There were times when I had to scoot myself to the seat while watching some really amusing antics on the screen, and my guffaws would have reverberated off the walls in the theatre. And though the movie had the usual fare of the burping, snoring, and farting jokes, it did manage to tickle my jocular because of its few hilarious moments.
It is certainly not a film which will make you sit by yourself in a haze of nostalgic bliss long after it has ended (something that Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na managed to pull off) and it is certainly not a patch on Pyaar Ke Side Effects. However, there is something about both Ugli and Pagli that will hook your eyeballs and guarantee some good laughs.
Firstly, Ranvir (Ranvir Shorey) and Kuhu (Mallika Sherawat) as the quintessential (believe it or not) college-going dude and dudess manage to snag at their respective cozy corners in our hearts. Ranvir is a loser who has failed his engineering exams four times in a row and is quite not ready to charm a girl yet. On the other hand, Kuhu, we realize is a “pagli” and a “talli” as well, and together they define a new “domineering girl and a whipped boy relationship”.
Now come on, how many films have actually shown a girl treat a guy like a puppet on a string, whip him up crazy, or make him roam around streets donning a high-heeled stiletto and a petti-coat! And despite this swagger and torture, the guy still likes to goggle over our zesty Kuhu. Reason: He is deeply and madly in love with her!!! Are the audiences ready to view a spectacle like this without their eyebrows disappearing into hairlines? I guess the answer is a big “No”, considering the “thanda” response to the film, so far.
But nevertheless, the movie has its share of some real fun. For instance, the scene where Ranvir, thanks to a rather flatulent combination of whisky and chana, lets off a “deboo” and realizes that the girl in the lift would rather puke over him than give him a come hither look. Or the scene where Kuhu wears her undies outside her clothes, a la superwoman, will send you into a flat spin for sure.
Having said that, I also think, the movie doesn’t plum the depths of your heart unlike the original My Sassy Girl (in its Korean version). Perhaps the chemistry between our sassy lass and Ranvir didn’t work or the script simply lacks the luster and the gooey delight. The movie careens towards a disastrous end when Kuhu suddenly disappears for no rhyme or reason, leaving Ranvir quite lovelorn. He then decides to pen down his own story (albeit a happy ending) that wins the brownie points of a film director! And couple of years later ends up meeting his lady love to earn the much-needed smooch (I bet half of the people in the theatre who were waiting for this lip-lock wouldn’t have shown an inkling of interest to witness it towards the end!)
On the acting front, the tongue-lashing Mallika and the funny Ranvir play their parts convincingly. The other character who impressed was Sushmita Mukherjee who plays Mallika’s mother. Her impersonation of Sharmila’s accent is to watch out for!
So if you would like to see the high voltage quirks and rants of our “ugli” and “pagli”, and amuse yourself silly, then go for this movie.