The
much
awaited
movie
Ugly
directed
by
Anurag
Kashyap
has
released
today
amidst
much
expectations.
Anurag
Kashyap
is
known
for
his
unorthodox
approach
towards
relationships
and
this
film
Ugly
digs
deep
into
the
human
nature
which
is
certainly
ugly
at
times.
Ugly
tells
us
what
William
Shakespeare
did
centuries
ago.
Human
nature,
by
its
very
nature,
is
rotten
and
to
the
core.
You
cannot
escape
your
basic
nature
of
self-serving
greed.
Everyone
in
Ugly
which
features
Ronit
Roy,
Rahul
Bhat,
Tejaswini
Kolhapure,
Vineet
Kumar
Singh,
Siddhanth
Kapoor
and
Girish
Kulkarni
craves
for
something
more
than
what
he
or
she
has
in
life.
It
may
not
be
a
better
life,
but
there
is
a
hankering
for
escape.
Hence,
the
aforementioned
wife
Shalini
(Tejaswini)
trapped
in
a
loveless
marriage
to
a
policeman,
who
is
not
unkind,
simply
insensitive
to
her
needs,
reveals
an
ugly
side
to
her
personality
with
a
suddenness
that
leaves
us
repelled.
Fathers,
mothers,
friends
and
lovers
were
never
meant
to
behave
the
way
they
do
in
Kashyap's
kingdom
of
the
doomed
and
the
damned.
The
camera
(Nikos
Andritsakis)
looks
on
with
brazen
brutality
at
the
below-the-belt
antics
of
an
inebriated
unbalanced
mother(Tejaswini
Kolhapure),
her
policeman-husband
(Ronit
Roy,
sturdy
and
sinister),
her
former
husband
(Rahul
Bhat,
immersed
in
angst)
and
his
best
friend
(the
natural-born
scene-stealer
Vineet
Kumar
Singh).
Wait.
There
are
others.
Like
Kashyap's
other
parable
of
perverse
times,
the
plot
is
glutted
with
characters,
each
played
with
such
astute
unassumingness
that
they
had
to
be
cast
by
a
master
caster,
certainly
not
Chaitanya
(Vineet
Kumar),
the
self-employed
casting
director
in
Ugly
who,
like
others
characters,
plays
his
own
games
of
avaricious
one-upmanship
when
a
10-year
girl
disappears
from
her
father's
car
in
a
crowded
street
of
Mumbai.
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True
to
its
corroded
deceptive
heart,
the
narrative
of
Ugly
is
shot
in
the
pokey
bylanes
and
buildings
of
Mumbai
that
have
seen
better
days.
So
have
the
characters,
if
you
ask
me.
All
of
them
seem
to
have
a
happier
back-story,
which
given
the
present
crisis-ridden
context
in
their
lives,
seems
like
a
cruel
joke.
It
would
be
criminal
to
reveal
more
of
the
plot.
Suffice
it
is
to
say
the
film
requires
immense
concentration
from
us.
It's
not
just
the
writers
who
have
toiled
on
the
nuances.
It's
the
actors
who
bring
to
every
scene
a
certain
unrehearsed
turmoil.
Towards
the
start
of
the
cat-and-mouse
chase
to
the
'fiendish' line,
there
is
a
very
lengthy
scene
where
Rahul
and
Chaitanya,
frantic
with
worry
after
the
former's
daughter
disappears,
try
to
patiently
explain
to
the
policeman
on
duty
the
bizarre
chain
of
events
that
have
transpired.
You
know
these
characters
are
played
by
actors.
And
that
there
is
a
camera
recording
their
activities.
But
you
let
yourself
believe
this
is
not
make-believe.
Ugly
is
a
film
of
many
surprises,
most
of
them
unpleasant
sordid
and
unsavoury.
The
actors
are
not
acting
for
the
camera.
But
their
characters
seem
to
be
constantly
play-acting
with
one
another.
Deception
seems
to
run
through
the
gamut
of
sordid
characters.
It's
a
master-stroke
to
cast
Rahul
Bhat
as
a
Bollywood
struggler.
That's
what
he
has
been
'playing'
for
years
in
real
life.
The
bitter
rage
that
the
character
expresses
is
so
bonafide
that
the
line
dividing
the
actor
and
character
seem
blurred.
Vineet
Kumar
Singh
as
Rahul's
best
friend
has
the
film's
lengthiest
and
most
dramatic
scenes.
The
hungry
actor
juices
the
scenes
for
all
they
are
worth.
The
same
is
true
for
Tejaswini
Kohapure.
Ravaged
and
ruined,
her
face
expresses
the
unmitigated
grief
of
a
woman
scorned,
spurned
and
rejected.
She
is
dangerous.
In
one
sequence
where
she
asks
her
husband
why
he
married
her,
Tejaswini's
imploring
eyes
reminded
me
of
Meena
Kumari
in
Sahib
Bibi
Aur
Ghulam.
And
what
a
'sahib'
Ronit
Roy
makes!
Chauvinistic,
sadistic,
brutal
and
yet
revealing
himself
to
be
the
only
morally
healthy
characters
among
the
protagonists...Ronit,
again
after
Udaan,
proves
himself
to
be
that
actor
explorer
who
can
find
a
moral
centre
in
the
most
undesirable
character.
Every
actor
is
brilliant.
Take
the
chubby
guy
who
plays
the
husband
of
item
girl
Raakhi,
the
embarrassingly
saucy
Surveen
Chawla.
Special
mention
must
be
made
of
Girish
Kulkarni
as
Inspector
Jadhav,
the
policeman
on
duty
who
is
so
full
of
cynical
sh*t
that
you
never
want
to
be
in
a
police
station
in
your
life.
It's
funny,
how
some
of
the
most
memorable
characters
in
recent
times
are
played
by
actors
in
supporting
roles
as
policemen.
Funnier
how
films
that
address
the
absolute
erosion
of
values
in
current
times,
to
the
extent
that
even
the
parent-child
relationship
is
compromised
in
Ugly,
scare
the
audience.
The
characters
in
Ugly
are
ruthless,
dark,
desperate
and
dangerous,
more
to
themselves
than
others.
Anurag
Kashyap's
Ugly
is
a
thriller
which
leaves
us
with
a
sense
of
utter
futility
about
the
quality
of
life
that
we
lead.