It takes a lot
of courage to portray the darkest sides of human behavior. People are capable of much worse than we
could imagine – given the right circumstances.
Most of us are aware of that but live in denial. To the film maker who doesn’t believe in the
beaten path, this aspect of homo sapiens sapiens is nothing short of a
delectable treat.
Written and
directed by Anurag Kashyap, Bollywood’s last installment of 2014 reeks of the
master film maker’s style from frame 1. In
all aspects related to cinema from titling to editing to music and of course
direction & acting, Ugly has AK written all over it and makes it a must
watch for the weekend.
Rahul Varshney
aka Rahul Kapoor (Rahul Bhat) is a struggling actor like many other in tinsel
town. He meets his daughter Kali (Anishkaa
Shrivastava) on Saturdays who otherwise stays with his ex-wife Shalini (Tejaswini
Kolhapure) since their divorce. Rahul’s crappy
life is funded by his close friend and casting director Chaitanya Mishra
(Vineet Singh).
The
irresponsible Rahul leaves Kali unattended in his car (one of the few aspects
that has been left undefined – how can he afford one to begin with) while
waiting for a script that Chaitanya is supposed to hand over. In a matter of minutes, Kali disappears from
the car leading to the premise of the story – the hunt for a kidnapped 10 year
old.
While the broad story
is not path breaking in any manner, it is the treatment that makes it
fabulous. Kashyap focusses his attention
in unraveling the layers of each character’s personality. Every single person of the cast including
side actors are treated with more attention than expected and thereby ensuring
that each one delivers at a higher level than what one would normally associate
with them.
Leading the
performances would clearly be Ronit Roy who is taking to roles with shades of
dark grey like a fish to water. Roy’s is
superb as the ruthless Shoumik Bose, a senior cop who is now married to Shalini. He is effortless at the risk of being type-casted
and makes you cringe in your pants every few minutes.
While the entire
cast was superb, I was most surprised by Tejaswini Kolhapure. In all honesty, I have never thought that TK
was capable of delivering an intense performance as the desperate wife wanting
to end her 2nd failed marriage and an alcohol problem. Apologies for
not having called out the rest of the cast specifically but they were all
superb to say the least.
The narrative is
dark like most Kashyap movies backed with music that borders on psychedelic (for
lack of any other word to describe it). The
editing team could have done better but some aspects that us mortals consider
unnecessary are what make an AK movie what it is. In all a must watch. 8 on 10.
Watch the trailer
on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1298770969/?ref_=tt_ov_vi
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