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The best first look of a Kashyap film. I’m reminded of Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners trailer. Look forward to that one too. Also it’s great to see that actor from Udaan here, even though he appears to be playing the same character only in uniform!
LOL, true! (on Ronit Roy). He’s been an iconic TV star for years. I was shocked he came up with something worthwhile in Udaan. But yeah that’s the only persona he’s capable of!
Some interesting facts about ronit roy. Born on 11th October, 1965 as ronit bose roy in Nagpur. He had a silver jubilee hit film Jaan Tere Naam. His most famous role as Rishabh Bajaj in a TV soap by Ekta. Now it is Adaalat on Sony as a defence lawyer. He worked in one memorable tv serial called Sarkarr which was a political thriller.
His younger brother also manged both tv and cinema and his tv debut was as Rishabh in Shobhaa de’s Mahesh Bhatt directed Swabhimaan, a mammoth tv drama which introduced many stalwarts like Manoj bajpayee.
That couldn’t have been a real silver jubilee. Must have been one of those fake things. They would keep a film in a theater for that long just to get to that mark (they’d even do it for ‘100 days’ since few films had proper jubilees at that point). Even so I’d be amazed if this were true for this film. Doubt anyone was that bothered to do it for a film with newcomers and no big name behind it. As far as I know the film didn’t do anything when it released.
Yeah, it’s good as expected by anurag kashyap standards
But from now, everything he does will have to bear the cross of GoW, even Bombay velvet may not be able to match GoW..
Btw I’m moving time zones, but y are u awake so early Satyam ha
And how long can one stay awake without breaking down?
Testing the limits…
On Kashyap though I have liked most of his films at some level or the other I wasn’t much taken in by GoW. Still think he’s never bettered Black Friday. He’s had more interesting ideas but they’ve never been realized as fully as BF. And so even as I like the films I have this sense of ‘incompletion’. But GoW is to my mind not even among his more interesting ideas. An ambitious film but I’m not sure to what end.
Good. But obviously not in the league of GoW, which is a classic, a “One Hundred Years of Indian Solitude”. This is perhaps a good tight film like Black Friday, nothing more. GoW is something else. It is already being celebrated as 10 best films ever. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/25/10-classics-indian-cinema-centenary
Not to mention that GOW has the distinct good fortune of being the best film of the first three-year decade in recorded history. Even jumping the gun in this way, this isn’t even the best film of the past several years in Hindi cinema. And as always “Hindi” should be the qualifier in these spurious, poorly educated lists.
Agree completely. Also there was nothing in either part of GOW as memorable as Abhimanyu Singh in this film. Said this elsewhere but my favorite passage in GOW was the prelude involving the Shahid Khan character. After he’s dispatched it’s kind of like what happens after Abhimanyu Singh disappears from Gulaal.
i mean pack more punch in sense that the layers especially mythological where so much was at display compared to gow1 though agan in gow1 everything was finished by heir of a lady called durga while in gulal in more subversion take that victorious was a guy called karan who happens to be elite
,music ofcouse ,the plot much more varied and original to core
there are interesting parallel in gow 1 which was just an extension:
shahid khan the best thing in gow1 again finished early much like abhimanya
chatwal the strong subvillain has parallel in sultan
here again kashyap was mocking elite in caste hierchy ….it was chauhan and more precisely rajput the warriors while in case precedent was uncertain especially khans vs quereshi
Good one. When it comes to the darker elements, AK does conjure up some heart-snatching elements.
Thrilled to see the wonderful Girish Kulkarni, the Marathi actor from GABRICHA PAUS (an OUTSTANDING film by any genuine standards) here. Seems to be on a roll here – ‘kyon? AB ka kya naam hain ghar mein.’ LOL.
one thing is certain anurag kashyap movies are one of the most downloaded on torrent even gulal but these people won’t pay this much on theatre but still it has only enlightened his charm and stature and the barometer how indian box office scale is just a mirage
unusual to see a director thanks his base the torrent crowd:
His directorial debut Paanch is yet to see the light of the day, but filmmaker Anurag Kashyap’s popularity and celluloid experiments make him the ambassador of neo-cinema in India.
Part of his now-worldwide fame came courtesy his films being downloaded illegally online and the director, though thankful for the popularity, is upset with the bug that has infected the cinema industry.
“I am thankful to piracy because it saved cinema and my career and I get bothered by it too that because of it our mainstream cinema now worldwide has become only about summer blockbusters and superheroes and sequels. Torrents have killed meaningful cinema worldwide because they are not like events and people chose to see them on laptops,” the 40-year-old posted during an online Q and A session with his fans on user-generated news links website Reddit today.
Mr Kashyap, who is known for making critically acclaimed films on a tight budget such as Gulal, Paanch, Black Friday, Dev D and the two part Gangs Of Wasseypur series, also wrote that he is not in a rat race for joining the so-called Rs 100 club in Bollywood.
The director is now working on his magnum opus Bombay Velvet with Ranbir Kapoor in the lead and, while his contemporaries in Bollywood aim for the coveted box office mark, Mr Kashyap is not bothered.
“I will care about the 100 crore club when my film costs more than 50 crore (in budget), like with my next BV (Bombay Velvet that) needs to make more than that (Rs 100 crore) to be sustainable for me in the future (sic),” he wrote on Reddit. The filmmaker also volleyed other questions such as his involvement in the music of his films.
“With music, I first look for the right person, always a music director who has an inclination to create than to deliver a hit song and then he should have the time I need,” posted Mr Kashyap.
He justified his involvement further by revealing that “minimum we have taken on any film to create music is 18 months. (On) Bombay Velvet, we have already spent four years, (on) Gulaal we spent three years and (on) Gow (Gangs Of Wasseypur more than three years. Music is developed simultaneously along with the script (and that) is why they go together well.”
He added, “lyricists are more often than not chosen by the music director, he throws choices at me and I respond as yes or no and we discuss the script at every stage amongst ourselves, and whenever we pitch the film, it’s always with ready music. That also explains why I always work with a new music director.”
Asked by a fan about how he gets past the censor board, Mr Kashyap answered, “Argue when they don’t understand and make sure that your film is powerful enough for them to let it go and honest to its milieu, so that it does not look like a cheap afterthought (sic).”
He also shrugged off the non-mainstream tag that his unconventional films starring either newcomers or theatre actors have earned him.
“I have always believed I am mainstream. I just didn’t have stars. I will lose my place only if I start to get dishonest with my film. if I start to cater to the fandom, either mine or the star’s fandom, I will fail if not at first then sooner than most. It does not matter who is in the film, what matters is why you are making it and how honest are you to the material and to yourself,” said Mr Kashyap.
He also owns the rights to Indian comic book superhero Doga. Asked if the much-awaited film on the dog-masked vigilante will ever be made, Mr Kashyap replied: “Doga aayega. Ussey bananey ke liye jitna paisa chahiye woh tabhi milega jab Bombay Velvet superhit hogi. (Doga will be made. The budget required to make the film will be sanctioned only when Bombay Velvet is declared a superhit) like GoW (Gangs Of Wasseypur led to BV (Bombay Velvet), BV (Bombay Velvet) will lead to Doga.”
Meanwhile, the director, who is known for making edgy films, has “been dying to do a comedy” and that too with a quirky title: “How to be a capitalist via socialism”.
I want to watch this, right now and I want the soundtrack as well. The first time, am so eager for an AK movie. The background score gets it a few notches up. Very few filmmakers in B’wood ‘own’ Bombay’s grime and the messy life that comes with it to show it as is. Kashyap does, as does Sriram Raghavan although his is a much ‘softer’ take.
Me too Arthi – waiting with bated breath. But I think this is a bad business decision. Right now, people are in a jovial mood and with PK euphoria sweeping everbody over, I am not sure if this is the right time to release this.
It will be a sad day if a film that has the potential to be genuinely good — I suspect this one is — is trampled because of another good film in the past week!!!
Looks like Aamir Khan is the bane of existence for AK. BOMBAY VELVET was postponed thanks to clash with PK; and now this one is coming right on the heels of PK..either way, AK not good for AK!!!
Seeing it in a theatre today.
:”Ugly — a constantly riveting, ticking timebomb of a film — is by far Kashyap’s finest film. It is a visceral, frequently surprising ride, a dark thriller (not for the faint of brain or the morally queasy) that surpasses the shadowy greatness we witnessed in Kashyap’s masterful Black Friday several years ago. Ugly works even better perhaps because here, unencumbered by the need to stick to facts, he can give his characters and their demons free rein over the proceedings.
……The performances are striking, but it’d be criminal to not single out three in particular: Tejaswini Kolhapure, who, as the mother of the kidnapped child, wears the hangdog look of surrender so hauntingly it hurts; Girish Kulkarni, playing the sharp but frustrating police inspector and grounding Ugly into a very real zone; and Vineet Kumar Singh, playing a slimy casting director who has lots to hide up both his sleeves. Ronit Roy is solid as ever as the cop who doesn’t mind cracking a few harmless skulls if they lie in his way, and Rahul Bhat does well as the actor so convinced of his own star-quality that he’s already changed his name.”
There is a reason why Anurag Kashyap is considered an excellent filmmaker, why he has the cult following that he does, and that reason is that he hates formula. Few filmmakers in India have had the courage to fiddle with Bollywood’s rules and Kashyap is one of them. He’s been doing it consistently, having tried to bridge the gap between mainstream and offbeat with the Wasseypur films, and going lo fi with the disappointing That Girl in Yellow Boots.
Most people consider Black Friday as Kashyap’s golden ticket. It wasn’t. It was Paanch. Dark, blood soaked noir is his forte. With Ugly, Kashyap has returned to his roots, and the result: Ugly is Kashyap’s best film in years. It’s also his most mature work to date.
The plot is simple – a little girl named Kali goes missing, and her father, a struggling actor named Rahul (Rahul Bhatt) runs helter skelter looking for her. There are twists and turns, but this film is not about the whodunit. It’s about the characters – they’re all ugly; ugly from the inside, the outside and from every possible side. Kali’s mother (Tejaswini Kolhapure) is a suicidal alcoholic, divorced from Rahul and now married to the cop (Ronit Roy) who is investigating the case. The cop is regressive, but feigns an air of dignity and righteousness. Rahul’s friend and agent (Vineet Kumar) is a seedy guy involved in all the awful things you expect from a casting agent. The thanedaar taking the case (Girish Kulkarni) is an arrogant villain who finds humour in Rahul’s genuine anguish.
Kashyap places all these scumbags in a juicer-mixer-grinder of a plot. Lies, betrayal, screaming, pummelling, whiskey-guzzling, pill-popping, mass murdering – it’s your not-so-usual cocktail of depravity, served up in Mumbai’s underbelly.
Ironically, Ugly looks beautiful. It’s all dark, dank and disgusting, and yet impossible to look away from, courtesy of cinematographer Nikos Andretsakis, who earlier worked on Dibakar Bannerjee’s films. This isn’t another Dev D, but a film that is its own beast, filled with black and blue, and the color of grime. The second thing you’ll notice about Ugly is the spine-chilling rock music-inspired background score by Brian McOmber. This sort of sound design hasn’t been heard in Bollywood and it really is quite refreshing.
Finally, there are the supercharged powerhouse performances from nearly everyone in the film, even those with smaller parts like Vineet Kumar and Surveen Chawla. Roy repeats his tough guy shtick from Udaan, but he brings an intensity to it nonetheless. Bhat, last seen in the terrible Nayee Padosan, is wonderful as the desperate, failed actor. Apparently the actors weren’t given the scripts before shooting, and the improv style of filmmaking has somehow worked. The climax might seem anticlimactic, but it certainly is quite haunting.
Add to all that grime jet black humour and Kashyap’s trademark irreverence, which is arresting this time instead of seeming indulgent. There is a ten-minute scene between Kulkarni and Bhat, where the latter goes to the police station to lodge a complaint and the former takes Bhat’s case instead of taking on the case. Every bickering venomous sentence coming from Kulkarni’s mouth is hilarious and the scene becomes more and more fun as it goes on. It only becomes less hilarious when you realize that’s how most police stations in India function.
You’ll probably be confused as to whom to root for by the end of the film, but the answer really is nobody. Kashyap never tries to make you sympathise with any of the characters, thereby making them more real. Human beings are terrible by default, and they would only do more terrible things to others to have their own way. So there’s no point of rendering a contrived ‘goodness’ to the central character, and Kashyap remains quite non-judgemental. The vast space between helplessness and desperation is morbidity, and Ugly lives in that world.
2014 has been the year of the unexpected in Bollywood. This year we have seen big star vehicles like Salman Khan’s Jai Ho fail at box office, while the gen next actors of B-town like Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor stood tall, rubbing shoulders with established superstars of the Bollywood.
But one thing that remained common as last year, was the emergence of few class films from plethora of crass. This year, over 120 films hit the big screens and many big budget star flicks made insane money at box office. But I am not here to talk about the highest grossers of the year. I am here to carefully pick 5 films that could be called as this year’s best, based on the mixture of content and entertainment value. Without wasting more time, I present 5 of the finest films of 2014:
SATYAMSHOT 
September 13, 2013 at 5:57 AM
Loved the trailer! The score stands out as well.
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September 13, 2013 at 8:18 AM
The best first look of a Kashyap film. I’m reminded of Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners trailer. Look forward to that one too. Also it’s great to see that actor from Udaan here, even though he appears to be playing the same character only in uniform!
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September 13, 2013 at 9:19 AM
LOL, true! (on Ronit Roy). He’s been an iconic TV star for years. I was shocked he came up with something worthwhile in Udaan. But yeah that’s the only persona he’s capable of!
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September 13, 2013 at 11:29 AM
Yup, loved this trailer….and it may be the only persona he is capable of, but the guy is damn good at it.
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September 13, 2013 at 12:13 PM
Some interesting facts about ronit roy. Born on 11th October, 1965 as ronit bose roy in Nagpur. He had a silver jubilee hit film Jaan Tere Naam. His most famous role as Rishabh Bajaj in a TV soap by Ekta. Now it is Adaalat on Sony as a defence lawyer. He worked in one memorable tv serial called Sarkarr which was a political thriller.
His younger brother also manged both tv and cinema and his tv debut was as Rishabh in Shobhaa de’s Mahesh Bhatt directed Swabhimaan, a mammoth tv drama which introduced many stalwarts like Manoj bajpayee.
LikeLike
September 13, 2013 at 12:37 PM
That couldn’t have been a real silver jubilee. Must have been one of those fake things. They would keep a film in a theater for that long just to get to that mark (they’d even do it for ‘100 days’ since few films had proper jubilees at that point). Even so I’d be amazed if this were true for this film. Doubt anyone was that bothered to do it for a film with newcomers and no big name behind it. As far as I know the film didn’t do anything when it released.
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September 13, 2013 at 1:27 PM
I got this information from wiki. about the silver jubilee thing.
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September 13, 2013 at 1:34 PM
Ronit Roy was fantastic in Udaan though I think that film’s best performance was from Ram Kapoor.
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September 13, 2013 at 6:08 AM
Yeah, it’s good as expected by anurag kashyap standards
But from now, everything he does will have to bear the cross of GoW, even Bombay velvet may not be able to match GoW..
Btw I’m moving time zones, but y are u awake so early Satyam ha
And how long can one stay awake without breaking down?
Testing the limits…
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September 13, 2013 at 9:05 AM
yes I seem to be moving towards insomnia.
On Kashyap though I have liked most of his films at some level or the other I wasn’t much taken in by GoW. Still think he’s never bettered Black Friday. He’s had more interesting ideas but they’ve never been realized as fully as BF. And so even as I like the films I have this sense of ‘incompletion’. But GoW is to my mind not even among his more interesting ideas. An ambitious film but I’m not sure to what end.
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September 13, 2013 at 10:33 AM
Good. But obviously not in the league of GoW, which is a classic, a “One Hundred Years of Indian Solitude”. This is perhaps a good tight film like Black Friday, nothing more. GoW is something else. It is already being celebrated as 10 best films ever.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/25/10-classics-indian-cinema-centenary
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September 13, 2013 at 10:44 AM
Not sure if Marquez belongs in such august company..
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September 13, 2013 at 10:45 AM
given some of the choices on that list I’m a bit offended that my film didn’t make it..
and you should be too that Pyaasa made it and not Cocktail.
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September 13, 2013 at 11:19 AM
Not to mention that GOW has the distinct good fortune of being the best film of the first three-year decade in recorded history. Even jumping the gun in this way, this isn’t even the best film of the past several years in Hindi cinema. And as always “Hindi” should be the qualifier in these spurious, poorly educated lists.
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September 13, 2013 at 2:43 PM
found a faulty gulal better and packed more punch than gow certainly first half was better than gow 1 and gow 2 which was a letdown
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September 13, 2013 at 2:47 PM
Agree completely. Also there was nothing in either part of GOW as memorable as Abhimanyu Singh in this film. Said this elsewhere but my favorite passage in GOW was the prelude involving the Shahid Khan character. After he’s dispatched it’s kind of like what happens after Abhimanyu Singh disappears from Gulaal.
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September 13, 2013 at 3:42 PM
i mean pack more punch in sense that the layers especially mythological where so much was at display compared to gow1 though agan in gow1 everything was finished by heir of a lady called durga while in gulal in more subversion take that victorious was a guy called karan who happens to be elite
,music ofcouse ,the plot much more varied and original to core
there are interesting parallel in gow 1 which was just an extension:
shahid khan the best thing in gow1 again finished early much like abhimanya
chatwal the strong subvillain has parallel in sultan
here again kashyap was mocking elite in caste hierchy ….it was chauhan and more precisely rajput the warriors while in case precedent was uncertain especially khans vs quereshi
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September 13, 2013 at 3:43 PM
*karan who happens to be illegal*
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September 13, 2013 at 11:21 AM
No Lagaan…would take it over Munnabhai any day (especially the second one).
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September 13, 2013 at 2:32 PM
Good one. When it comes to the darker elements, AK does conjure up some heart-snatching elements.
Thrilled to see the wonderful Girish Kulkarni, the Marathi actor from GABRICHA PAUS (an OUTSTANDING film by any genuine standards) here. Seems to be on a roll here – ‘kyon? AB ka kya naam hain ghar mein.’ LOL.
If anyone’s interested, here’s more info –
http://variety.com/2009/film/reviews/the-damned-rain-1200473897/
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September 13, 2013 at 2:38 PM
*K does conjure up some heart-snatching elements.*
mean to say some heart-snatching moments.
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September 13, 2013 at 2:34 PM
one thing is certain anurag kashyap movies are one of the most downloaded on torrent even gulal but these people won’t pay this much on theatre but still it has only enlightened his charm and stature and the barometer how indian box office scale is just a mirage
unusual to see a director thanks his base the torrent crowd:
His directorial debut Paanch is yet to see the light of the day, but filmmaker Anurag Kashyap’s popularity and celluloid experiments make him the ambassador of neo-cinema in India.
Part of his now-worldwide fame came courtesy his films being downloaded illegally online and the director, though thankful for the popularity, is upset with the bug that has infected the cinema industry.
“I am thankful to piracy because it saved cinema and my career and I get bothered by it too that because of it our mainstream cinema now worldwide has become only about summer blockbusters and superheroes and sequels. Torrents have killed meaningful cinema worldwide because they are not like events and people chose to see them on laptops,” the 40-year-old posted during an online Q and A session with his fans on user-generated news links website Reddit today.
Mr Kashyap, who is known for making critically acclaimed films on a tight budget such as Gulal, Paanch, Black Friday, Dev D and the two part Gangs Of Wasseypur series, also wrote that he is not in a rat race for joining the so-called Rs 100 club in Bollywood.
The director is now working on his magnum opus Bombay Velvet with Ranbir Kapoor in the lead and, while his contemporaries in Bollywood aim for the coveted box office mark, Mr Kashyap is not bothered.
“I will care about the 100 crore club when my film costs more than 50 crore (in budget), like with my next BV (Bombay Velvet that) needs to make more than that (Rs 100 crore) to be sustainable for me in the future (sic),” he wrote on Reddit. The filmmaker also volleyed other questions such as his involvement in the music of his films.
“With music, I first look for the right person, always a music director who has an inclination to create than to deliver a hit song and then he should have the time I need,” posted Mr Kashyap.
He justified his involvement further by revealing that “minimum we have taken on any film to create music is 18 months. (On) Bombay Velvet, we have already spent four years, (on) Gulaal we spent three years and (on) Gow (Gangs Of Wasseypur more than three years. Music is developed simultaneously along with the script (and that) is why they go together well.”
He added, “lyricists are more often than not chosen by the music director, he throws choices at me and I respond as yes or no and we discuss the script at every stage amongst ourselves, and whenever we pitch the film, it’s always with ready music. That also explains why I always work with a new music director.”
Asked by a fan about how he gets past the censor board, Mr Kashyap answered, “Argue when they don’t understand and make sure that your film is powerful enough for them to let it go and honest to its milieu, so that it does not look like a cheap afterthought (sic).”
He also shrugged off the non-mainstream tag that his unconventional films starring either newcomers or theatre actors have earned him.
“I have always believed I am mainstream. I just didn’t have stars. I will lose my place only if I start to get dishonest with my film. if I start to cater to the fandom, either mine or the star’s fandom, I will fail if not at first then sooner than most. It does not matter who is in the film, what matters is why you are making it and how honest are you to the material and to yourself,” said Mr Kashyap.
He also owns the rights to Indian comic book superhero Doga. Asked if the much-awaited film on the dog-masked vigilante will ever be made, Mr Kashyap replied: “Doga aayega. Ussey bananey ke liye jitna paisa chahiye woh tabhi milega jab Bombay Velvet superhit hogi. (Doga will be made. The budget required to make the film will be sanctioned only when Bombay Velvet is declared a superhit) like GoW (Gangs Of Wasseypur led to BV (Bombay Velvet), BV (Bombay Velvet) will lead to Doga.”
Meanwhile, the director, who is known for making edgy films, has “been dying to do a comedy” and that too with a quirky title: “How to be a capitalist via socialism”.
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September 13, 2013 at 3:19 PM
GoW would find a place among the ten best Hindi films of the last fifty years on the strength of its music and lyrics alone.
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September 13, 2013 at 4:04 PM
Why stop at Hindi films or a mere 50 years?
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December 23, 2014 at 12:47 PM
Agreed. Although the movie was 6 hours, I could have easily watched another 6 hours of that stuff…
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September 16, 2013 at 5:42 PM
Happy to see GOW in the list 🙂
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December 15, 2014 at 11:36 PM
This one’s releasing on the 26th
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December 16, 2014 at 4:48 AM
I want to watch this, right now and I want the soundtrack as well. The first time, am so eager for an AK movie. The background score gets it a few notches up. Very few filmmakers in B’wood ‘own’ Bombay’s grime and the messy life that comes with it to show it as is. Kashyap does, as does Sriram Raghavan although his is a much ‘softer’ take.
LikeLike
December 23, 2014 at 11:58 AM
Me too Arthi – waiting with bated breath. But I think this is a bad business decision. Right now, people are in a jovial mood and with PK euphoria sweeping everbody over, I am not sure if this is the right time to release this.
It will be a sad day if a film that has the potential to be genuinely good — I suspect this one is — is trampled because of another good film in the past week!!!
Looks like Aamir Khan is the bane of existence for AK. BOMBAY VELVET was postponed thanks to clash with PK; and now this one is coming right on the heels of PK..either way, AK not good for AK!!!
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December 23, 2014 at 12:39 PM
Howlarious!!! What a find this actor Girish Kulkarni has been for Marathi theater and cinema!!! Wild running commentary…
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December 23, 2014 at 12:44 PM
Anurag Kashyap is in a league of his own and the only Bollywood director taken seriously outside of India, which is a rare feat.
Looking forward to Ugly a lot and even more so Bombay Velvet.
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December 23, 2014 at 2:03 PM
There seems to be some problem? The updated/new trailers are not showing up as new posts??
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December 23, 2014 at 2:32 PM
sorry, fixed it.
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December 23, 2014 at 2:59 PM
Rahul Bhatt will surprise many.. I see lot of potential in him!
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December 23, 2014 at 4:45 PM
Is he Mahesh Bhatt’s son? The one who is supposed to have helped David Headley in the Mumbai attacks?
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December 23, 2014 at 4:52 PM
lol No…. He’s a TV actor from the 90s-00s
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December 25, 2014 at 3:23 AM
Reviews are pretty good so far…but will hardly do anything at box office and the movie is already available on torrents which is a pity
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December 25, 2014 at 3:30 AM
Seeing it in a theatre today.
:”Ugly — a constantly riveting, ticking timebomb of a film — is by far Kashyap’s finest film. It is a visceral, frequently surprising ride, a dark thriller (not for the faint of brain or the morally queasy) that surpasses the shadowy greatness we witnessed in Kashyap’s masterful Black Friday several years ago. Ugly works even better perhaps because here, unencumbered by the need to stick to facts, he can give his characters and their demons free rein over the proceedings.
……The performances are striking, but it’d be criminal to not single out three in particular: Tejaswini Kolhapure, who, as the mother of the kidnapped child, wears the hangdog look of surrender so hauntingly it hurts; Girish Kulkarni, playing the sharp but frustrating police inspector and grounding Ugly into a very real zone; and Vineet Kumar Singh, playing a slimy casting director who has lots to hide up both his sleeves. Ronit Roy is solid as ever as the cop who doesn’t mind cracking a few harmless skulls if they lie in his way, and Rahul Bhat does well as the actor so convinced of his own star-quality that he’s already changed his name.”
http://rajasen.com/2014/12/25/ugly/
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December 25, 2014 at 10:16 PM
There is a reason why Anurag Kashyap is considered an excellent filmmaker, why he has the cult following that he does, and that reason is that he hates formula. Few filmmakers in India have had the courage to fiddle with Bollywood’s rules and Kashyap is one of them. He’s been doing it consistently, having tried to bridge the gap between mainstream and offbeat with the Wasseypur films, and going lo fi with the disappointing That Girl in Yellow Boots.
Most people consider Black Friday as Kashyap’s golden ticket. It wasn’t. It was Paanch. Dark, blood soaked noir is his forte. With Ugly, Kashyap has returned to his roots, and the result: Ugly is Kashyap’s best film in years. It’s also his most mature work to date.
The plot is simple – a little girl named Kali goes missing, and her father, a struggling actor named Rahul (Rahul Bhatt) runs helter skelter looking for her. There are twists and turns, but this film is not about the whodunit. It’s about the characters – they’re all ugly; ugly from the inside, the outside and from every possible side. Kali’s mother (Tejaswini Kolhapure) is a suicidal alcoholic, divorced from Rahul and now married to the cop (Ronit Roy) who is investigating the case. The cop is regressive, but feigns an air of dignity and righteousness. Rahul’s friend and agent (Vineet Kumar) is a seedy guy involved in all the awful things you expect from a casting agent. The thanedaar taking the case (Girish Kulkarni) is an arrogant villain who finds humour in Rahul’s genuine anguish.
Kashyap places all these scumbags in a juicer-mixer-grinder of a plot. Lies, betrayal, screaming, pummelling, whiskey-guzzling, pill-popping, mass murdering – it’s your not-so-usual cocktail of depravity, served up in Mumbai’s underbelly.
Ironically, Ugly looks beautiful. It’s all dark, dank and disgusting, and yet impossible to look away from, courtesy of cinematographer Nikos Andretsakis, who earlier worked on Dibakar Bannerjee’s films. This isn’t another Dev D, but a film that is its own beast, filled with black and blue, and the color of grime. The second thing you’ll notice about Ugly is the spine-chilling rock music-inspired background score by Brian McOmber. This sort of sound design hasn’t been heard in Bollywood and it really is quite refreshing.
Finally, there are the supercharged powerhouse performances from nearly everyone in the film, even those with smaller parts like Vineet Kumar and Surveen Chawla. Roy repeats his tough guy shtick from Udaan, but he brings an intensity to it nonetheless. Bhat, last seen in the terrible Nayee Padosan, is wonderful as the desperate, failed actor. Apparently the actors weren’t given the scripts before shooting, and the improv style of filmmaking has somehow worked. The climax might seem anticlimactic, but it certainly is quite haunting.
Add to all that grime jet black humour and Kashyap’s trademark irreverence, which is arresting this time instead of seeming indulgent. There is a ten-minute scene between Kulkarni and Bhat, where the latter goes to the police station to lodge a complaint and the former takes Bhat’s case instead of taking on the case. Every bickering venomous sentence coming from Kulkarni’s mouth is hilarious and the scene becomes more and more fun as it goes on. It only becomes less hilarious when you realize that’s how most police stations in India function.
You’ll probably be confused as to whom to root for by the end of the film, but the answer really is nobody. Kashyap never tries to make you sympathise with any of the characters, thereby making them more real. Human beings are terrible by default, and they would only do more terrible things to others to have their own way. So there’s no point of rendering a contrived ‘goodness’ to the central character, and Kashyap remains quite non-judgemental. The vast space between helplessness and desperation is morbidity, and Ugly lives in that world.
Source: FIRSTPOST – fadnsvis
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December 26, 2014 at 2:29 AM
Excellent reviews…may be should have came after couple of weeks when PK tide would have calmed down
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December 28, 2014 at 5:48 AM
2014 has been the year of the unexpected in Bollywood. This year we have seen big star vehicles like Salman Khan’s Jai Ho fail at box office, while the gen next actors of B-town like Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor stood tall, rubbing shoulders with established superstars of the Bollywood.
But one thing that remained common as last year, was the emergence of few class films from plethora of crass. This year, over 120 films hit the big screens and many big budget star flicks made insane money at box office. But I am not here to talk about the highest grossers of the year. I am here to carefully pick 5 films that could be called as this year’s best, based on the mixture of content and entertainment value. Without wasting more time, I present 5 of the finest films of 2014:
http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report-best-bollywood-films-of-2014-queen-haider-pk-highway-and-dedh-ishqiya-2047634
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