Ugly

This movie left you with the feeling of numb .Ugly sets a new dimension to the Indian Cinema . I am not a frequent watcher of Bollywood movies.But ugly movie is just beyond the ugliness of everything. A grungy, dark police procedural set in motion by a little girl's kidnapping, Ugly has few discernible auteur touches to set it apart from standard genre fare. Gone are the farcical, hyperbolic violence and the larger-than-life, tongue-in-cheek gangsters who modeled themselves on the movies. Gone is the wacky humor. Here the pettiness, egotism and corruption of modern Mumbai rule and the characters are all cheap and small—even the kidnapping victim is annoying. There may be a method here but if so, the result is very dark and downbeat for general audiences. The film's Cannes outing and Kashyap's cult standing could give it a little shelf life at festivals before it heads into genre venues. The cast of characters is presented haphazardly. Shalini (Tejaswini Kolhapure) is a desperate, middle-class housewife kept at home as a semi-prisoner by her macho police-chief husband Bose (Ronit Roy). She's about to blow her brains out with his gun when a knock on the door stops her. It's her daughter Kali (Anishika Shrivastava), whining for her to call her estranged father. This is Rahul (Rahul Bhatt), a down-and-out actor still waiting for his big break, who comes to take her for a drive. He's so distracted with phone calls he barely looks at her, and then he ominously leaves her alone in the car while he goes to talk business with his friend and casting director Chaitanya (Vineet Kumar Singh). Within minutes the girl is missing. Rahul becomes the hero by default as he searches for the girl, first through the police, then following the kidnappers' ransom messages. What little sympathy he inspires in the audience comes from his terrifying interview with local police captain Jadhav (played with gusto by the fine comic actor Girish Kulkarni). Instead of launching a manhunt for the girl, the captain absurdly chats about CELL PHONES and computers while the distraught Rahul chafes and Chaitanya attempts to cajole him into action. All at once, Jadhav realizes the missing girl is the stepdaughter of police honcho Bose, and his attitude switches to FBI pro. At this point the stone-faced Bose, who hates his wife's ex, orders him to accuse Rahul of the kidnapping and be beaten senseless. The rest of the film is a battle of wits between Bose and Rahul to find the girl while tripping up the other. Rahul and Chaitanya are monotonously arrested and rearrested. Police violence is graphic and frightening. They use the "latest" gadgets in their investigation— computers, CELL PHONES and GPS—like they were major novelties on CSI: Miami, which makes it seem the film is aimed mainly at local audiences. There is, however, a continuous sense of vitality and movement in the film, whose action scenes are foot chases filmed from a distance. Kashyap's nasty point is that, between violence, greed and corruption, just about no one is innocent in the end. Certainly all the characters are selfish beyond belief. This existential cynicism hits home in the horrific crime revealed in the last shot, but by that time, the emotions feel light-years away.

Ugly is one of the finest works from Anurag Kashyap. It continues to depict what he started with Last Train to Mahakali...and later with Paanch... - his love (and hate) for the dark side of human mind.

Ugly at its heart is a racy thriller, intriguing, loaded with dark humor and real, gray characters, as unpredictable as only humans can be. Technically its brilliant. And its as close as you can get to original in Bollywood world.

It keeps you glued to the screen for 130 min and leaves you numb when the show is over.

P.S. Definitely not for the lovers of Dhoom-3, Kick and P-K genre, who like their cinema light, escapist and with popcorn.

Anurag Kashyap delivers a disturbing & unsettling tale with 'Ugly', a film that's raw & realistic. Kashyap also aces with superb performances, led by Ronit Roy & Rahul Bhat.

'Ugly' Synopsis: A terrible tale of corruption, indifference, and systemic violence starts when 10 year old daughter of an aspiring actor disappears.

Throughly engaging & interesting, Kashyap creates a world of deception & cruelty, with absolutely no inhibitions. 'Ugly' is entirely grim & bleak, a film that has an atmosphere of its own. The characters are Grey, while the narrative is blunt & on-your-face.

Kashyap's Screenplay is excellent. Its entirely twisted & serious. I'd like to point out, the last scene of the film, it's haunting & the Screenplay peaks itself then. Kashyap's Direction is suitably creepy & eerie. Cinematography & Editing are perfect

Performance-Wise: Ronit Roy is outstanding as the cop. Displaying anger & frustration, with zeal. Rahul Bhat is a revelation. His performance here, deserves distinction marks. Tejaswini Kolhapure is brilliantly restrained. Vineet Kumar Singh is fabulous, yet again. Girish Kulkarni is highly effective. Surveen Chawla is effective, in a brief role. Siddhanth Kapoor is impressive. Late Abir Goswami is decent.

On the whole, 'Ugly' is a massive winner from Kashyap! He ends 2014, with a roar! Very Strongly Recommended!

Its a very nice movie, beautifully directed & very different (in a good way) from other Bollywood movies.

From the beginning itself your mind is not allowed to rest. You start with so many doubts and as the movie progresses some of them gets cleared up, but guess what now you have so many more. So just a suggestion, start the movie with your bladder cleaned up otherwise later on you'll be totally lost.

Good humor + full suspense + great acting + great direction, have been waiting for this for so long.

Thanks Mr. Anurag Kashyap for this beauty. Ronit Roy is a great actor, no doubt about that, and he has done wonderful acting here once again. But others are equally good.

Ugly, undoubtedly the best movie of Anurag kashyap till date, he manages to keep the suspense alive and bring across crucial twists. Ronit Roy steals the show with his best performance and all the cast especially, Rahul bhatt and Vineet kumar did great job. This is about how we tend to lose greater things in life because we are too stuck on our own perceptions. Directed in a very realistic way, I didn't find any flaws in this movie, everything is perfectly crafted in Kashyap style with no violence or gang-fights. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of dark thrillers, I am sure you wont get disappointed with Ugly though the movie is not at all ugly, in fact its a beautiful film with good message to society. I give it 10/10.