Zila Ghaziabad
2013
Director: Anand Kumar
Cast: Arshad Warsi, Vivek Oberoi, Paresh Raval, Ravi Kishan, Minissha Lamba, Divya Datta, Charmy Kaur

Zila Ghaziabad is supposedly based on a real-life story of a deadly gang-war that raged in UP’s Ghaziabad district in the 1990s. The question is how has director Anand Kumar (with past duds like Delhi Heights and Jugaad) presented that crime saga on silver screen.

What’s the plot?

Two rival strongmen (Paresh Raval and Ravi Kishan) and their gangs have constantly been at each other’s throat in order to wrest political and financial control of Ghaziabad district. A dreaded killer (Arshad Warsi) is being used as a pawn in this power-game. His change of loyalty and latter excesses bring in one more player into the crime-game, a teacher who took up arms to avenge his family’s lost lives. As the gang-war escalates and claims heavy casualties on both sides, a tough cop (Sanjay Dutt), who cares two hoots about legality, is sent there to get it under control. Who will have the final say in this no-holds-barred gang war?

What’s hot?

·         Good cinematography with colorful frames and rustic locations.

What’s not?

·         Anand Kumar’s direction is without finesse and novelty. It just seems like a poor imitation of Bollywood’s popular crime-sagas such as Omkara, Dabangg, Gangs of Wassseypore, Rajneeti and Singham.

·         Loud, garish and artless presentation.

·         Mindless and mind-numbing violence.

·         Despite a well-known star-cast, practically every performance falls into the ‘Bad’ category, with the probable exception of Vivek Oberoi, who tries gamely to give some meaning to his role.

Verdict

Zila Ghaziabad is just a horrible mishmash of recent Bollywood crime-capers. Despite its so called real-life origins, it is totally devoid of realism as well as life!