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00:00Good evening, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Entertainment Editor of Gulf News.
00:10I am here with the review of Ulaj, starring Jhanvi Kapoor, Roshan Mathew and Gulshan
00:15Devaiah.
00:16It is directed by Sudhanshu Saria.
00:17It is a spy thriller with geopolitical stakes.
00:20When I was watching the movie, I thought I was drawing parallels between Jhanvi Kapoor,
00:24a Nepo baby, a bona fide Nepo baby in Bollywood, who is the daughter of late actress Sridevi
00:29and producer Boney Kapoor, and her character in the movie called Suhana Bhatia.
00:35Just like how she is given things in a platter in real life, her character Suhana Bhatia
00:40is also promoted to a high position in—as deputy high commissioner in the U.K.
00:47It's a very important post.
00:48Even her own father, who is a career diplomat, says it's very unusual that a woman with
00:53such limited—even if it's a daughter, a woman with such limited experience gets promoted.
00:58She thinks her father is being very stingy with affection and is being tough on her.
01:03But I think there was a merit to his argument as well.
01:05When I watched the entire movie, which is a spy thriller about double-crossing agents,
01:11about espionage and high stakes with geopolitical ramifications, you wonder if this movie was
01:19just a showcase for Sridevi's daughter, Jhanvi Kapoor.
01:24Every scene is almost designed to make her shine, which is a disservice to actors like
01:28Gulshan Devaiah and Roshan Mathew.
01:31Both are not Nepal babies.
01:32Both are actors who have made their niche in Indian cinema through their hard work,
01:36unlike Jhanvi Kapoor.
01:37And I'm not throwing a shade on her.
01:38I just felt that the movie was doing a disservice to such good actors.
01:43Their characters were underwritten.
01:45If there is Roshan Mathew, who plays her very impatient peer, there is Gulshan Devaiah,
01:51who plays a very smooth operator, who makes being bad look very desirable.
01:57Gulshan Devaiah is in top form in this film.
01:59In fact, there are bits where he just looks sinister.
02:02He pulls it off with such panache.
02:04It's impressive to watch him perform.
02:06Whereas the same could be said about Roshan Mathew as well.
02:10But their characters are really underwritten.
02:13The maximum amount of spotlight and focus has been given to Jhanvi's character.
02:17Now the thing with Jhanvi's character, it's not very believable.
02:20There is a woman who is not highly experienced as an IFS officer.
02:23She wears these French luxury bags, leather jackets.
02:27She's not the stereotypical, you know, garment-serving official that you imagine.
02:32Her fashion is on point.
02:34But when it comes to judging people, she's not on point.
02:37That's what the movie is all about as well.
02:40Her entire career is threatened when she makes a series of bad choices in her personal life.
02:44One thing that I can say is that it's a very engaging thriller.
02:48There are twists.
02:49In fact, it's one of the few movies where I thought the first half was superb.
02:52It was engaging.
02:53It went rapidly with great economy in emotions and with great speed.
02:59Our director kind of put the whole world together.
03:01That was impressive.
03:03Even the action, the stunts, looked very believable.
03:05Despite a very engaging first half, it's the second half that completely goes off the rails.
03:11The climax is not believable.
03:13The tensions between India and Pakistan, the geopolitical games that politicians indulge
03:18in, and how the garment-serving—and how the officials serving the government are often
03:24compromised is looked into in this film.
03:28The second half is not believable at all.
03:31The climax especially borders on the ludicrous.
03:34How does a young woman with no training of being a trained operative undercover agent,
03:39how does she manage to outwit trained operatives is beyond me.
03:44So those are the ludicrous bits.
03:46I thought all the male actors, especially Adil Hussain, Gulshan Devaiah and Roshan Mathew
03:51really shone.
03:52The characters may not be well-written, but whatever limited scenes they were given, it
03:57is pretty exciting to watch them perform.
04:00Janhvi Kapoor does very well in the emotionally charged sequences.
04:03There are scenes in which where she breaks down, those are very heartening and tugs at
04:08your heartstrings, of course.
04:11But when it comes to an entire movie, when you look back on it, you often wonder how
04:15did this woman get away with so much, and how did the men get away with very little,
04:20but they shone as well.
04:21I've gone with 3.5 out of 5.
04:24They always say that why should truth and facts come in between a good story.
04:28Well, the same actually holds true for this film as well.
04:33I mean, it's a thriller with geopolitical ramifications.
04:37There's India-Pakistan rivalry at its best, etc.
04:41Those are very grim topics, but the double-crossing, etc., is handled interestingly.
04:46But it's the climax in the second half that lets this movie down.
04:50If you're in the mood to watch an interesting spy thriller that unravels towards the end,
04:55perhaps go for this one.
04:56I've gone with 3.5 out of 5.
04:59For our full review, go to gulfnews.com and tell us what you think of this movie.