There is no doubt about the fact that as writer, Atul Sabarwal has tried to contribute his best in order to pen down a captivating script. But at the same time another fact which can't be denied is that, script of "Aurangzeb", lacks freshness and innovation.

With a huge brigade of character and too many sub-plots popping at regular intervals which seemed to have been induced in order to add on to the swivet coefficient of the movie, Atul ends up making it somewhat confusing for the masses, who end up correlating, succeeding instances to the preceding ones.


As far as screenplay of "Aurangzeb" is concerned, then it takes a somewhat slow yet good flight. Good because, soon after the movie begins, Atul ensures that presence and identity of any of the characters out of his entire brigade of protagonists should not look oblivious or the obtruded one. So pat for this commendable job.

Although the pace of narration is a bit slow in the case of, "Aurangzeb", but in spite of this it never allows you to take off your attention from the celluloid. But amid this slowing pace the factor which acts as a distractor in the pre-interval part is the incorporation of some of the unwanted and extended sequences, pertaining to past lives of the the characters on the central stage.

Thereafter when the movie reaches post interval part, entire momentum of screenplay crumbles and transforms into a potpourri of melodrama, complexity and predictability. And besides this even the climax of "Aurangzeb" fails in shouldering the crumbling screenplay or adding on to the over all appeal of the movie. So on the whole, just an OK screenplay which could have been better.


While being in directors chair, Atul has done a decent job by keeping all his attention targeted on the well defined character growth, which thoroughly contributes to the tempo and texture of the movie. But the man who deserves a special bunch of accolades is N. Karthik Ganesh, whose cinematic adroitness makes the entire movie quite realistic. Besides this dialogues of "Aurangzeb" speaks for themselves and have got a right amount of appeasing value.

As far as music of the movie is concerned, then with a bare minimum dose of it, and a few soulful aural delights, music of Amartya Rahut and Vipin Mishra uptill an extent manages to please you.

Undoubtedly, it's never an easy task for an actor to portray a dual role in the very initial days of his career, but in "Aurangzeb", Arjun up till some extent has succeeded in doing a justice to his characters. Arjun who left many enthralled by his performance in, "Ishaqzaade", this time looked a bit subdued, although while being, Ajay the spoil brat, Arjun, has looked quite natural and up till an extent has succeeded in leaving his mark, but while being his sober counterpart Vishal, Arjun seems to be struggling and lacks the expressiveness which was expected out of his character.


Debuting hottie Sasheh has portrayed some of the bold scenes with utmost comfort, but, at the same time she need to brush up her acting skills in order to sustain in the tinsel town. Jackie very well slips under the skin of Yashvardhan's character and is well supported by her greedy onscreen paramour, Amrita Singh.

After debuting in Bollywood with forgettable cine flick, "Aiyya", this time Prithiviraj has looked more impressive and conveniently succeeds in impressing the masses by his uninhibited performance.

Swara Bhaskar, Deepti Naval and Anupham Kher perform their respective roles with efficiency, but looked a bit under utilized for the onscreen proceedings. Besides this another veteran actress Tanvi Azmi succeeds in registering her performance.

And now at last but not the least, it's legendary Rishi Kapoor, whose outstanding performance fetches him another huge bunch of accolades and thoroughly adds on to his iconic status. In fact it won't be wrong to say that throughout the run time it's Rishi's performance which keeps you spellbound.


To sum up, despite some of the sinewy performances by the cast and a few praiseworthy cinematic components configured in it, it's the complexity which has the last laugh and gets "Aurangzeb" outmaneuvered in cine battlefield.