Movie Review: Ugly

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Cast: Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Siddhanth Kapoor, Abir  

People are selfish, greedy and violent. In real life redemption is as rare as innocence. Our past and our baggage govern how we behave and react in the present. The future is as dark and unknown as our inherent vice. That is the Ugly truth. And that is why Anurag Kashyap’s latest film deserves its name to the hilt. This crime thriller is the ugliest form of reality you’ll ever watch. It will shake you up, churn your emotions in a meat grinder and spew it out for nothing. It’s the darkest film in a decade and if you are 18 years of age and above, you should be watching it.

The story deals with a dysfunctional family set up. Rahul Bhat plays a struggling actor called Rahul Kapoor and his life is destroyed when his 10-year-old daughter Kali is kidnapped from his car in broad daylight. The emotions are amplified when you realize, Rahul is separated from his wife Shalini (Tejaswini Kolhapure) who is now married to hard cop Shoumik Bose (Ronit Roy). It doesn’t help that Rahul, Shalini and Shoumik used to be a love triangle in college. And the men have some bad blood left over from a previous altercation. When the little girl does go missing, the grownups get a chance to level their issues. They all start questioning each other’s motives. Every character becomes a vengeful sprite ready to lynch the next person. Logic gets abandoned faster than a bullet. And even a reputed cop starts acting with abject prejudice. As and how the situation complicates itself, you’re shown that even the most docile and hapless people can become manipulative masters when the opportunity presents itself.

 

At the heart of this grim and terrifying tale is a solid script and screenplay. The situations created by Anurag Kashyap remind you of a time forgotten in cinema. Those Hollywood noir films of the ’40s and ’50s where the tension was palpable. In Ugly, things get so wound up, as a viewer you start passing your own judgments on the characters and their motives. Right through the film, it is never clear which one of the leading characters in guilty. And as they start doubting each others’ intentions, you are drawn in to the mystery. And that’s not even the best part of the movie. You might think such dark drama must be horribly sadistic, but it’s not. The situations are presented to you in a hilarious setup. The dialogues are so witty and verbose you’re reminded of the cheeky way in which Quentin Tarantino plays out his scenes. So while the setting may be morbid, the way the characters behave and talk, dark humour takes over. Some scenes in the film are such an amalgamation of comedy and tragedy, you wouldn’t know why there are tears in your eyes. But one thing sticks out like a sore thumb. In great amount of detailing of how cops and crooks function, Anurag lets a rookie mistake slip by. Most characters in the film are facing a pinch for money, yet drive around in swanky sedans. It’s a bit of a miss.

But the performances are bang on. In fact, the acting is so authentic that every character simply overshadows the actor playing it. Ronit Roy as the tough, unforgiving and to a point brutal cop is the textbook definition of intense. His character’s simmering anger is the catalyst for this film. Rahul Bhat as the clueless and seemingly subversive failed actor is decent too. His character’s loss and his sense of helplessness are contrasted by his continual ability to take the worst decisions. Tejaswini Kolhapure as the classic dame Shalini is the perfect blend of lost. Her character simply doesn’t get the depth of proceedings, ever. The character dynamics in Ugly go beyond cinema. They’re accurate to a fault. Even Vineet Kumar Singh as Chaitanya, Rahul’s best friend and Siddhant Kapoor as Shalini’s greedy brother are such wonderfully complex and flawed people. Every single one of them is bad. There are no redeeming qualities. They’re all inadvertently heading towards destruction. Another key aspect of the film which goes unnoticed in the wake of its drama is the music by GV Prakash and Brian McOmber as well as the cinematography by Nikos Andritsakis. There contributions are no less than artful masterstrokes.

Anurag Kashyap, his writers, his actors and his technicians have outdone themselves with Ugly. The underlying sense of peril and the unrelenting tension grips you through a sweat breaking two hours. And when the climax of Ugly arrives you’re dealt a killer blow. It’s so dark and inconvenient that it’ll wrench your gut. And yet, it’s so simple that you’ll hate yourself for not guessing. More so, you’ll hate the characters for being so ignorant and misguided. Ugly is a film that draws the deepest and darkest behavior of men. This is how you make a great film.