Fugly, Hindi Bollywood Film movie Review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * *
Hindi Film Review
Not much inventiveness is required to make a movie these days. ‘Fugly’ is a brainless attempt at following the ‘Fukrey’ success story. Notice the pre-release publicity pattern that almost completely attempted to follow in that supposedly ‘hit’ film’s footsteps. And why not? With a story that doesn’t steer too far away from the ‘Fukrey’ goal post, but, for some add-on game playing with dirty politics and corrupt cops- to tank-up on complexity. ‘Fugly’ in fact tries to own several facets of well-loved hit films. It incorporates the ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ trick of getting three guys and a girl together in a display of Bromance, the ‘Delhi Belly’ attitude of irreverent loutish don’t care type lay-a-bouts getting haplessly embroiled in intrigue not exactly of their own making, and the ‘Rang De Basanti’ fortitude of developing patriotic fervor to fight against injustice- all squashed up together in an offering that appears as clueless and tedium inducing as it is misleading.
Fugly(Hindi) Rating: * * Invoking ‘Hit’ titles, serenading ‘hip’ ineptitude, this ‘Dilli’ youth centered bromantic drama follows the ‘FUKREY’ route to a ‘Rang De Basanti’ climax but has very little in-between other than a series of desi rhythm and beat heavy music videos. This sort of so-called story is old hat now!
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<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/"></a> Hindi Film Review
Johnson Thomas
Just Ugly!
Film: Fugly
Cast: Mohit Marwah, Vijendra Singh, Kiara Advani, Arfi Lamba
Director: Kabir Sadanand
Rating: * *
Not much inventiveness is required to make a movie these days. ‘Fugly’ is a brainless attempt at following the ‘Fukrey’ success story. Notice the pre-release publicity pattern that almost completely attempted to follow in that supposedly ‘hit’ film’s footsteps. And why not? With a story that doesn’t steer too far away from the ‘Fukrey’ goal post, but, for some add-on game playing with dirty politics and corrupt cops- to tank-up on complexity. ‘Fugly’ in fact tries to own several facets of well-loved hit films. It incorporates the ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ trick of getting three guys and a girl together in a display of Bromance, the ‘Delhi Belly’ attitude of irreverent loutish don’t care type lay-a-bouts getting haplessly embroiled in intrigue not exactly of their own making, and the ‘Rang De Basanti’ fortitude of developing patriotic fervor to fight against injustice- all squashed up together in an offering that appears as clueless and tedium inducing as it is misleading.
The bizarre series of events designed to engulf the four friends in a fight for justice against all odds is for one devoid of any clear cut mitigating factor. Dev( Mohit Marwah). Devi(Kiara Advani), Gaurav(Vijendra Singh), Aditya( Arfi Lamba) are the four friends here. One doesn’t really get to understand why they are friends in the first place other than a stray dialogue that establishes them as ‘langotiya’ yaars. Dev has a patriotic streak and is close to Devi , who with her armed forces widow mother(Kunika Lal) survives on sales of homemade farsan( by the looks of it), and forever delayed pension. Gaurav, an aspiring world champion boxer, comes from a political haryaanvi family, with his father aiming for Chief Minister. And Aditya, pet-named shithead, because of his family’s well-established and successful business in ceramic toilet products, is also lovingly referred to as haggu(shitty), relating to the fact that he’s always the one scared shit of the consequences. Now for the stupidest plot ever. Devi gets pawed by a shop owner called Nunnu( don’t know if that was a pun intended) and subsequently the four decide to teach Nunnu a lesson. But as it transpires Inspector Chautala( Jimmy Shergill in villainous plumes) prevents them from carrying out their plan and works his own in instead- successfully embroiling them in a potential murder wrap for which they are expected to cough up close to 60 lakhs to be set free. Chautala and Imple, his understudy, track the four while they come up with the weirdest of ideas to get hold of the cash. From dipping into their own personal savings, stealing away a sack full of it while an income tax raid is on , working as hit men to organizing drug parties for the yuppie set, the four friends try it all and still come up short. In a misguided attempt to break the stranglehold one of them attempts self-immolation and the resultant furor from the news fraternity is expectedly stereotypical.
The biggest problem here is that you just can’t drum up any empathy for this quartet of misfits who one would think, deserve every fallout experienced. The plotting is derivative and haplessly contrived. The series of music video intercepts( song and dance breaks) only make the cinematic experience even more untenable. The dialogues are quite simply as nonsensical as the title of the film. The performances from this new set of actors are competent enough but the poorly drawn characters and the contrived circumstances make it uninvolving. The super-talented Jimmy Shergill makes a valiant attempt to mark up the interest but it appears too facile in a sea of ineptitude- to make any difference whatsoever. If only the youthful zest represented in the musical interludes carried into the tale, there just might have been a little bit of excitement to be had. Kabir Sadanand appears to have borrowed the template to be followed without really understanding the intricacies behind it’s successful mechanics. As it is, this one stretches disbelief too far and makes this ‘brand’ of intellectually depraved entertainment appear terribly unappealing!
