Ugly (2014)

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Story: Anurag Kashyap

Cast: Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure

Music: G. V. Prakash Kumar

Time: 126 minutes

Bottom-line: Dark and depressing; Kashyap fans will like it

When the film came out, a bunch of critics rightly said that the film would cater only to a niche audience. With a relatively new cast, including Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Vineet Kumar Singh, Girish Kulkarni and Surveen Chawla, Ugly is the feel-bad film of 2014.

 

Bhat as Rahul (left) and Singh as Chaitanya  

Shalini (Kolhapure) is a depressed housewife, whose second husband is Police Chief Shoumik Bose (Roy). The relationship is strained, as he hardly cares for her. She has a ten-year-old daughter – Kali (Anshika Shrivastava) – with her first husband, Rahul Kapoor (Bhat), who is a struggling actor, and also Bose’s rival in college. When Rahul goes to meet a casting director and friend, Chaitanya (Singh), he leaves Kali in the car. He later finds her missing, and the potential suspect gets killed in a chase. The local police inspector, Jadhav (Kulkarni) investigates the case. Chaitanya makes a ransom call to Rahul, even though he knows that the latter is broke. Later, Shalini’s friend, a B-grade actress, Rakhee (Chawla) also asks for money pretending to be the kidnapper. With everyone heartlessly using this chance to collect their own share of money, who has actually kidnapped Kali? And where is she now?

 

Roy as Bose

Kashyap made the actors undergo rigorous practice to prepare them for the roles and scenes. Shot extensively on real locations, and allowing the actors to improvise in several scenes, Kashyap calls Ugly his most “brutally honest” film. Both Rahul and Tejaswini consumed alcohol regularly to prepare for their roles, and the former even deliberately avoided sleep to get dark circles under his eyes. Singh was actually slapped nearly 50 times throughout the shooting, and he was handcuffed to the ceiling because Kashyap wanted to realistically show the police torture techniques. The result? Many scenes of intense violence and anti-social content, but also, some of the best performances you will ever see. The three actors, as well as Roy and Kulkarni, have done an outstanding job. Anshika has hardly 10 minutes of screen time, but thanks to the visual imagery, you won’t forget her character for a while. The actress herself did not see the film until much later because of the strong content.

 

Kolhapure as Shalini

Kali is the only “clean” character in an otherwise ugly world filled with people who cheat, betray and who are overwhelmed by greed and lust. That is the main focus of the film – how, in a time of crisis, everyone brings out their ugly side by going for the money. It makes you wonder who actually cares about the girl, and who knows the number of such kidnappings and rapes taking place across the country! The “victory dance” that Shalini’s brother does is the best portrayal of greed you can see. The violence and dark characters are typical of Kashyap’s films, but Ugly takes it to a whole new level. Call it a wake-up siren to the issues of domestic violence and child-abduction in India, or “just another Hindi film”, this is far from a comfortable watch.

With brilliant, “real” performances, a tight plot, and typical Kashyap direction, Ugly may not be your type of film, but if you are a fan of Kashyap, you will like it, and if not, this is probably the best film to get acquainted with his style.

My Rating: 3.5/5