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Ugly — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Plot

Shalini (Tejaswini Kolhapure) is a depressed housewife who attempts suicide but is interrupted by her ten-year-old daughter from her first marriage, Kali. Shalini calls her husband, DCP Shoumik Bose (Ronit Roy), asking for money, but he refuses. Her brother Siddhant (Siddhanth Kapoor) tries to convince Bose to smuggle iPhones. Rahul (Rahul Bhat), a struggling actor Shalini's first husband and Kali's biological father, takes Kali to a work assignment, where she chooses to stay in the car. While Rahul is waiting for his casting director, a toy seller tries to catch Kali's attention with children's masks. Rahul's agent Chaitanya (Vineet Kumar Singh) soon arrives and gives Rahul a film script and informs him that Kali was not in his car, the two rush back and finds her missing. While Rahul frantically searches for her, Chaitanya asks the toy seller about Kali and notices that he has her phone. The man tries to get away but is eventually killed by a car while being chased by the two. They later go to the police station to report Kali's disappearance. The local police inspector, Jadhav, asks Rahul why he was travelling with his daughter. Rahul says that since his divorce, he can only meet Kali on Saturdays.

Two officers find the mask seller's house and ask his aunt about Kali, but she claims to know nothing. Bose taps Shalini's phone and listens to her conversation with Rakhee (Surveen Chawla), a B-grade film actress. After being informed of his stepdaughter's kidnapping, he arrives at the station and beats Chaitanya. Bose accuses Rahul of the kidnapping and shows him the recording of Rahul and Shalini's conversation, where she did not want Kali to meet him. Bose later reminds him of their college days when he used to bully him.

Disguising his voice, Chaitanya calls Rahul and demands ransom. The call is received by Bose instead. Chaitanya also informs his agent to conduct an audition of ten-year-old girls to re-create dialogues for a ransom call. The next day, Jadhav follows Chaitanya into his office, where the police tap his phone and find out that he is in debt. He is arrested on suspicion of kidnapping Kali. Rahul escapes from police captivity after a doctor arrives for his check-up. Later, Bose overhears one of Shalini's conversations, in which she explains how Rahul used to beat her after marriage and how she met Bose after filing a complaint. Jadhav interrogates Chaitanya, who says that he had called for ransom because Bose was more interested in his personal grudge with Rahul than the kidnapping. Rahul tells Bose that Chaitanya could not have kidnapped Kali since he is aware of Rahul's lack of funds. The police expand their search operation.

Chaitanya uses a girl's audition to demand ransom from Rahul. Rahul, who is at Rakhee's place, tells Chaitanya about the call, which is tapped by the police. Chaitanya tells him to talk to Bose, who can arrange the money. Later, Rakhee urges Shalini to pay the ransom. Chaitanya is subsequently arrested by the police, and Rahul, who escapes, is later arrested after he tries to rob a jewelry store. Rakhee calls Rahul, and using the same recorded voice, demands ransom. Siddhant also makes a ransom call of ₹50 lakh (US$60,000) to Shalini, who asks her father for ₹65 lakh (US$78,000). She asks Rakhee to hide the ₹15 lakh (US$18,000) and delivers the rest. Rakhee eventually flees, stealing the money. Bose asks her about the money, but she does not answer and shoots him in the shoulder. Siddhant is then arrested with the money. Jadhav tells Rahul to deliver the money to the kidnapper, but Chaitanya evades police interception and throws away his phone. Rahul, Chaitanya, and Rakhee now have the money, and Rahul calls Bose to taunt him. Realising that Bose is unaware of Kali's whereabouts, Rahul murders Chaitanya, while Rakhee quietly leaves with the money.

With new intel that confirms the toy seller and her aunt's involvement in recent child abductions, the police revisit the marketplace and talk to a woman who knew the toy seller and find out that they have a history of abducting children. The woman finally leads the police to Kali inside the sidecar of a bike, where she is found dead. Bose arrives with his entire team and The police discover that she had indeed been kidnapped by the toy seller. The film ends with Bose flicking away his cigarette as a female inspector is heard wondering if Kali could have been saved.

Filming

Kashyap shot the whole film without giving its lead actors any script as he felt the film "required" that. During shoot, he would brief the actors about the scene and let them emote to do their own bit, while the camera was kept rolling. The actors got to know about the film, when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Kashyap had told Bhat and other cast that he wanted to make this film in 2012. They spent the next two years, talking to each other and getting to know each other. The little girl in the film is named Kali (Hindi for bud), who, according to author Vaiju Naravane, represents "untouched innocence". Anshika Shrivastava, who played the character, was unaware of the story, and Kashyap requested her parents not to show her the film as he felt she was too young for the subject matter. On the day of shooting, Kashyap gave Roy the scene for the day which he refused to read and said: "I told Anurag that now that there was no script, I'll leave the shooting entirely on him." For a sequence, where Bhat had to cry, Kashyap kept talking to him for three hours and he eventually broke down and wept. The camera kept rolling during that period. The film was extensively shot in real locations. While shooting a scene where his character is taken in remand by the police, Singh was slapped over fifty times in real. His hands were cuffed and tied to the roof to represent the actual third degree torture. It was because Kashyap wanted to depict a realistic reconstruction of police methods in India. A scene where both Singh and Bhat talk to the inspector in the police station was improvised, because, Kashyap wanted to show the real "police apathy and the power trip."

Kashyap shot the whole film in the suburbs of Mumbai to create the feeling of constriction. He worked with a new cinematographer, Nikos Andritsakis, who works with Dibakar Banerjee, as he wanted to shoot in the "constricted spaces" of the city. They shot most of the scenes in one or two angles. The suburbs were difficult locations to shoot because of the constant crowd hence the team then decided to use hidden cameras to capture most of the original scenes, especially the ones that were shot at Bandra and Lonavala railway station. As a result, the actors did not have the liberty to give as many retakes as they can on a set. Kashyap called it his most "brutally honest" film. Ugly was shot for fourteen hours a day to meet the schedule and was completed in forty days. Kashyap wanted the scene where Siddhant gets the money to be hyper-stylised, and he treated the scene "like an orgasm". He drew similarity of the scene with a man's eagerness to have sex, which is sudden and intense. He recalled the whole shooting an "emotionally exhausting" experience.

Marketing and release

Ugly premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it received standing ovation. It was also screened at the third Ladakh International Film Festival, the 2014 New York Indian Film Festival and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Kashyap had initially intended for the film to release in 2013 but it was delayed as he had filed a petition challenging Cigarettes and Tobacco Products Act, which makes it compulsory for filmmakers to crop or mask any scenes depicting the use of any tobacco, in India. However, Bombay High Court refused to give any concessions. The Central Board of Film Certification required a "Smoking is Injurious to Health" static warning to be posted in the lower right corner of the frame whenever a character in the film is shown smoking. Kashyap fought this regulation stating, "it's the Health Ministry that should take the responsibility of curbing use of tobacco and work towards measures to control it and films should not be a medium to advertise non-smoking." Kashyap initially stated that he was not going to release the film until the Board decides to abolish the rule, but after several months of negotiations, he chose to release it with the warning.

A digital poster of the film was released on 15 May 2013, which was followed by the first theatrical trailer on 12 September 2013. The release date was pushed to next year when he second trailer was launched on 15 December 2014. Kashyap had also changed his Twitter handle to "UGLYAnurag", as part of the promotional strategy. A special screening of the film was held in Mumbai on 23 December 2014, which was attended by several actors including Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. Kashyap said that he saw people reaching out to their children after watching the film which he felt was his purpose behind making the film.

Ugly was released in India on 26 December 2014 in 300–400 screens, majorly in the metro cities. Several trade analysts had predicted that the film would only cater to a niche audience. The film was also theatrically released in France and Belgium. It was released on DVD on 1 March 2015 and is also available on Amazon Prime Video.

Critical reception

Upon release, Ugly received widespread critical acclaim. Film critic Raja Sen called it Kashyap's "finest film", writing: "Ugly is a tale of torment, masterfully woven around the universally urgent trigger of a disappearing minor." Shweta Kaushal, giving the film a positive review, called it "dark, gripping" and a "must watch". Kaushani Banerjee of Deccan Chronicle wrote: "Every frame has a dark undertone and Ugly does not conclude until every possible avenue of audience empathy is explored." Mihir Fadnavis of Firstpost called Ugly, Kashyap's "best film since Black Friday". A review carried by India Today called the film an "eye opener" and "one of the best films of the year". Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV, called it "indescribably better than all the muck that mainstream Bollywood passed off for entertainment this year." Meena Iyer of The Times of India gave a four-out-of-five star rating and said: "It's not for the faint-hearted, but for those who are willing to let the morally decrepit live." Subhash K. Jha in his review mentioned, "You know these characters are played by actors. And that there is a camera recording their activities. But you let yourself believe this is not make-believe." Suprateek Chatterjee from HuffPost gave a positive review to the film and called Kashyap the "antithesis of Sooraj Barjatya". Arunava Chatterjee called Ugly a "pathbreaking crime fiction" and "one of Kashyap's best so far." Sonia Chopra of Sify gave a positive response and wrote: "Kashyap gives us a film that represents a disturbing reflection of life."

Contrary to the positive responses, a review from Bollywood Hungama wrote, "Watch it if you are an Anurag Kashyap fan, else avoid!". Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express giving the film a two-star-out-of five rating, wrote: "In all the to-ing and fro-ing, it starts feeling too long, and too much, without the requisite emotional pay-off." Deepanjana Pal wrote in her review, "Ugly is a disappointment, not just because it's a whodunit that sinks like a badly-made souffle but also because we expect better and more of Kashyap."

Among overseas reviewers, Lee Marshall of Screen International called the film a "lazy kidnap caper" and felt the story was "too flabby". Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter mentioned in her review that Ugly is "taut, angry genre film" but felt the film was comparatively weaker than Kashyap's earlier film, Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). Maggie Lee from Variety gave a positive response and wrote :"[..] the grittily stylized film boasts a scattershot narrative that frustrates as much as it illuminates."