“Ugly” is a disturbing film which will make you squirm in your seat. But if you don’t mind that, it is worth a watch.

The underlying sense of peril and the unrelenting tension grips you through a sweat breaking two hours. And when the climax of Ugly arrives you’re dealt a killer blow. It’s so dark and inconvenient that it’ll wrench your gut. And yet, it’s so simple that you’ll hate yourself for not guessing. More so, you’ll hate the characters for being so ignorant and misguided. Ugly is a film that draws the deepest and darkest behavior of men. This is how you make a great film.

You’ll probably be confused as to whom to root for by the end of the film, but the answer really is nobody. Kashyap never tries to make you sympathise with any of the characters, thereby making them more real. Human beings are terrible by default, and they would only do more terrible things to others to have their own way. So there’s no point of rendering a contrived ‘goodness’ to the central character, and Kashyap remains quite non-judgemental. The vast space between helplessness and desperation is morbidity, and Ugly lives in that world.

Ugly is a disappointment, not just because it’s a whodunit that sinks like a badly-made souffle but also because we expect better and more of Kashyap. Of him, we expect more taut storytelling, greater sensitivity in characterisation, as well as more originality and insight.

Anurag is so miserly with information that at one point you like to beseech him to part with more details but he is no mood to take a please-all route. Still all threads come together when they need to. Still it is Anurag’s least indulgent yet most visceral film. There is no escape from the ugliness that we and our films like to keep under wraps. Last week Hirani had hung a mirror in theatres, this week Anurag has put together few shards of glass. That was easier to face; this one will test the nerve.

‘Ugly’ is a beautiful portrayal of the squalidity that swamps the human soul. The characters are ruthless, dark, desperate and dangerous, more to themselves than others.

This is a thriller which leaves us with a sense of utter futility about the quality of life that we lead.

Ugly” is a beautiful portrayal of the squalidity that swamps the human soul. The characters are ruthless, dark, desperate and dangerous, more to themselves than others.
This is a thriller which leaves us with a sense of utter futility about the quality of life that we lead.

The characters in Ugly are ruthless, dark, desperate and dangerous, more to themselves than others. Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly is a thriller which leaves us with a sense of utter futility about the quality of life that we lead.