Fugly Hindi Movie
Sample this - A reporter thrusts her mike into the face of a man with third degree burns asking him how he feels. Another pushes in to ask the patient why he tried committing suicide, before finally the ward boys pushes the stretcher nto the hospital. This happens in the first ten minutes of the film.
Quite often I have been left cringing as filmmakers create caricatures of the media. Usually I overlook these small incidents. It is however difficult for me to ignore it in Fugly considering much of the screenplay moves forward because the writer-director eagerly overlooks details. Fugly rather left me exasperated. Not because I take offence as journalist myself. But because I just hoped the director had researched better. For one, a news media camera is never allowed inside an ICU; At least not in the situation that is shown in film. And more importantly, live telecast needs lot of engineering. Channels don't just get live feed directly from a camera shooting something randomly. As a filmmaker you can't just make things happen for convenience for your screenplay. Things would have been acceptable had Fugly been an exaggerated satire, or one of those slapsticks that we have so often seen Akshay Kumar in.
Taking things for granted is just tip of the problems. Innumerable directorial goof ups follow.
To be fair, Fugly has a good plot. It is the story of four buddies caught in the trap laid by villainous policemen called Chautala. Soon these four kids are nothing but unwilling puppets in the hands of the man in Khakee. They try their best but every time they try getting rid of Chautala the kids land in worse trouble.
The trouble arises when the story moves on from a hero-villain tale to being one about reawakening the country's conscience. Kabir Sadanand makes an earnest attempt to take his film into the Rang De Basanti space but fails miserably. The film bores when it is supposed to create nationalistic impact. Worse, it made people laugh when it was supposed to make the audience emotional.
Among good things in the film are Jimmy Sheirgill, Arfi Lamba and cinematography. Newcomer Mohit Marwah has screen presence but will have to work on his skills to become a more recognized actor. Kiara too shows spark. Vijender should continue with boxing.
Fugly disappoints. The first half is still passable but the second half loses way completely. The screenplay could have done better with use of some logic. This a film that the director will have to take the fall for.
