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Movie review by Anupama Chopra: Fugly is a misguided mess
As writer Rahul and director Kabir try to stir up Rang De Basanti-style patriotism, Fugly becomes more and more preposterous. By the end, anything is possible, including a patient with third-degree burns fighting it out with the mighty Chautala on a hospital bed.
Film:
Fugly
Director:
Kabir Sadanand
Cast:
Jimmy Shergill, Mohit Marwah, Kiara Advani,
and Arfi Lamba
Rating:
**
Fugly is about four friends who live by the motto of the three musketeers — all for one and one for all. The friends make a wrong move and run afoul of a perversely brutal and corrupt cop. The cop starts to blackmail them. He makes their lives a living hell. Until they have no option but to retaliate.
Rahul Handa’s story begins with an intriguing suicide attempt and, at least until the interval, director Kabir Sadanand manages to keep you hooked. There’s a lot here that doesn’t work — the background music is deafening, the Delhi atmosphere is synthetic, lame comedy dilutes the tension, the social messages are clumsily tacked on — and yet I was drawn in by the quicksand into which the four youngsters were sinking.
Debutants Mohit Marwah and Kiara Advani are attractive and competent and Jimmy Sheirgill, playing the horrific Chautala, has a chilling menace. But post-interval, Fugly becomes entirely logic-free.
As Rahul and Kabir try to stir up Rang De Basanti-style patriotism, Fugly becomes more and more preposterous. By the end, anything is possible, including a patient with third-degree burns fighting it out with the mighty Chautala on a hospital bed.
Now that’s what I call Fugly. Despite the good intentions, this is one misguided mess.
WATCH REVIEW: FUGLY IS A MASH-UP THAT CAN BE MISSED
