UGLY (HINDI) (2013/2014)

The kidnapping of Kali, the ten year old daughter of Shalini (Tejaswini Kolhapure) and her ex-husband Rahul (Rahul Bhat), kicks off the action in Ugly, director Anurag Kashyap's latest venture. Shalini had walked out of her marriage with Rahul after being exhausted by his continuing failure in becoming an actor compounded by his stubborn reluctance to choose an alternate career that could provide for the family. She is presently is married to top cop, Shoumik (Ronit Roy) and feels trapped in a well-provided, albeit, loveless marriage. Rahul is allowed to meet Kali only on Saturdays as per the terms of their divorce and on one such Saturday, Kali is abducted, when Rahul's attention was distracted from her by some calls with his casting agent, Chaitanya (Vineet Kumar Singh), about an audition that could help his career. 

Soon, Rahul and Chaitanya approach the local police station seeking their help to find Kali. Their initial interaction with the police inspector Jadhav (Girish Kulkarni) who treats them callously provides for some darkly comic moments in the film. However, things take a serious turn when Jadhav realises that Kali is the step-daughter of Shoumik. Shoumik, who has hated Rahul from their college days and for being the ex-husband of Shalini, sees this an opportunity to hit back and prompts Jadhav to accuse Rahul and Chaitanya for the kidnapping. This sets off a chain of events which meander through several perverse twists and turns where Rahul and Shoumik are continually at loggerheads even as they try to succeed in their quest to rescue Kali. The plot is muddled further as every player in the story, including the leads, try to wring out some opportunistic benefit for themselves from the grave situation.

Kashyap has crafted a tight plot and has populated it with characters who inhabit in several shades of grey with competing and often, conflicting interests. He does not bother to burden any of his characters with cross of a moral compass and as a result, with every decision of these characters arising from their twisted and selfish motivations, the plot thickens and the tension ratchets up another notch. 

While on the apparent level, Ugly, is a gritty and raw thriller about the attempts to rescue an abducted ten year old girl, Kashyap's brilliance is manifested in using it merely as a setting to stage an in-depth exploration of the ugly side of every character that walk through his frames. He infuses a good deal of character into each of his characters, even the most minor ones, which makes them to stand out and get noticed. Be it the callous inspector who finds perverse fun at the cost of a tense father seeking to rescue his abducted child fearing for her safety or a father who is preoccupied with his career which puts his kid in peril or the top cop who is keen to settle scores from his college days or a suicidal alcoholic mother who is seldom bothered about her kid or the friend who even while helping his distressed mate does not flinch from milking an opportunity that presents itself, Kashyap puts the glare of his spotlight on the pervasive perversity in everybody. 

Kashyap is acknowledged for his penchant of casting talented artists to play the characters and here too, the cast consisting of Ronit Roy, Rahul Bhatt, Tejaswini Kolhapure as leads who ace their roles and excellent cameos by Vineet Kumar Singh, Siddhanth Kapoor, Girish Kulkarni and Surveen Chawla provide the power-packed performances that the plot demands. The pulsating background score by Brian McOmber and the dark frames by cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis accentuate the gritty and grimy proceedings.

Through the entire course of his movie, Kashyap continually underlines the moral bankruptcy and ugliness that lurks under the seemingly normal personalities of each and every character as they continue to plumb ever-greater depths seeking some self-centred goals. As a result, Ugly is not an easy film to watch and definitely not for the weak of heart or those who would prefer to remain straight-jacketed in their moral certitudes. In fact, it unleashes the lasting impact of a knock-out punch to the gut that makes us feel queasy and dazed long after the viewing. And, somehow, as if by some quirk, that doesn't feel so bad and on the contrary, leaves you, strangely, satisfied.

In an era that is marked by the continuing shrinkage of the viewer's attention span, Kashyap's craft demands their unwavering attention and wields complete control over it through the two hours of his very real, grim yet riveting tale set in the mean streets of Mumbai. It richly deserves the standing ovation it received in Cannes and many more accolades that are sure to come its way.

A MASTERPIECE ! A MUST WATCH !!

RATING 3.5/5

P.S. - As an add-on, check out the snapshots of the key characters of Ugly with Kashyap's tongue-in-cheek description of them and their dark sides.

PK (HINDI) (2014)

After the stupendous success of 3 Idiots which highlighted the maladies of an education system built on rote en route to setting new benchmarks of box-office success, in PK, the team of Rajkumar Hirani & Aamir Khan, put the multi-billion dollar industry called religion in their cross hairs. 

PK is an alien from a distant galaxy who lands in the middle of the desert in Rajasthan in a spaceship to study earth and its inhabitants. However, soon after landing on earth in the buff, he is divested of his remote - an exotic looking medallion -  through which he can communicate to his spaceship to return to his planet. The stolen remote is purchased by Delhi based godman, Tapasvi Baba (Saurabh Shukla) who intends to use it to milk more money from his devotees for a grand temple project.

PK follows the remote to Delhi and, on his way, is assisted by Bhairo Singh (Sanjay Dutt), a band leader in Rajasthan and Jaggu aka Jagatjanani (Anushka Sharma), a Delhi based TV journalist. There is a minor subplot involving a truncated romance between Jaggu and Sarfaraz (Sushant Singh Rajput), a Pakistani student, when they meet in Belgium.

Using the curious eyes of a being from another world, ignorant of the ways of our world, the director raises several valid questions on religions - man-made paths to God - as well as to godmen - those self anointed custodians of the faith who enrich themselves in the name of salvation and instant solutions by preying on the fears and weaknesses of their devotees. Though most of these questions are neither new nor, by any measure, daring and have already been part of the recent Paresh Rawal movie, Oh My God, Hirani and Aamir approach the subject with sincerity and Hirani's trademark zest which is appealing to the viewers and makes an instant connect.

Aamir, despite his continuing penchant to over-act, is excellent as the bumbling alien who tries to make sense of the multiple contradictions - hypocrisies which are accepted norms of our everyday life - that confound him. Anushka Sharma has an effervescent presence and lights up the screen in every scene she appears. Rajkumar Hirani regulars Sanjay Dutt, Boman Irani, Parikshit Sahani, Saurabh Shukla along with Sushant Singh Rajput are effective in their minor cameos.

PK has its fair share of flaws in the form of a rushed up romance in the first act that is dovetailed into a contrived climax of the third act which stick out as out of place appendages. The length of the movie could also have been clipped by 20 minutes at least to make it more crisper. While Hirani might have wanted to depict PK as a commoner, he could have still avoided the thick Bhojpuri accent for PK which is tacky and hampers clear understanding of his lines. The movie is in its elements in the middle portion when PK is on his exploratory quest throwing up common sense questions on the absurdities that confront him. Yet, The songs, while not chart busters, gel well with the narrative. While there is no doubt that Hirani's movies deal with issues which are socially relevant and his tone of communication despite being evocative, remains benign, one gets the feeling that, in PK, Hirani seems satisfied having barely scratched the surface of an important issue and that, in a sense, could account for a less than fulfilled sense when you leave the movie. 

Overall, PK is a brave attempt (perhaps, not brave enough) - and a cinematic SUCCESS as it packages an important message by flagging several hypocrisies and inanities that baffle us in the garb of religion, rituals, accepted norms and conventions into an entertaining movie with a healthy dose of fun.

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3/5

LINGAA (TAMIL/TELUGU) (2014)

A BIG THANKS to the Superstar.. A potentially unbearable bore, that preys on our patience, becomes just about bearable.. Director K.S. Ravikumar is guilty of squandering the star power of  Rajni with an insipid and ancient (belonging to a pre-Muthu era) narrative to the extent that despite the presence of Rajni, the movie seems to benefit considerably from the comic gags of Santhanam.. It is a disappointing effort from the Mozart of Madras too as his songs fail to register... what's more, their picturisation as well as their  placement appear like warts which hamper the flow of an already glacial pace. Rajni looks his old fine self, especially in the role of the old king. While the cinematographer does a good job, the stunts, except some brief elements of the train sequence, are unimpressive.

Overall, as is the case with most of his Masala flicks, it is Rajni, the Superstar with his larger than life image, who rescues this movie despite being given the short rope by his director and some key members of his crew !

A GOOD WATCH (ONLY, if you are a Rajni fan.. But, then again.. It is pretty hard to find a person who is not one in these latitudes) !!

RATING - 2/5