Amartya Rao (John Abraham) is a peace-loving person. But when his younger brother, Arjun is attacked by a goon of Gaitonde (Amole Gupte), he decides to take power into his hands. As he rises and takes over Gaitonde's throne, Rao gets the support of a local politician, Bhau (Mahesh Manjrekar) and soon take over Mumbai.

Just when I thought Bollywood's obsession with heavy-duty action dramas in which the hero single-handedly beats up 20 men was wearing off, in came Mumbai Saga. If I could just suggest a new title for this Sanjay Gupta film, it would be 'Dishoom and Dishkiyaoon', because that's what it is all about. You take your eyes off the screen for five seconds and somebody gets shot through the chest.

The cops-and-gangsters template of Sanjay Gupta's Shootout films returns in a markedly tempered form in Mumbai Saga, a crime drama set in a crucial period in the evolution of the megacity's violent underbelly. The blood-splattered tale, toplined by John Abraham and Emraan Hashmi, is only intermittently engaging.

An epic story with overwhelming machismo. That's the descriptor on the official trailer of Shootout at Wadala, a film Sanjay Gupta made in 2013. The one thing you can say about the director is that he's consistent. Eight years later, we're pretty much watching the same film. Once again, John Abraham, wearing a tikka and kohl, plays a dreaded Mumbai gangster - here he's Amartya Rao instead of Manya Surve.

MUMBAI SAGA is the story of a gangster and his rivalry with a cop. In the mid-80s, Amartya Rao (John Abraham) lives with his family, comprising of his father (Rajendra Gupta), brother Arjun (Harsh Sharma) and wife Seema (Kajal Aggarwal) in Mumbai. His family sells vegetables on the streets and are harrowed as they have to pay 'hafta' (bribe) to the goons of Gaitonde (Amole Gupte).

If you have followed Sanjay Gupta's directorial closely, then there's no surprise element in Mumbai Saga. The film is the old-fashioned cat-and-mouse chance between a police Vijay Savarkar played by Emraan Hashmi and gangster Amartya Rao played by John Abraham. But to get there, the film creates whole chaos in the first half from how Amartya became a gangster to how he becomes a wanted person in the eyes of the cops.

Mumbai Saga is the latest underworld drama to try to shake off the smell of the mothballs that inevitably clings to this kind of movie. But the only new idea in it is that the biggest gangster in town is a politician. He is named Bhau, is played by Mahesh Manjrekar and closely resembles a certain nativist politician who propagated the Marathi cause.

Writer, producer and director Sanjay Gupta's heavy-duty action saga, begins with a bang, as a group of gangsters are chasing a cunning businessman to assassinate him in broad daylight. Welcome to the Mumbai (then called Bombay) of the early nineties that was ruled by the bhais and the bhaus. And the police was a pawn in the hands of the one who paid the highest price.

The marriage of the signature Sanjay Gupta style of grundgy and cool feel look, sepia tones along with heavy dialogue baazi and action dhamaka creates the right atmosphere. The story set during the mid-80's - early 90's of Mumbai (Bombay at that time) is about a simple Amartya Rao (John Abraham) who is living a peaceful life with his father (Rajendra Gupta), brother Arjun (Harsh Sharma) and wife Seema (Kajal Aggarwal) gets even with the local goons supported by the local gangster Gaitonde (Amole Gupte).

One Word Review... Mumbai Saga: POWER-PACKED. Action-packed entertainer with powerful dialogue... #JohnAbraham terrific, #EmraanHashmi impactful, #MaheshManjrekar, #AmolGupte superb... First hour razor-sharp, second half good... Mass entertainer! #MumbaiSagaReview