The Controversy

After surviving the censor storm, Udta Punjab, finally made it through the box office. The crusade lead by Anurag Kashyap (one of the producer of the movie), brought most of the film making fraternity and few mainstream actors together, to overthrow a supposed dictator. The fraternity lost on that front, but at least defeated the ways of censor board for once. If the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal hadn’t been there Raman Raghav and Udta Punjab would’ve come out as an Amarchitra Katha.

“Behen****…Sara youth khrab karta hai tussi” – Daljit

Anyway coming to the movie, the audience was quite skeptical if Udta Punjab would live up to the hype. Even if it didn’t live up to the hype it was destined to be a box office success due to the unintentional and inexpensive advertisement and publicity caused due to the censor trouble and political controversy. I don’t have to tell you the extent of resemblance the Tommy Singh character has with a real Indian pop artist, you know who.

[divider]Tommy Singh and Kumari Pinky[/divider]

Starting off with a light and ‘high’ note the movie suddenly and irrevocably takes dark surges. Every character in the beginning tends to be happy and prosperous until drugs ruin their lives either directly or indirectly. Tommy Singh (played by Shahid) in the first quarter of the movie seems to be glamorizing drugs in his songs and consuming it as if it was air, until he meets his demons. He meets his drug addict fans in a prison cell, who have the murder of their mother on their conscience because of drugs.Thinking of what he has individually done to Punjab’s youth, Tommy  finally comes to a confrontation with himself and begins his quest to quit cocaine and try to convince his fans to do the same.

In his quest he comes into  a crossroad with another victim. A Bihari girl (played by Alia Bhatt) who in search for a better life tried to take criminal aisle and got punished for it, instantly and ineligibly. Tommy then takes it upon himself to save this girl’s life and provide her a better life if he could.

[divider]Sartaj and Preet[/divider]

Another character whose life takes such severe setbacks is Sartaj Singh. His story is similar to Tommy’s, he lets drugs reach the consumers for his personal gain. Him being a police officer gets profit for giving the drugs a clean chit, until he too meets his demons. His own brother gets tangled into the addiction problem. Thinking of what he(Sartaj) has done to Punjab, he too starts a quest to demolish drugs in the state with the help of a doctor, Preet Sahani.

“Pahle banda ban jaa phir banna VIP” – Daljit

Shahid Kapoor did his part splendidly, but Alia Bhatt steals the show. Portraying a Bihari labor, Alia Bhatt is almost unrecognizable and flawless on her glamour less part. Kareena Kapoor and Diljit Dosanjh also did their part with grace.

[alert type=blue ]Why Udta Punjab is Overrated [/alert]

The movie doesn’t serve much on the table. Drugs as we know it, is a known hazard and Udta Punjab doesn’t reveal otherwise. It might give you, your family and friends some silver lining to fight drugs. Movies pose a certain impact on audience,  especially easily influenced Indian audience. For trying to influence the audience,  I respect the intentions of the film makers.

The movie evidently tries to prove an already known point that drugs are a menace and the politicians are to be blamed. The movie ads instead of saying “Drugs Di Maa Di“(screw drugs) should be saying “Politicians Di Maa Di“(screw politicians), as politicians can now finally be blamed for everything wrong if they weren’t already.

“System mein rehke kuch karna aur bahar se baithke halla karnae mein….Jo fark hai wo ab pata chalega aap ko” – Daljit

Though even after having good intentions, the movie loses in execution. The starting is satisfactory, but the climax is forced down the throat and is difficult to digest.

[divider]Spoiler Alert[/divider]

The movie in the end tries to fixate on misery like many other cliched movies for no apparent reason. The shocking factor in the end is forced; after watching the movie I thought what would have gone through the minds of the writers. They must be thinking of what should they do to make the audience feel bad,  they had to kill some characters obviously. Now whom should the writers kill? No one will feel bad for a dead Bihari, Tommy Singh can’t die because he has to rescue someone, Sartaj Singh has to fight his police counterparts, so they decided to kill Preet Sahani as she is likable. Better, they decided to let the brother of Sartaj kill Preet as it will be more heartbreaking.

The only thing that happens in the end is few corrupt drug business men die because Preet died unnecessarily, which let to the aftermath, a political party is exposed but not brought into justice and the drug problem still persists. The only plausible story that seems believable and authentic is Kumari Pinky’s (Alia Bhatt). As she had been living at the mercy of a drug-addict (also her abuser), for which she eventually had to take revenge, which she did by slaughtering him.

Apart from Kumari’s story everything else is non-convincing and seems like a desperate attempt to show gloom. The movie, though forces misery in the end, it also forces cliched, cheesy cheerfulness; as no one has ever seen a sunset on a beach as the closing scene of any movie.