Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Sanjay Dutt, Kangana Ranuat, Angad Bedi, Neil Bhoopalam, Neha Dhupia
Direction: Rensil D’ Silva
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1 hour 54 minutes
Story: Four friends turn into vigilantes to clean up corruption and crime in the country.
Review: This story has its heart in the right place, mind all over the place, and finger on the wrong pulse. ‘Ungli’ is socially relevant, earnest in delivering a strong message, albeit, the weak execution doesn’t support the larger intent. Abhay (Randeep) a crime journalist, Maya (Kangana) a medical intern, Goti (Neil) a computer hardware expert, and Kalim (Angad) a garage owner – are four buddies so enraged with our corrupt system that they show law-makers the middle finger and then take law into their own hands. Here’s the back story. Their buddy was beaten up by a powerful man’s son; the victim went into coma and justice was denied.
From there team ‘Ungli’ is born. The fearless foursome dressed in black face masks, hoods and headlights set out to punish and shame (they’re valiant, not violent) unscrupulous cops, rickshaw drivers, RTO officers and government babus. Television channels are sent recordings of their operations, and soon they become darlins’ of the aam junta and sansani khabar for the media. Their plans are simple and too smooth – therein lies the problem. Enter ACP Kale (Dutt) who’s given the task of tracking down the cool criminals. Enter bindaas cop with a bad boy image, Nikhil (Emraan), who is hired by ACP to crack the case.
At this point, an item number (by Shraddha Kapoor) also makes a forced entry. Soon, a fistful of predictable twists and turns also enter – which do nothing to turn around the story into anything out of the ordinary. Rensil D’Silva’s plot is fast-paced, in spite of the many potholes it slips into. He strings the story like episodes, never allowing the drama to intensify. The outlaws have a motive, but their plans are way too improbable and flaky. There’s a fleeting romance thrown in too and attacks of laughable dialogue.
The performances are average – Kangana looks too bored for revenge, Emraan is unenthused and under-utilized, salt ‘n’ pepper Dutt tries some heavy dialogue but leaves no impact. Randeep looks believable and delivers a fine act and Neha (playing his colleague and love interest) does her part well.
Ungli
