Ugly Aur Pagli (2008) image gallery and movie posters :
Ugly Aur Pagli (2008) Movie Rating and Review :
Rating :
Acting – 9/10
Direction – 6/10
Screenplay – 3/10
Music – 2/10
Technique – 5/10
Review :
A copycat, but it crackles
Imagine it’s your girlfriend’s birthday. She calls up early in the morning and demands that you make her happy today. How? Wear a red petticoat, ride that broken cycle without a seat and steal a red rose from the busy nature park. Hold on, she is not done yet. Now bring that red rose, wearing that red petticoat, to a packed nightclub.
Chances are slim that you will have such a pagli girlfriend no matter how ugly you are. But chances are high you will roll on the floor laughing as you watch a poker-faced Ranvir Shorey go through this ordeal just to make a madcap Mallika Sherawat smile.
Debutant director Sachin Khot’s Ugly Aur Pagli wins your heart from Frame One when the title cards are interspersed with the most bizarre pairs — a dwarf with a fat lady, an old man with a pug, a man in Superman gear with his gaon ki wife...
Strange and so cute, but no jodi is stranger and cuter than Kabir (Ranvir) and Kuhu (Mallika). He is a dish antenna waiting for signals from available ladies. She? Well, she is something. On their first date, Kabir thinks Kuhu is a cross between Keshto Mukherjee and Medha Patkar. A few of the 99 slaps later, he doesn’t know what to think of her.
A few things about Kuhu, however, do not change. She downs quite a few patiala pegs every evening and goes talli. Then it’s Kabir’s duty to carry her on his shoulder in trademark Bikram-Betaal style, taking a chakkar of Mumbai before booking a room in Hotel Goodwin. Only for her to wake up next morning and deliver a few more thappads!
But why would any man put up with this, no matter how ugly he is? Because he is in love with the pagli, buddhu! And while initially he contemplates getting rid of her as the slaps come thick and fast, he feels responsible for her, even if it means having to walk in crowded Nariman Point in high heels.
Now comes the sad twist in the tale. Not the boring one in the movie, of a dead boyfriend and Kuhu’s inability to overcome the grief. But the fact that Ugly Aur Pagli is a scene-by-scene copy of the 2001 Korean rom com My Sassy Girl, which had become quite a rage, having been based on the real-life experiences of a man who posted the mad antics of his bizarre girlfriend on the Internet.
There is a scene in Ugly Aur Pagli where Kuhu, the wannabe scriptwriter, sends Kabir with her futuristic script to the biggest production house in the city (Yash Ram Films) and the producer, resembling the film’s real producer Pritish Nandy, asks for a DVD as a reference to the original script. Well, Khot must have had My Sassy Girl with him when he went to meet Nandy.
And with PNC’s last outing Pyaar Ke Side/Effects about a subdued man and his hyperactive girlfriend working like magic at the box-office, Khot’s offer was one he couldn’t refuse. So, if Ranvir’s voiceover narration at the start gives you a sense of deja vu, it must have been intended to do just that.
It is thanks to Ranvir and Mallika that Ugly Aur Pagli’s crazy Korean premise, replete with farts and vomits, doesn’t put you off. Ranvir is hilarious as the man having a nightmarish courtship who secretly discovers the beauty in all the bizarreness. Mallika again plays herself, and like Salman Khan, her natural idiosyncrasies are turning out to be quite endearing.
Zeenat Aman makes a teenie-weenie guest appearance but it is Sushmita Mukherjee’s five lines that will have you asking for more. She should make more films.
Anu Malik may keep adding more ‘a’s and ‘’s to his name but there is nothing fresh about his music and Ugly Aur Pagli definitely deserved better songs.
But Ugly Aur Pagli is never about the songs anyway. Just enjoy the crackling chemistry between Ranvir and Mallika, including a no-holds-barred climactic kiss, and soak in the smart lines. “Yeh Mumbai hai, yahaan pe doodhwaala se Bhansali sab ke paas script hoti hai.” “Oh, toh Saawariya ka script kisne likha tha — Bhansali ya doodhwaala?”
Acting – 9/10
Direction – 6/10
Screenplay – 3/10
Music – 2/10
Technique – 5/10
Review :
A copycat, but it crackles
Imagine it’s your girlfriend’s birthday. She calls up early in the morning and demands that you make her happy today. How? Wear a red petticoat, ride that broken cycle without a seat and steal a red rose from the busy nature park. Hold on, she is not done yet. Now bring that red rose, wearing that red petticoat, to a packed nightclub.
Chances are slim that you will have such a pagli girlfriend no matter how ugly you are. But chances are high you will roll on the floor laughing as you watch a poker-faced Ranvir Shorey go through this ordeal just to make a madcap Mallika Sherawat smile.
Debutant director Sachin Khot’s Ugly Aur Pagli wins your heart from Frame One when the title cards are interspersed with the most bizarre pairs — a dwarf with a fat lady, an old man with a pug, a man in Superman gear with his gaon ki wife...
Strange and so cute, but no jodi is stranger and cuter than Kabir (Ranvir) and Kuhu (Mallika). He is a dish antenna waiting for signals from available ladies. She? Well, she is something. On their first date, Kabir thinks Kuhu is a cross between Keshto Mukherjee and Medha Patkar. A few of the 99 slaps later, he doesn’t know what to think of her.
A few things about Kuhu, however, do not change. She downs quite a few patiala pegs every evening and goes talli. Then it’s Kabir’s duty to carry her on his shoulder in trademark Bikram-Betaal style, taking a chakkar of Mumbai before booking a room in Hotel Goodwin. Only for her to wake up next morning and deliver a few more thappads!
But why would any man put up with this, no matter how ugly he is? Because he is in love with the pagli, buddhu! And while initially he contemplates getting rid of her as the slaps come thick and fast, he feels responsible for her, even if it means having to walk in crowded Nariman Point in high heels.
Now comes the sad twist in the tale. Not the boring one in the movie, of a dead boyfriend and Kuhu’s inability to overcome the grief. But the fact that Ugly Aur Pagli is a scene-by-scene copy of the 2001 Korean rom com My Sassy Girl, which had become quite a rage, having been based on the real-life experiences of a man who posted the mad antics of his bizarre girlfriend on the Internet.
There is a scene in Ugly Aur Pagli where Kuhu, the wannabe scriptwriter, sends Kabir with her futuristic script to the biggest production house in the city (Yash Ram Films) and the producer, resembling the film’s real producer Pritish Nandy, asks for a DVD as a reference to the original script. Well, Khot must have had My Sassy Girl with him when he went to meet Nandy.
And with PNC’s last outing Pyaar Ke Side/Effects about a subdued man and his hyperactive girlfriend working like magic at the box-office, Khot’s offer was one he couldn’t refuse. So, if Ranvir’s voiceover narration at the start gives you a sense of deja vu, it must have been intended to do just that.
It is thanks to Ranvir and Mallika that Ugly Aur Pagli’s crazy Korean premise, replete with farts and vomits, doesn’t put you off. Ranvir is hilarious as the man having a nightmarish courtship who secretly discovers the beauty in all the bizarreness. Mallika again plays herself, and like Salman Khan, her natural idiosyncrasies are turning out to be quite endearing.
Zeenat Aman makes a teenie-weenie guest appearance but it is Sushmita Mukherjee’s five lines that will have you asking for more. She should make more films.
Anu Malik may keep adding more ‘a’s and ‘’s to his name but there is nothing fresh about his music and Ugly Aur Pagli definitely deserved better songs.
But Ugly Aur Pagli is never about the songs anyway. Just enjoy the crackling chemistry between Ranvir and Mallika, including a no-holds-barred climactic kiss, and soak in the smart lines. “Yeh Mumbai hai, yahaan pe doodhwaala se Bhansali sab ke paas script hoti hai.” “Oh, toh Saawariya ka script kisne likha tha — Bhansali ya doodhwaala?”
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