Ugly

Anurag Kashyap’s stylized thriller Ugly (2013) was screened in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight last year. A psychological thriller revolving around a kidnap drama, the film is a cynical exposé of the power games people play. Shalini (Tejaswini Kolhapure), a clinically depressed housewife kept at home as a semi-prisoner by her macho senior police officer husband Shoumik Bose (Ronit Roy), is considering suicide. Her daughter Kali, from her previous marriage to Rahul (Rahul Bhat), spends the day with her father as dictated by the custody arrangements. But Rahul, a struggling actor, leaves Kali in the car while he goes to collect a script from a friend, then realises she is missing. He goes to file a missing persons report, but the dawdling policeman on duty (Girish Kulkarni) springs into action only when he realises that the girl is his boss Bose’s stepdaughter. Bose detests his wife’s ex, and so a taut game of one-upmanship follows between Bose and Rahul to find the girl, each tripping up the other in scenes involving graphic police brutality and domestic abuse. The ensuing drama allows the director to cast a bleak eye on a range of characters driven by greed, selfishness, corruption, patriarchy, egotism and violence. Roy is effective as the short-fused police chief, while Kolhapure’s despair is convincing. Shot on Mumbai’s mean streets, the camera and editing imbue this gritty film with a menacing energy that packs a horrific wallop in the climax.