Ulajh: Movies that talk down to the audience are a plague in Bollywood, but this one is almost unwatchable Bollywood News

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Her name is Suhana Bhatia, and she’s introduced with the kind of visual abandon that makes you momentarily wonder if you’re watching a cheaply produced Hotstar show. “Aapke father Korea mein mere ambassador they, aur aapke dadu ka naam pure Hindustan ki textbooks mein likha hai,” Suhana’s manager said to her in one of her two introductory scenes. Interactions like this are always disturbing, because they are written for an audience only. Both parties involved should already know this information. Is the film trying to say that Suhana is unaware of her grandfather’s achievements? Or is it the first time that his boss has told him that he was working under his father?

Janhvi Kapoor and Gulshan Devaiah in Ulajh still.

But Ulajh presenting pains they are not limited to the main character. Such is the brain rot on display, even actors who have never appeared in the film more than once speak exclusively in information dumps. For example, at a party celebrating Suhana’s appointment as the new Deputy High Commissioner to England, a woman enters the living room with a glass of wine, saying, “Dhanraj mera bhai hai and I love him.” Dhanraj is Suhana’s decorated father; the woman is his sister. We never see or hear from him again. Did we need to know the details of their relationship?

Most of Ulajh’s problems can be traced back to a basic editorial issue in Hindi cinema. Usually, the responsible person to create characters that have little to do with who they really are say. A different dialogue writer is appointed to come up with the lines, even though they may not really know their personality. It falls over see easily conveying a wealth of information that may or may not be important to the big picture. You can probably imagine Ulajh’s screenplay specifically referencing Dhanraj’s sister, leaving the dialogue writer scratching his head about how to incorporate this information into the dialogue. The easiest option, always, is to just let the characters say who they are. The only problem is that no one talks like this in the real world.

But Ulajh always chooses the easy option, which is that we end up with many scenes where his gentle character finds himself on the verge of murder. Who cares to put his diplomatic skills on display? He is driven to this point after being betrayed by an ISI agent who secretly records his performance and threatens to leak the video unless he gives him secret information about the undercover. R&AW Agents. A leaked sex tape can be a lazy tool even in funny B-grade movie. But in a film as meandering as that written by Stephen Gaghan, it’s annoying.

Played in a location-chewing role by Gulshan Devaiah, the gangster feels like it’s out of a completely different (but much better) film. He introduces himself to Suhana as a cook named Nakul. They arrive at the party, where he asks her a basic question, “Tumhari family kahan se hai (Where is your family from)?” But his answer is as unnatural as anything else in the film. “Find out here,” he says, “12 saal ka tha chhod ke chale gaye.” This, by the way, is the film’s idea of ​​chemistry. Ulajh also takes a neon highlighter and draws circles around Nakul’s unusual pronunciation of the word ‘éclair’, only because he wants you to remember this during the third act revelation. It’s youth stuff.

Janhvi Kapoor in a still from Ulajh.

But the best moment of the film is when ‘Nakul’ reveals his real name: Humayun. This is how the villain from Scooby Doo reveals himself after being caught in the act. Only, Humayun had not been caught at all. He could have just continued his passion and extracted more information from Suhana, earning himself an award for going above and beyond. Why would he deliberately reveal his true identity? Have you ever heard of a secret agent beating their breath yours the cover? But Ulajh is not interested in being believed, without a strong voice to defend it.

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Humayun somehow manages to reach the Indian high commission without breaking a sweat. In fact, he openly threatens Suhana inside building, that is, on Indian soil. He walks with equal ease. The secret trades he arranges with him are conducted in the highest theaters. Their first meeting, for example, takes place in some kind of basement, but instead of hiding in the shadows, Suhana waits for Humayun to appear under the real light. Oh, and he allows himself to be impeached while giving him secret documents, giving him more weapons against him.

These scenes are a failure of performance, planning, and execution. A little vulnerability would put us in the shoes of a young woman caught in a terrible situation, forced to choose between herself and her country. None of these psychological nuances make sense, because the movie can simply attack the next beat, losing sight of the human drama sooner rather than later. a true crime documentary which includes the crime of murder. But the only thing that dies a little here is the idea of ​​creativity. In the film’s equivalent of a post-credits scene – yes, there is one too – Ulajh dares to introduce Sakshi Tanwar as an alternate version of Nick Fury and set up a sequel. What movie did they think they were making?