Thursday, August 07, 2008

Ugly aur Pagli: when harried met silly

Sachin Khot’s Ugly aur Pagli wastes no time in assuring us that it isn’t trying to be a refined comedy. The first five minutes contain references to intestinal mishaps and other bodily functions, among them a scene involving flatulence in an elevator and a loving shot of the film’s drunken heroine spewing bright orange vomit on someone’s head. In other words, the classier elements of 1990s Hollywood B-comedies have made inroads into Hindi cinema. Or perhaps the scriptwriters read the recent news item about the fart joke being one of the oldest forms of humour, and decided to pay homage to the past.

When the abrasive Kuhu (Mallika Sherawat) staggers into the life of a wide-eyed young engineering student named Kabir Achrekar (Ranvir Shorey), he falls irredeemably in love (even though he describes her as a mix of Keshto Mukherjee and Medha Patkar, which suggests that his tastes may be kinkier than we thought). This is before they’ve even had a coherent conversation – his principle acquaintance with her at this point is through her loud snoring. Once she’s conscious and sober, she turns his life upside down, smacking him about some, making him wear her high heels, ordering him to perform a humiliating public stunt on her birthday. Kabir’s T-shirts, which have prescient lines printed on them (“I love drunk bitches” during his first meeting with Kuhu; “I will get wet on this ride” just before she tosses him into a swimming pool), appear more clued in to what’s happening than he is (or we, the viewers, are). There seems little option but to sit back and let the spirited Ms Sherawat lead us through a series of increasingly random situations and song sequences reminiscent of the good old 80s, when songs had no interest in a movie’s narrative flow.

To call this film fluff would be an understatement. It’s as messed up and capricious as Kuhu herself, and the only way to watch it is to adhere to the "ask no questions" rule (which is pretty much Kabir’s predicament vis-à-vis his “pagli”). One gets the impression that the shooting process was repeatedly interrupted and the filmmakers kept forgetting where to pick up the threads: entire sequences look like they were thrown in just because someone said, “Okay, we need a few beach-volleyball shots in Goa now” or “One song with flamenco dancers please.” Admittedly, this kind of madcap spontaneity results in a few moments that work well – such as the one where Kabir meets Kuhu’s high-society mom and spaced-out alcoholic dad (Tinnu Anand, in a neat throwaway performance) – but these are few and far between, and they can’t stop the film from plunging towards a soppy, tone-altering “explanation” of its leading lady’s actions. (Minor spoiler: it involves a deceased boyfriend and it’s supposed to be touching, but given some of the things this girl has done through the film, one is forced to wonder about the manner of the boy’s passing.)

What Ugly aur Pagli has going for it are the two lead performances, especially by Shorey, who has come along terrifically as an actor after his superb double role in Mithya. He injects feeling and integrity into even the shoddiest scenes: watch his mounting alarm and helplessness in the diner scene where a weeping Kuhu repeatedly blows her nose into his handkerchief while people gawp at them. Or the scene where Kuhu’s parents chance to see a pack of condoms planted in Kabir’s pocket by a friend, and the embarrassed Kabir can’t stop himself from meaninglessly stuttering out “Woh kya hai, in se pregnancy nahin hoti hai”. On paper, these are lazy, unoriginal samples of situation comedy, but Shorey makes them work. In fact, it could be argued that he’s almost too good: even during the song sequences – which occupy their own discrete, music-video universe and have nothing to do with the rest of the film – he stays in character (trying to channel the nerdier aspects of Kabir’s personality) when all the song demands is a blank-slate dancing hero flailing his arms and legs about.

Sherawat is a rawer, less assured performer, but she knows how to make a difficult character likeable (and it is a difficult character: not many Hindi-film heroines get to make their entrance with a puke scene). The chemistry between her and Shorey isn’t as effective as her teaming with Rahul Bose – another sensitive, new-age actor who ostensibly isn't the Sherawat "type" – was in Pyaar ke Side Effects, but it’s enjoyable, occasionally touching, and it provides one of the very few reasons to watch this odd little film.

[A version of this review appears in this week's Tehelka. And no, I haven't seen the Korean film My Sassy Girl, of which this film is apparently a scene-by-scene copy.]

14 comments:

  1. Great header, hope Tehelka retained it (btw, did you read the GreatBong's review of the movie that, ahem, inspired the name of the mag?)

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  2. Anon: no, the header is something I just thought of before publishing the post. I saw Arnab's Tahalka post, yes - I actually remember that film very well despite having seen it more than a decade ago. Wonder what that says about me.

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  3. It is impressive the way they find their sources. The only problem is wikipedia! Copycats in music are even more impressive... I can't imagine they really listen to Malaysian pop or Turkish folk songs or whatever... may be they just do a random search on youtube!

    One other Korean film that would make a very good Bollywood movie is Joint Security Area (directed by Park Chan Wook who made Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance). They don't have to do much...just change the setting to india pakistan line of control.

    and yes the header is fantastic...

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  4. Re: Tahalka. I worry for you, old man!

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  5. It is impressive the way they find their sources.

    My Sassy Girl is a very well known movie. There's an English version of the movie too which doesn't have a great imdb rating.

    I guess it's a hard movie to remake, even if you copy all the scenes.

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  6. IMHO ranvir was not staying in character during the songs,,he is just a very lame dancer.other than thar he is fantastic. the scene where he says 'inse pregnancy nahi hoti is really well done.

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  7. So does this mean that I should watch it, doesn't it? I like Shorey very much as an actor. And I like stupid 'fart jokes' especially in situations like Scary Movies and other spoofs. On which note, why doesn't Bollywood make spoofs?

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  8. Puking heroines, condoms, and Tinnu Anand?

    How can I resist?!

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  9. Your spoiler alert made me laugh for five minutes !

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  10. What I liked best about the post is "makes you wonder about the manner of the boy's passing"..lol...

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  11. OK, this gives me a reason to watch the film. Was avoiding it conscientiously. No more wasting time and money kind of decision. Oh well, glad to have a chance to fling it away.

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  12. Not a worth watching movie.

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  13. Loved the review-have tucked this neatly into the 'forgettable viewing during flights' list.

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  14. thought d ones who gave us Pyar ke side effects can do no mistakes

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