Shootout at Lokhandwala

Shootout at Lokhandwala is a 2007 Hindi feature film directed by Apoorva Lakhia. It is based upon the real-life gunbattle between gangsters and Mumbai Police.

Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Aftab Ahmed Khan Head of the ATS attacked the Lokhandwala Complex on November 16, 1991 , with a force of around 100 armed Policemen. Dreaded gangster Maya Dolas was hiding in the complex. The leading protagonists in the film have slightly different names than their real-life counterparts and the film caption is "based on true rumours." The film was released on May 25, 2007.

Plot

The film opens with shots of brooms and dustpans cleaning dried blood and bullet casings in and around Swati building at Lokhandwala Complex[1]. TVN reporter Meeta Matu (Diya Mirza) reports that some 3000 rounds of ammunition were discharged by a large Police squad at a previously peaceful residential locality.

The film moves to the offices of former chief justice turned private prosecutor Dhingra (Amitabh Bachchan) where he interviews the three leading members of the Mumbai Police Encounter Squad , Assistant Commissioner of Police Shamsher Khan (referring to A A Khan, played by Sanjay Dutt), Inspector Kaviraj Patil (Sunil Shetty) and Sub-Inspector Javed Sheikh (Arbaaz Khan). The main film timeline is the extended interview of the three officers by Dhingra; as the officers answer Dhingra's questions, the film flashes back to show the incidents.

Dhingra asks about the Encounter Squad. Khan explains that he hand-picked 27 of Mumbai Police's best enlisted men and officers. He borrowed the concept from the LAPD SWAT Special Weapons And Tactics team to help combat crime in the city. The film flashes back to show Khan selecting his men and putting them through intensive physical and mental training to be "fast, efficient and deadly". Dhingra is hardly impressed: he points out that if Khan chooses to "shoot to kill" then Khan is no different from the gangsters he seeks to destroy.

Dhingra asks why Khan felt he had do this. Khan explains that following Operation Bluestar in 1984, several Sikh terrorists fled to Mumbai and began establishing a base in the city. They engaged in violence, extortion and other subversive tactics to grow their operations. The film flashes back to show Police Sub Inspector (PSI) Abhishek Mhatre (Abhishek Bachchan) , a very brave officer and disciple of Khan , pursuing and subsequently getting shot down by a group of Sikh terrorists. Khan is deeply frustrated when the Mumbai Police, mired in internal bureaucracy and corruption, fails to act. He obtains clearance from the police commissioner Krishnamurthy (played by the real A A Khan) and sets out after the militants. Khan asks Meeta Matu (Diya Mirza) to cover the incident so as to deter future terrorists. True to Khan's words, he successfully "encounters" (a practice mistakenly considered unique to Indian Police; it indicates summarily gunning down criminals; 'extra judicial killings' is the term accepted internationally) the terrorists who had shot PSI Mhatre. As per Aftab Ahmed Khan the encounter with Khalistani Extremist was more dangerous and tough than Shootout at Lokhandwala.