Ugly Movie Review - Morbid beauty

Ameet Bhuvan

We all are inherently bad people who hide our ugliness behind social ties and bedroom doors. Nothing brings out the worst in us than helplessness and desperation.  It is in this space that Anurag  Kashyap's 'Ugly' resides and shines bright as his most accomplished work. Ugly is dark damp morbid and disturbing yet unflinchingly arresting.

A small girl all of ten years is kidnapped. Her father a failed actor, an alcoholic depressed divorcee mother and a regressive pretentious police officer husband are looking for her. There are other scum bags for characters who inhabit this dirty nasty universe. Each one of them are trying to extract their own personal rewards from a situation without being bothered about the lost girl. The entire film in fact is less a whodunit and more en exploration of the ugly sides to each of these people. 

As is his style Anurag shows no respect for any rules of how a Hindi film is meant to be : there is gore (all of it hinted at but enough to send shivers down your spine ) the treatment irreverent filled with dark satire that shocks and makes you uncomfortable. The ten minute scene between the father and police officer especially is funny but eventually makes you jolt and realise this is how real life is too. The electric eclectic background score accentuates the sense of despair and doom. 

So do the powerhouse performances. Bhat as the father. Ronit as the police man, Tejaswini as the mother everyone is pitch perfect. Vineeth and Surveen shine even in the limited screen time they have.

Ugly is not the usual cinema we are so used to. It is not entertainment. It is cinema that is not escapist and does not shy from disconcerting and disturbing you. The haunting climax stays long after one leaves the theatre. If this is your kind of cinema go for it. Ugly is a delight.

Rating: 3.5 / 5