Various films raise issues and portray aam junta’s plight, their silent protests and outrage against the system, but fail to offer a credible solution to fight the crime. Uvaa dares to do that and manages to make sense somewhere, but shoddy execution mars this potentially significant social drama, which demands crucial changes in our judiciary and society at large.

If only director Jasbir Bhatti had dwelt on the subject rather than concentrating on silly school scenes and even sillier teachers, we would have had a hard-hitting film on our hands.

One of the tracks in the film, Jiyo Lalla, has a line that goes: ‘Lagake taaron mein tadka, chalo maggi banate hain’. Like the now infamous two-minute noodles, the makers seem to have had an instant recipe for a film — take a social evil as the premise, stir in some real-life incidents, throw in some juveniles and season it with a bunch of assorted characters. The end result is a hard-to-digest khichdi. – See more at: http://www.mid-day.com/articles/uvaa—movie-review/16324152#sthash.PsGEhceo.dpuf

Some effective acting by Rajit Kapoor as the disciplinarian principal who crumbles when faced with a domestic crisis ,and Jimmy Sheirgil as a cop who changes colours faster than the film’s loose-limbed script can register, and a powerfully sung anti-rape song are the saving grace in this film over-populated by cardboard characters mouthing overzealous dialogues.

…if the objective of the film was to put forth that radical idea then the exercise itself was futile. The strappy narrative goes back and forth trying to delineate past and present without much success or class. The treatment is clueless, amateurish, uninventive and tedium inducing.

But most importantly, the film’s finale is utterly unconvincing, objectionable in its insinuation that being a being a woman is a punishment, and jarring, in that order.

In that sense, the film talks about women’s rights while including these sexist elements, and gives a muddled message. However, the film redeems itself to an extent by the story it chooses, the issues it touches upon even if briefly, and a few genuine moments.

Films about youth striving for change and questioning authority have existed from the beginning of time. But it takes a little more than getting five shirtless boys to nose dive from a 15-feet cliff into water to make a Rang De Basanti.