This week’s release UNGLI reveals the ‘system of corruption’ that is predominant in today’s time. Rensil D’Silva’s UNGLI is an effort to mirror the corrupt system which prevails in the society today. At a time when candle marches, protest and agitation are soon becoming passé’, Rensil tries to showcase that ‘ungli’ is the new form of revolt where you turn the tables in the system. The movie opens with an old man and his young daughter waiting at the Pension Office and being intimidated by the ‘babus’ working in the office. The old man has a stroke and lands up in a hospital where his poor daughter relates her dilemma to the doctor, which is heard by Maya (Kangna Ranaut), who is works in the same hospital. She notifies her friends Abhay (Randeep Hooda), Goti (Neil Bhoopalam) and Kaleem (Angad Bedi) that they got their ‘first case’.
The team, then, covers their faces in masks and kidnap the ‘babus’ at night. As a part of their plan, they strap the ‘babus’ with ‘time bombs’ and make them run in an empty stadium. They also inform the cops and media about the same. In no time, their antics are all over the media channels and they become famous as the ‘UNGLI’ gang. Slowly the gang starts expanding their operations and putting up the videos of punishing the corrupt on the internet and win the hearts of the crowds. The cops, though, are unhappy about this and the Police Commissioner (Raza Murad) gives the case to an honest police officer Ashok Kale (Sanjay Dutt) to solve. Kale fails to catch the gang; he comprehends that he will need to use someone who thinks like them to work against them.
That’s when he decides to put a police officer Nikhil (Emraan Hashmi) on job. Emraan, who happens to be the son of a late cop and a close friend of Kale, is not interested in working with the police and hates the system and it’s functioning. He is infamous in his ways of functioning and hence Kale hands him the duty of catching the UNGLI gang. Nikhil takes up the job and does his own tricks in punishing the corrupt and takes credit for it pretending to be an UNGLI gang member. The sudden entry of Nikhil wakes up and shakes up the original gang. With a few hints that Nikhil throws at them through the ‘trademarked’ video messages, the gang tracks him down and eventually he joins them. Nikhil soon realizes that the gang is not wrong in their approach towards cleaning up the society. But, due to a certain situation and circumstances, he gets torn between his duty (as a police officer) and his bond with the UNGLI gang members. Kale, on the other hand, too waits to pursue answers from Nikhil as the pressure keeps building on him to catch the notorious gang. Amidst all of this, a situation gets cropped up where all these characters are faced with a situation where they have to either accept the corrupt society for what is it or else fight back by risking their own lives.
UNGLI is Rensil D’Silva’s second film as a director (the first being Saif Ali Khan- Kareena Kapoor starrer Kurbaan). Rensil, who also doubles up as the film’s story and screenplay writer, seems to have let off all his vents against the system in one breath. The problem with this film is that it lacks certain level of freshness. Everyone contributes their bit successfully. It is really nice to see Sanjay Dutt, who grips every shot and frame meritoriously with his ever-so-effective trait performance. Emraan Hashmi spares no efforts to match his performance with that of Sanjay Dutt. It is however Randeep Hooda who springs up a pleasant surprise in this film! As always, he exhibits a strong screen presence and is as usual, a delight to watch. Neil Bhoopalam and Angad Bedi perform well in their parts. Kangna Ranaut has done well in her role as part of the ‘ungli’ gang member. Neha Dhupia, on the other hand, seems to have got a good part to perform on the big screen after a long time in this film where she plays a TV journalist. Shraddha Kapoor sizzles and excels in her first ever item number (‘Dance Basanti’). Songs like ‘Ungli Theme’ and ‘Dance Basanti’ are peppy while ‘Pakeezah’ is melodious. The film’s editing is very crisp, so much so that the film’s run time is only 114 minutes. Dialogues by Milap Zaveri are very real and in today’s vernacular. The entire film is shot in Mumbai If you want to watch a film about fighting against the corrupt system then UNGLI is a decent watch for this weekend.
3 Stars | 6/10
