How many times have you, navigating your way through the city’s potholed roads, cursed the administration for a job badly done? How many times have you, refused a ride by a taxi driver, wanted to get in by force and make sure he drove you to your destination? How many times have you, reading yet another newspaper article on corruption and the corrupt, felt that the country has no hope of a future? How many times have you found yourself saying: “The system needs to change”? How many times have you done anything about it?

“Jab seedhi aur tedhi ungli se ghee naa nikle toh beech ka raasta apnana padta hai.” Ungli is the story of four self-styled vigilantes who — distressed by how the country is being held to ransom by the dishonest — decide to show their middle finger to the “system”, coming up with rules and ruses above and beyond the law to take on everyone from corrupt cops to errant auto drivers, bribe-taking government officials to wayward politicians.

Respectable professionals by day — crime reporter Abhay (Randeep Hooda), medical intern Maya (Kangana Ranaut), car mechanic Kaleem (Angad Bedi) and Gautam (Neil Bhoopalam) who repairs computers to earn a living — metamorphose into monkey-cap wearing vigilantes by night, coming up with out-of-the-box “punishments” for those who misuse their power. So bribe-hungry government men are strapped with fake bombs and made to run around a deserted stadium, an official who hands out driving licences just for a few thousand rupees is made to take a ride in a car driven by a “blind” man and a politician who is obsessed with having his face plastered on city hoardings, wakes up one morning to find his entire house plastered with posters of the “Ungli Gang”.

 

Even as their unconventional ways find fans among the common man, it throws top cop Kale (Sanjay Dutt) into a tizzy, who enlists the help of subordinate Nikhil (Emraan Hashmi) to track down the modern-day Robin Hoods. Reason: Nikhil supposedly has a criminal mind himself. Sample: he once got an entire girls’ hostel evacuated faking a bomb scare so that he could get cosy with his girlfriend inside. Like, really?! On his new mission, Nikhil figures that the only way in which he can nab the Ungli Gang is by infiltrating the group. If you have watched even one Bolly film, you know where this will end up.

Ungli has its heart in the right place, focusing on relevant issues that resonate with the viewer. But just good intentions do not a good film make. The breezy first half, in which the Ungli Gang pulls off one “anti-corruption operation” after another keeps you entertained, but post-interval, the plot unravels. An emotional backstory and the hint of a couple of romances prove to be speed-breakers, undoing the potential of the first hour. The rushed climax — cliched and carried out without any kind of credible conflict — is another major letdown.

Ungli has been in the making for years now, suffering long delays for production issues and Dutt’s jail sentence. As a result, it looks dated in bits and parts — illustrated by Dutt’s fluctuating waistline — and even the attempt to infuse some freshness — in the form of a smokin’ Shraddha Kapoor in Dance Basanti — fails to hit the mark. Director Rensil D’Silva — the man behind the Saif Ali Khan-Kareena Kapoor terrorism drama Kurbaan whose pen also produced the thought-provoking Rang De Basanti — shows flashes of promise here and there, but, even at just 114 minutes, Ungli seems far longer than its running time.

While Emraan has been made the face of the film’s promotions, it is Randeep who has the meatier role. The two handle their parts pretty competently, but Angad and Neil just behave like a couple of overgrown boys on set. The women — Kangana and Neha Dhupia, playing a TV reporter — mostly function as sidekicks to the boys. Age doesn’t sit handsome on Sanjay Dutt and the man is definitely not in good form in Ungli, many portions of which were shot just before he headed off to prison to serve a three-and-a-half-year sentence.

Wondering whether to catch Ungli this weekend? One big reason to stay away would be its cringe-worthy dialogues. Like when computer man Gautam threatens to expose a client’s porn film collection with: “Biwi ke saamne underwear utar jaayegi aur aapka hardware software bann jayega!”

 

Priyanka Roy
What did you like/not like about Ungli?Tell t2@abp.in