Ugly

I have watched all movies directed by Anurag Kashyap except Return of Hanuman andMumbai Cutting. I think I can objectively critique his movies because am a fan. He is one of the best directors/producers we have today. He is creative and brings something new to every movie. You come out of the theatre feeling something you have never felt before.

My favorite movies of AK are Dev D, Gulaal and Black Friday. And if I absolutely had to pick one at gun point, it would be Gulaal. Gulaal has so many layers and it is so creative. It is the only movie I can watch over and over and over again. 

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Ugly. I had great expectations from the flick because people on twitter have called it better than 'Black Friday'. I guess those people haven't even seen Black Friday. Twitter is unreliable when it comes to movies. There is too much marketing happening there. It is so easy to create a furore around a movie by retweeting the good reviews. I barely come across bad reviews until I search for them. That's what happened with PK and now with Ugly. 


Ugly stars

- Ronit Roy as Shoumik Bose, the cop who is tough as nails, literally. How I love this guy. He can give any of the Khans serious competition and he does not need to take off his clothes to show his physique. You can see it even in the cop's uniform.

- Tejaswini Kolhapure as Shalini Bose, Shoumik's current wife. She was earlier married to Rahul Kapoor and has a daughter Kali. I remember Tejaswini as the hot lady who dared to star in a lesbian serial. Yes, there used to be lesbian Hindi serial on TV. Yes, I grew up in times when TV had good content like Banegi Apni Baat. Yes,there was a time when I used to watch cable. Anyway, Tejaswini is perfect as the alcoholic, suicidal, repressed, depressed wife

- Rahul Bhat as Rahul Kapoor, an aspiring out of work actor. He is having an affair with his ex-wife's best friend. 

- Vineet Kumar Singh as Chaitanya, Rahul's best friend. Remember Vineet? He was Nawazuddin's elder brother in Gangs of Wasseypur and was part of the short film 'Muraba' which was part of the movie Bombay Talkies directed by AK. That is what I like about AK- he casts great actors and they are part of his other movies too. Because it is difficult for someone like Vineet to find good roles in Bollywood. He is a brilliant actor but would end up in character roles.

These are the 4 main characters in the movie and the story revolves around them. 
Rahul and Shalini are divorced. Rahul gets to meet Kali every Saturday and on this day he picks her up for a movie to IMAX. On the way, he has to meet Chaitanya at his house and pick up a script so he leaves Kali in the car for 15 mins. When he returns, she is gone. On searching, Chaitanya and Rahul find a man who has her phone and they chase her but he meets with an accident and dies on the spot. And then starts a wild goose chase. Ronit Roy, being the step father and a cop, gets involved. Everyone has an agenda. Everyone needs money desperately and is willing to fake being the kidnapper for it. Nobody can be trusted. 

I won't give out the end but it is predictable and left me cold. 
The movie drags in parts but you hold on thinking the climax will be make it worth it but alas, it does not. 
Somewhere Anurag has focussed on the jazz, in trying to make the characters dark, in trying to add masala and humour and the climax has been forgotten. I don't know what would have been a good climax but then am not the director. 

You can miss this one in the theatre and wait for it to come on TV.