Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Sanjay Dutt, Kangana Ranuat, Raza Murad, Angad Bedi, Neil Bhoopalam, Neha Dhupia
Direction: Rensil D' Silva
Rating: * *
Usually it's blissful to see our Bollywooders trying their hands on a diverse range of cine genres, but there is another herd of cine wizards in tinsel town who instead of fiddling with innovation prefer to mutate the existing tried and tested cine designs. And we have often seen this happening with cinematic-creativity reintroducing itself to us many a times, but every-time while being in a different robe. Now the million dollar question is why we are saying so...
Actually it's because of recently released Emraan, Randeep Hooda, Sanjay Dutt, Kangana et al starrer, Rinsel Di Silva's cine creation, "Ungli" which has just arrived in the complexes with an "Anti Corruption" cine theme lying underneath it. Well this is not for the first time when the cineasts have become prey to the "Anti corruption" fascination of cine literati and that's because of latter's understanding of the fact that "socially relevant issues sell like a hot cake".
Probably these cine wizards of Bollywood should offer their bows to some of the political-Harlequins who unearthed this fascination of "Mango Man" (Aam Aadmi) for anti-corruption issues through some of their picketing acts (You Know what I mean!). And presumably it's because of this candid revelation that these days cineplexes are getting bombarded with the cine chronicles molded around the pith of "Fight Against Corruption".
But there is another undeniable fact, that despite having a common stake tied to them, these movies with an "Anti corruption" tag pasted on them come with a spin every-time, where our cine thinkers add their own perception to the anti social beast. And even Rinsel Di'Silva's recently released "Ungli" is not an exception to the rule.
Well after seeing so many reformist movements in real life and many films based on these socially relevant real life themes there remains no doubt about the fact that by now our Bollywooders have developed an irresistible fascination for the social evils around which they knit their cine yarns.
And to believe the aforementioned fact you can take the example of movies like, "Ardh Satya", "Jaagte Raho", "Satyagrah", "Rang De Basanti" and even "Kick" and "Singham Returns". Which tried to unearth the existence of the dirty beast called corruption in our system.
But despite tackling the common enemy, makers of these cine tales conducted a good amount of genre mutation or rather genre autopsy to make their cine junket look different from the other. And so is the case with the story-line of Ungly where Rinsel Di'Silva (who also wrote Rang De Basanti) tried to cash upon the charming potency of this "Fight Against Corruption" paternoster after redesigning it with a few new vamps.
As far as premise of "Ungli" is concerned then it's a cine narration about four friends, Abhay (Randeep Hooda), Maya (Kangna Ranaut), Kaleem (Angad Bedi) Gautam alias Goti (Neil Bhoopalam) united by a tragedy and their endeavor to make socio-political system corruption free.
In order to make their "Cloud Cukoo Land" a reality they wear masks, kidnap the corrupt officials make the video tapes of their moral iniquities and expose them for the larger good. With frames rolling ahead these fantastic foursome turn in to the darlings of the aam junta. With everything going smooth for these fearless foursome, steps in a rightful cop ACP Kale (Sanjay Dutt) who is assigned with a task of nabbing them. But then comes in another twist when ACP Kale ropes in another cop, Nikhil (Emraan Hashmi) to help him out in reaching out to these masked Robinhoods.
As the story proceeds further Nikhil somehow manages to coalesce in the "Ungli" gang (the name given to these masked reformist by the Aam Junta).So what follows next does Nikhil manages to throw the "Ungli" gang behind the bars, or he himself transform into one of them to know you have to watch this new take on "war against corruption".
Albeit with his story Rinsel tried to add a new dimension to this much adored "Fight Against Corruption" genre, where instead of sticking to those Gandhian ideas like Satyagrah and candle march he preferred to trail a rather revolutionary approach with some masked Robinhoods (or rather freelance Robinhoods) screwing the corrupt.
But in-spite of a noble idea's being at its core plot of "Ungli" fails in adding any USP to this mildly different cine cantata. And that's because movie belonging to this territory either need to have a solid heart poking narration to make an impact on the psyche of those watching it or some thrill coefficient to make it fall in the entertainer category.
Regrettably nothing of that sort happens with "Ungli" which looks like a somewhat confused cine saga oscillating between the the poles of thrill, meliorism and pro-social spectrum. Ever-since its inchoation "Ungli" constantly fails in charming the masses by any kind of thrill (because of lacking cat and mouse chases which could have added to its entertaining potency).
Nor it succeeds in inducing any kind of jingoism. That's probably because of Rinsel's being in state of dilemma over crafting it as an entertaining or reformist cine tale. And preemptively it's this quandary that the scrib of the movie fails in proportionately accommodating the entertaining and jingoism inducing chunks in the narration.
Besides a confused story-line (obviously from scrib's perspective) even the dialogues of "Ungli" look alienated from the logics and keep on challenging the rationalism. So nothing much laudable to say about Milap Zaveri who in the past charmed many of us by his witty cinematic excellence in "Grand Masti", "Heyy Baby" and many other cine delights.
Unquestionably flow of the narration of "Ungli" is like the rock of Gibraltar. But on the hind side this firmness or rather consistency in the pace of narration looks like an exhausted catalyst which lacks the "specific entertainment heat" to trigger the threshold of viewers' interest.
Be it those heist sequences (which could have been a bit more thrilling and amusing) or the the ones showcasing the "corruption kvetching" or even the ones with the mild emotional value. Every cinematic clod nailed in the screenplay of "Ungli" looks so half baked (especially the climax and a few monologues) that you never feel like keeping your attention fastened to the celluloid.
But yeah had Rinsel added a bit higher dose of intensity to the every gob (like adding more thrill to heist sequences, pro-social stances etc) of Ungli's screenplay then probably end product could have been far more admirable. Cinematography of Hemant Chaturvedi and editing of Deepa Bhatia further exposes the lackadaisical approach adopted on the execution front.
As far as music of "Ungli" is concerned then it is strictly average. If we leave "Dance Basanti" featuring Shraddha Kapoor and slightly mesmerizing "Auliya" then rest of the musical rhapsodies are barely memorable.
But yes there is one front where "Ungli" scores brownie points and that's in performance department... Be it Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Kangana Ranaut or Sanjay Dutt each and every leading protagonist of "Ungli" not only does a thorough justice to his or her character, but also made this "silly willy" somewhat tolerable.Besides even supporting cast comprising of versatile thespian Raza Murad and veteran actress Reema Lagoo along-with Angad Bedi, Neil Bhoopalam, Neha Dhupia and Mahesh Manjrekar perform their respective parts with commendable dexterity, and it's this element of "Ungli" which keeps you going til the culmination
Last word, well to some this somewhat different plot may look interesting and why not, because "Anti-Corruption" sagas are the spice of the season. But we guess when one is dealing with a pro-social theme pertaining to the life of "Aam Aadmi" then he or she needs to have a prudence to demarcate between the entertainer and a saga circumscribed around the core of meliorism.
Undoubtedly the intent behind the "Ungli" is good, but in-spite of that, the million dollar question remains steadfast and that is where is the entertainment guys....
So after seeing the faltering execution of "Ungli" we feel compelled to bite the notional bullet that "Ungli"-Baazi could be good many times but not always. Hence keeping in view the "below-threshold-execution" of "Ungli" I am going ahead with two out of five stars for this half-boiled, half-fried reformist cine tale which makes one fact loud and clear and that is this time abstaining from doing "Ungli" is good.