After bringing about a strange (but entertaining) combination of cuteness of a little girl and hardcore violence in Ek Ajnabee, it is not surprising to see Apoorva Lakhia making one of the most violent movies till date–SAL.

But this time the motive of the director is not only to entertain but a social message as well. The movie very well and rightly justifies the 1991 encounter of the ace criminal Maya Dolas and gang in a civilian area in presence of 112 civilians without any official order to kill.

Sanjay Dutt, as in every Sanjay Gupta movie is excellent playing the responsible “killing” cop. His subordinates Suniel Shetty and Arbaaz Khan have performed quite well. But the striking feature of the movie is Vivek Oberoi playing the “bad man” for the first time. Vivek has given the best negative performance of the year.

The movie starts in an inquiry room where public prosecutor(Amitabh Bachchan) demands justification form the DIG S.S Khan(Sanjay Dutt) for the so called “inhuman behavior” in killing the criminals. The movie then unfolds showing the Mumbai (Bombay) of 85-91 and the increasing crimes. Extortion, contract killing, cop killing, kidnapping have been shown in a very natural manner. The growing regime of the “D” and his increasing confidence in Maya makes Maya power hungry which finally kills him. The violent acts of Maya (especilly the skull breaking by a kick is worth seeing) leaves the audience terrified.

The fellow negative actors Tushar Kapoor, Rohit Roy, Shabbir, Lakhia have done a fair job.

On the whole, Shootout At Lokhandwala is the first Sanjay Gupta movie with a social message. The movie surely deserves to be a hit. 3 out of 5 star.