Udta Punjab movie review and ratings

June 17, 2016


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Rating: 2/5

Story

Four people in Punjab deal with truth of substance abuse. Tommy Singh (Shahid Kapoor), a fading superstar gets addicted to cocaine, Pinky (Alia Bhatt) works as farm labour and lands up with substance worth a huge sum, unexpectedly. She later gets captured by the local hooligans who supply drugs and falls into the addiction.

Sartaj (Diljit), a police in narcotics department fights against the drugs. Preet (Kareena Kapoor) as a doctor spreads awareness to stay away from the drugs. These four lives converge at a crucial point and the consequences later, forms the rest of Udta Punjab.

Analysis 

The movie takes off exploring the youth in Punjab, who have addicted to substance abuse. The gritty first half takes us through the grim nature of drugs, be it Tommy’s erratic behavior or Pinky’s instant addiction to it.

A few of the characters like Tommy’s manager are left as loose ends in the story in the second half. Alia’s character is not detailed well, which confuses the audience over the time. Most of the scenes between the four people start and end abruptly and the proceedings appear rushing most of the times. Highly realistic issues, shot in the most commercial way, which actually spoils the mood of the audience and makes them put the theme on the lighter mode and watch the film as any other cooked up story.  

Performance

Shahid Kapoor nails his performance as the drug addict and Tommy Singh as Gabru is perfect as cocaine addict. Kareena as doctor is decent, but in few scenes, she gets over board. Alia Bhatt on the other side, picks up Bihar accent well and gives a stupendous performance especially in a scene, where few men harass her, holding captive.

Diljit Dosanjh makes his debut with Udta Punjab and gives a measured performance as Sartaj. In the scene where he slams Gabru for tarnishing the youth with his drugs-propagating songs, he is very good. Satish Kaushik does a good job as Tayaji even with his little role.

Amit Trivedi’s music is apt for the concept and moves on with the film. Editing needs refinement, especially in the second half, where most of the scenes quickly take exit.  

Director Abhishek Chaubey could not bring out the realism in the real concept dealt in Udta Punjab. He mostly concentrated on building up the scenes that are required to make a film appear to the commercial audience and left the key concept. 

Finally

Though the content is interesting, the poor narration levels make one give a skip to Udta Punjab.

By Phani Ch

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