Movie review: 'Ungli' a listless and superficial thriller

Movie review: 'Ungli' a listless and superficial thrillerDirector: Rensil D'SilvaCast: Sanjay Dutt, Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Kangana Ranaut, Neha Dhupia, Angad Bedi, Neil Bhoopalam.

Writer-director Rensil D'Silva's 'Ungli' is a broad blend of elements from Rang De Basanti, a 2006 film that he co-scripted, and touches of the good old revenge drama. But the outcome of the amalgam is anything but salutary.

For all its good intentions, 'Ungli', produced by Karan Johar, is a listless and superficial thriller that sets its goals at a level that it has no way of reaching.It eventually falls way short of the mark.

The film revolves around a quartet of Mumbai youngsters who decide to target the city's corrupt politicians and government officials after a friend of theirs is brutally clubbed with a cricket bat in a road rage case and the well- connected culprit goes scot-free.

Nothing that 'Ungli' delivers is remotely fresh – it deals with issues that have been done to death in popular Hindi cinema, and sometimes with far greater impact.

The crusaders pick on errant corporation functionaries, greedy regional transport office clerks and bribe-demanding pension department officials, besides others.

The city police brass, under pressure from the political class, summons an honest cop (Sanjay Dutt) and deploys him to bring the elusive masked gang to book.

But given the way it pans out, 'Ungli' is neither an engaging cat-and-mouse drama nor an effective enough cinematic chronicle of the many indignities that an insensitive system heaps upon the man in the street on a daily basis.

The film's storyline is marred by laboured narrative devices and yawning gaps in logic.

The film has a cast of reasonably competent actors, including the tried and tested Randeep Hooda, Emraan Hashmi and Kangana Ranaut, but none of them is given the space that might have helped them make a positive difference to the final product.

'Ungli' is the kind of film that sounds much better as a concept than it turns out to be on the big screen.

The facile manner in which the gang of four goes about teaching the corrupt a lesson and gaining friends among the masses is too good to be true.

What is even more difficult to stomach is the way in which a young policeman (Emraan Hashmi), who has been roped in to nab the 'Ungli' gang, switches sides with impunity.

The supporting cast of 'Ungli' is bolstered by the presence of the likes of Raza Murad, Reema Lagoo and Mahesh Manjrekar. These actors are good enough to make the most of the limited opportunities that the script gives them.

Director of photography Hemant Chaturvedi and editor Deepa Bhatia also leave a mark on the film in terms of pacing and visual texture, both of which are of the highest order.

As for the other resources placed at D'Silva's disposal, the less said the better.