A long-in-the-making film often has to face an uphill task. It might look dated and at times, technologically outdated. Ungli is also a delayed film but it looks fresh as ever. Few might argue that it doesn’t work now since the ‘achche din’ are in the offing thanks to the change in the government. However, Ungli would have failed even if it had released when corruption was at its peak. The idea is great and relatable – but it is very badly directed, that makes Ungli one of the biggest disappointments of recent times.

The story of the movie: Abhay (Randeep Hooda), Maya (Kangna Ranaut), Goti (Neil Bhoopalam) and Kaleem (Anged Bedi) are fed up of the corruption that has become a part of the system. They don masks and form the ‘Ungli’ gang and start teaching lessons to corrupt people in their own style and even post videos of their doings. In no time, they become heroes in the eyes of the common man. Nikhil (Emraan Hashmi) too gets impressed by the Ungli gang. Inspector Kale (Sanjay Dutt) is asked to preside over the case and bring the gang members to task. However, the gang members are experts and would never leave any clue whatsoever after committing their act of bravado.

There’s no doubt that Ungli indeed has a relatable story. When the gang members teach a nice lesson to auto rickshaw drivers, politicians who deface our cities with ugly-illegal hoardings, babus who delay pension files etc, one can’t help but feel elated and excited as everyone has gone through one of these ordeals in their lives. However, the premise needs to be nicely directed as well. And that’s where Rensil DSilva fails as the director. The film is too quick and except the sequence where it is explained why the Ungli gang was formed, no other portion in the film evokes any empathy for the characters. Yes, there’s a surprise in store from the very start with regards to Nikhil’s character but after a point, one can make out where the film is heading.

Even from the writing point of view, the film falters badly in the second half. The Ungli gang members are shown messing with some powerful people of the society. Yet, they easily get away. Even cops don’t get a single clue about them for days altogether. There is no major conflict and confrontation that arise in the narrative. Everything happens very conveniently. The climax is sans any dhamaka and the film ends on an unconvincing note. That’s not it. The 2 clapworthy dialogues shown in the promos – “Ek baar main fodna shuru karoonga na, toh fir koi guarantee nahin hai ki kya, kya tootega” and “Jitna dum aapke ek haath mein nahin, utna dum meri ek ungli mein hai” – are missing in the film! Then in 2 places, Sanjay Dutt’s voice is dubbed by someone who’s bad at imitating Sanju. What’s more, the makers could have done away with both these dialogues! And then the censor board played spoilsport by forcing the makers to ‘correct’ middle finger scene. Hence, it is quite awkward to see Randeep Hooda flashing a closed fist instead of his ‘beech ki ungli’!

Believe it or not, Emraan Hashmi has kind of a supporting role in the film! He isn’t present in some interesting sequences of both first and second half. Performance-wise, he is sincere as always but it’s really sad to see that Ungli adds to his list of back-to-back flops. He has a fan base and can pull audiences the way very few actors can. Here’s hoping he springs back on top in 2015!

Randeep Hooda in many ways is the ‘main hero’ of the film and is superb. He really leaves a mark in some of the confrontational sequences. Kangana Ranaut has more of a guest appearance in the film and it’s no wonder, she isn’t promoting the film. She gives a decent performance, though. Neha Dhupia arguably has more screen presence, especially in the first half and does well. Sanjay Dutt is fair but suffers from bad characterization. Neil Bhoopalam and Angad Bedi are strictly okay. Same goes for Arunoday Singh (Ricky). Mahesh Manjrekar (B R Dayal) is too good. Shiv Subramaniyam (Inspector Shivraman), Raza Murad (Commissioner) and the actors playing Anshuman and his pals are good in their small roles. Shraddha Kapoor is sizzling in the item song.

Music fails to add to the impact. The title song is nice though, especially because of the visuals – the funky titles. John Stewart Eduri’s background score is energetic. Deepa Bhatia’s editing is too quick due to which the impact fails to get generated. Milap Zaveri’s dialogues are clapworthy and although at places it’s too filmy, it works well. Action is impressive. Rensil DSilva’s story is great, especially the base but falters in the end. But that could have been saved with a great script and most importantly, sound direction. But script is nothing great and direction is simply disappointing. It’s difficult to believe that it’s the same person who directed Kurbaan, which in my opinion was a great effort, especially direction-wise. But with Ungli, he is simply not in form and moreover, he didn’t even have a good plot to somehow save himself.

On the whole, Ungli is a film where so many things goes wrong, and how. Initial scenes impress as it deals with the problems faced by aam aadmi almost everyday. Also, performances are fine and dialogues clapworthy. But the film is super-quick and one never gets a chance to empathize with the characters. The second half is very convenient and unconvincing and the film lacks some dhamaka and confrontation in the finale. Some of the interesting scenes shown in the promos are missing while Emraan Hashmi has more or less a supporting role – believe it or not! King-sized disappointment!

My rating - ** out of 5!

WILL NOVEMBER END ON A GOOD NOTE WITH UNGLI?

The month of November is about to end and for Bollywood, it hasn’t been great. The Shaukeens and Rang Rasiya released in the first week and despite being well-made films, both the movies failed commercially. The next release was Kill Dil which flopped because of lack of excitement for the film and a very amateur climax. Happy Ending hit theatres last week and has sent shockwaves in the industry as collections have been very dismal. In fact, the cost of Happy Ending was huge and because of the bad collections, it’s turned out to be one of the biggest disasters in recent years.

Now, Ungli is all set to release tomorrow, on the last Friday of November. The odds are heavy against the film but it touches topics that the aam junta can relate to. Starring Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, Randeep Hooda, Angad Bedi and Neil Bhoopalam, it has been in the making since 2012. Sanjay Dutt plays the cop and he was seen hurriedly shooting for the film before the commencement of his jail sentence. Arunoday Singh and Neha Dhupia too feature in the film but are missing from the promotions and majorly from the promos. Shraddha Kapoor has done a wonderful item song but sadly, the songs have failed to make an impact. And this is shocking, considering that Emraan Hashmi films always have hit music. It is directed by Rensil DSilva, who directed Kurbaan and also wrote Rang De Basanti and it is directed by Karan Johar. The promotions haven’t been great. In fact, there was a lot of negativity surrounding the film and there were reports that the actors aren’t interested to promote the film. In fact, Kangana is missing from the promotions, which has raised lot of eyebrows.

The opening can be bad but as said above, if the film connects with the audiences, it can grow rapidly. Like the other November releases, Ungli faces no competition as such and this coupled with good word of mouth can definitely help the film significantly.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE UNGLI AND WHY? DO LET ME KNOW!