Ungli: Half-baked crusade

Ungli is let down by poor writing, sketchy characterisation and lacklustre execution, Deepa Gauri writes

Director Rensil D’Silva is credited with scripting Rang De Basanti, a scathing take on corruption. With whatever notes he had left behind and a promising premise of four vigilantes taking on the system, he entrusts writer Milap Zaveri to deliver the punch-lines for Ungli.

The result, mildly put, is disaster. Poor writing is the No 1 killer of Ungli. Not necessarily in that order, the film is also let down by erroneous editing and lacklustre execution.

The conviction we must feel for a film on corruption and how four ordinary citizens can bring about change is utterly lacking in Ungli. A feeble, implausible climax only adds to the sense of dissatisfaction.

Films with lesser cast and even fewer resources (we have none other than Karan Johar backing this movie) have made more profound impact tackling the menace of corruption.

The trouble with Ungli is that it has an identity issue. At just about two hours, what should have been an absorbing take on the system becomes yet another of those Bollywood mishmashes with songs and unneeded distractions diluting the core.

At no point do you feel the fire in the Ungli gang (Randeep Hooda, Kangana Ranaut, Angad Bedi and Neil Bhoopalam), which takes on corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. They are on revenge mode after realising that money and muscle power will always help the high and mighty (here Mahesh Manjrekar as a fixer for the Mumbai police force) to go scot-free.

Rensil D’Silva’s concept of anti-corruption crusade needs physically fit people. You have to scale walls, creep into the bedrooms of politicians and do all possible physical stunts. One of you must also be a computer geek, and one a healthcare expert so you can also get access to drugs to tame even the toughest of goons.

They do one or two random acts that fetch them TV space, mostly against the petty corrupt (traffic policemen who take bribes and the like). Enter Nikhil (Emraan Hashimi), a wayward cop, who is entrusted the task to find the Ungli gang by ACP Kale (Sanjay Dutt). Sure enough, he gets to the gang, becomes one of them, and then his ‘police force’ antenna comes to life. How things are sorted out forms the rest of the film.

To be fair, the film has an interesting plot. But if your characters speak lines like “Yes, we are the original Ungli gang,” there is little chance that you connect to the noble, higher intent of the film. Some of the lines are so laughable that you feel you are watching kids playing police and thief. Even the scenes are disjointed and have no time-space correctness: The meeting of Inspector Kale and Nikhil where he is asked to take on the Ungli gang, for one.

The film’s forte then is its cast. From Sanjay Dutt to Emraan Hashimi to Randeep Hooda and even Neha Dupia, every actor tries to get into the committed crusader act. But burdened with a shallow script, there is only so much they can do. Oh yes, there is Kangana Ranaut too. What a waste of talent.

How Bollywood can get away with trivialising serious issues of the society is underlined with Ungli. Maybe we need a law against Bollywood: If you are going to tackle serious subjects, stay true to it. If not, stick to what you know. Karan Johar should know that by now.