UI

Upendra is one my favorite directors. I generally love his vision, his approach to filmmaking and the way he makes the audience think with his themes. UI is no exception. The movie questions your conscience in a typical Upendra style narrative. While all his past movies are set in the real world, UI takes a different a drastically different approach. UI is set in a fictional world that was created by a filmmaker.

You are introduced to this beautiful world where greedy politicians take advantage of the average person for their own gain. As evidenced in the trailer, people are fed media to brainwash them into subservience. How one man rises up to challenge this is what the rest of the movie is about. It'd be a disservice if I said this is the story of the movie as it goes much deeper. It is part satire, part commentary on the workings of current society, the direction humanity is heading in and even the vices that we developed along our evolutionary path going against nature and even hurting it.

It is Upendra's way of communicating this message. The format follows classic Upendra's style reverse screenplay narrative where you are introduced to the climax first. I must say this is the best movie opening act I've watched this year. The movie demands your attention to piece things together and make sense of what's going on. This is not a movie where you go to watch a linear story unfold.

Upendra touches upon the duality of things. Heavily inspired by the "Samkhya" philosophy which talks about the duality of realty. Consciousness, or the spirit, and matter, or the human mind & emotions.

The movie comments on topics like nature, conservancy, greed, politics, humanity, and society in a not-so-subtle manner. There are scenes which may make you feel uncomfortable, mainly because of Ajneesh Lokanath's background music. But the choice of music had Upendra written all over it. After all, that's his motto. A movie should make you feel uncomfortable to make you think.

While the editing could've been better as you will be scratching your head at time, it all makes sense in the end during Act 1. Yes. As I said, the movie goes in reverse for the most part. The part where I said the movie demands your attention is let down a little bit as it could not command my attention due to its editing. While crisp, I did feel the scenes could've been strung together a little better.

As with all Upendra's movies, you will either love it or hate it. But one thing is for sure, they will make you think.

-YT/@CinephileIndia2023.

Upendra's direction and screenwriting is just mind blowing. Only he could make something this creative and unique.

Amazingly made film, great cinematography and has a great message for society.

The VFX is top notch with immersive visuals.

The film holds up a mirror to the society touching upon all modern evils and injustices.

No film has been made yet quite like this.

Upendra is in his best form and on another level altogether.

It is very intellectual in its core ideas and also appeals the mass audience with stylistic action scenes.

The sets are very well built and seem realistic Upendra is charismatic as an actor and just brilliant.

Pay attention! As usual this is a difficult movie for the masses to follow and a bit hard to sit through. But trust me what Uppi has shown is a universal struggle. So many things summed up from origin, present and the crumbling 🌎 i.e is U & I.

I think some people are confusing this film's as depiction as the end of the world. But This film, man, it's like a glitch in the Matrix. You think you're watching a story, but it's all a puzzle, a game. Upendra, he's playing with your mind, throwing curveballs at you every step of the way. And the dialogue, forget about it! It's all riddles and paradoxes. You gotta think deep, man, really deep, to understand what he's trying to say.

But hey, that's the beauty of it, isn't. But hey, it's a wild ride. You gotta hand it to him, he keeps you guessing till the very end. Just be prepared for your brain to take a vacation after watching i

Nope rethink!!!

U&I.

The cult director Upendra shows a dystopian world mixed with VFX in a crazy way. You need to apply 100% brain and intelligence to peel the different layers regarding the story and deeply understand what Uppi is conveying regarding the current world (Kaliyuga) and the intended world (Satyayuga). His intertwined story depicts various interpretations, from inner dark world humans co-exists, and how to come out with focus, perseverance and ignoring outside noise. His writing style is unique around Mother Nature, caste, religion, what we are doing to it, and how the world will be if we don't take care of it now. Beginning is a typical Uppi style with hilarious narration, and climax will not make you think, rather will make "YOU" and "I" (UI) to introspect further. One man show movie where people will either like it or hate it. There is "no" in between. Go for it if you like his style of story telling with insane madness!

After Uppi2, we get to see Upendra as director once more in "Universal Intelligence" (at least that's what the censor certificate shows for UI). UI delivers the craziness it had promised, and for that I appreciate this. They did a great job by not revealing anything.

As expected, there's Upendra's signature style of screenplay which engages the audience. 1st half of the film and initial parts of the 2nd half move smoothly, banking on Upendra's screen presence and Ajaneesh Loknath's bgm. Near the end it loses the pace and bores a bit.

The jailbreaking sequence was interesting and the scenes in darkness were visually good. But other visuals weren't upto the mark, still not bad considering the low budget. Don't expect this to be an out of the box story though, all the magic of UI just lies in Upendra's direction and Ajaneesh Loknath's BGM where there's a deeper meaning to each character's behaviour.

It has message to society to not get lost in the games played by the media and to find their "Focus". I couldn't understand all the hidden meanings but few of them were easy to catch.

Overall, a decent movie for a weekend watch if you're ready for it. If you want something normal with good visuals, it is way too absurd to enjoy.