Ugly(2014) movie review

'Ugly' makes for an odd viewing choice in this festive season, but that is no excuse for missing out on this dark, disgusting tale of immorality

Finally 'Ugly' is out on select movie halls across the country, and is in serious danger of being overlooked by crowd pleasers like 'PK'. But do yourself a favor. Anurag Kashyap's latest movie is very much one of the best movies  of this year.

'Ugly' deals with the disappearance of a 10 year old girl Kali (Anshika Shrivastava) from her father's car. The father is Rahul Varshney/Kapoor (Rahul Bhat) a wannabe hero who leaves her daughter in the car alone while he goes to meet his agent Chaitanya (Vineet Kumar Singh) . Kali's mother Shalini (Tejaswini Kolhapure) who has a new husband, the police chief Shoumik Bose (Ronit Roy) is an alcoholic women who is in an unhappy marriage. Siddhant (Siddhant Kapoor), Shalini's brother who is in dire need of money and Rakhi Malhotra (Surveen Chawla) a B movie actress who also happens to be Rahul's lover complete the set of players. This disappearence leads to the reveal of the ugliness present inside all of them, which is further fueled by past relationships and extreme levels of egoism.

Rahul Bhat and Vineet Kumar Singh's performances are nuanced enough that they keep us guessing till the very end

Mr.Kashyap's 'Black Friday' was excellent but held down by real life facts. No such problem arises in this fictional movie where he is free to play with character emotions without any constraints and real life limitations. But such a free hand leads to few problems. For starters, nobody has a redeeming side, everyone is out playing games on others. This make the characters mere caricatures and hard to relate to. Also, we care very little about Kali and more about who the culprit is. As a result of which the ending is shocking and grim but devoid of any emotions. Some character motivations are unexplained and stick out as sore thumbs in presence of other, more fleshed out characters. But these failures are small in front of the movie's successes. 

The cinematography is wonderful, with a gloomy color palette and like 'Black Friday', Kashyap's frequent use of close-ups provide a claustrophobic feeling which keeps the audience uncomfortable  throughout the movie. The script is excellent. The complete sequence in the police station involving Jadhav is one of the best scenes of this year.

Ronit Roy gives another strong performance as police chief Shoumik

The performances are uniformly good. Special shout-out should be given to Tejaswini Kolhapure and Ronit Roy. Ronit Roy continues the resurgence in his career with this role successfully. National award winning Marathi actor Girish Kulkarni makes his Hindi film debut portraying Inspector Jadhav and is excellent throughout.

'Ugly' is uncomfortable and not for the faint hearted. People beat each other, abuse profusely and the movie does not shy away from portraying harsh realities. It may not be as ambitious as 'Gangs of Wasseypur' and 'Black Friday' but is an oddly personal experience and an excellent end to a somewhat disappointing year in movies.

+Strong Performance

+Consistently uncomfortable

+Personal experience

--Some character motivations unclear

--No character is redeemable

88-"Excellent"

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) movie review

Ridley Scott's biblical epic is spectacular but distant, heavy on effects but light on emotions

Ridley Scott is a terrific director.No doubt about it. The best thing about him is that his movies are spread across different genres, and not tethered to one. It is also the worst thing about him, as the quality of his films are terribly inconsistent.'Exodus' is a biblically  'inspired' film( not my word but wikipedia's) about the exodus of the Hebrews led by Moses. Even before its release it had been subjected to controversy related to its 'whitewashing'. After its release it turns out that it is the least of its numerous problems.

We start with Moses and Ramesses II preparing to plan an attack on the Hittites. Moses is Ramesses' adopted brother but they are very close to each other. One thing leads to another and suddenly Moses is exiled by Ramesses after both of them come to know about his Hebrew parentage. After some odd time jumps and CGI heavy scenes, we find Moses leading his men across Red Sea with a vengeful Ramesses behind him. The main problem with the story is that it hardly includes any character building. What did Moses felt when he came to know about his ancestors? Sadly we never know as he is busy wooing a village girl by that time. Moses is hardly likable and neither does he make his own decisions.They are in turn made by a God who surprisingly looks like a child. The scenes between them which should had been intense discussions about religion and the fine line between good and evil are instead made laughable due to this choice.

Gorgeous special effects trump everything including a good story

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         The cast list is top notch but is sadly underutilized. Actors like Ben Kingsley, Aaron Paul, John Turturro, Sigourney Weaver are wasted in minor roles. Between the two lead performances, Joel Edgerton gives a slightly better performance than Christian Bale as the cocky but ultimately pitiable Ramesses II.

The special effects are good and the movie is mildly entertaining in its own right. But it is a far cry from Ridley Scott's last sword and sandal epic 'Gladiator' which sometimes suffered from the same problems mentioned above but becomes a vastly superior film due to its strong, emotional central performance.

+ Special effects

+Sometimes stirring

-- No character development

--Wastage of talented actors

--No emotional centre

72-"Good"