\m/ Udta Punjab \m/

            The controversies were not ready to leave the back of "Udta Punjab". And not just one...one after the other kept coming in from many sides. And fighting like a David against the giant powerful Goliath, Anurag Kashyap, one of the producers of Udta Punjab, made the film get its release from 89 cuts to 1 cut in censorship. And today after watching it, I would still say that it might keep facing the problems coming in. Reason? It's Honest, It's brutally hard-hitting and it shows the nasty face of reality in that state. Abhishek Cahubey's Udta Punjab will keep you shocked or make you go numb. 

            "Udta Punjab" is a fictional story of four main characters and other sub characters revolving around them set in True problematic circumstances of drug affected Punjab. Sartaj (Diljit Dosanjh) and Preet (Kareena Kapoor), are the characters used to show us the racket of suppliers in their journey of getting to the roots of the problem. [UNFORTUNATELY, THE REAL ROOTS THAT MUST HAVE BEEN SHOWN HAD TO BE CUT OUT IF I AM NOT WRONG - THE PAKISTAN REFERENCE]. Tommy Singh (Shahid Kapoor) is a pop-star and a performer. He is a role model for many young boys and girls of the state. His track begins with the Police arresting him under the name of influencing the usage of drugs in the youth of Punjab by singing songs on Drugs and Cocaine. Everything changes for Tommy from there. And then there is a track of a Bihari girl who calls herself by an influenced name at the end of the film (Alia Bhat), who finds 3 kg of Heroin by mistake and hopes for GOOD TIMES to come to her by making money after selling it. The super well written screenplay bring all of these tracks to cross each others' paths in a classic manner to give us an amazingly gripping movie - Udta Punjab.

Before I come to the technicians and artists I want to mention some good things about this film.
 

This film is not just a story of entertainment. It has heavy entertainment value but it speaks a lot more than that. The film proceeds on two levels - 1. what you see & 2. what they have to show. The value and the strength of this cinema will be realised if you see and understand both the levels while watching it.

The political racket - sure the film has a story to tell, it has his own political characters and mentioned posts - but that's what you see - what they had to show was the ugly face of how politics is really involved in the condition of Punjab right now.

The Alia - Shahid scene when they meet for the first time - It is too well-written and presented. Kya situation hai and kya tarah se usse handle kiya hai - Just too good.  It has a lot of humour. But the subtext makes you feel bad. - "Yeh chodd k sab kuch hua hai mere sath" brought tears in my eyes.

When Tommy is in the Jail, that realisation point is well brought in and comes unexpected. The Balli character, the role that withdrawal symptoms play in the film is well put, the transitions of sequences.

The climax is just too good. And so is the End. Yes...End and the End Frame are different in this one. Basically.... It never Ends.

Haters will Hate. Some will call it Documentary, some will say that they have wasted the STARs by making them play highly unconventional roles. To them I say - 

Watch the film that you want to see and let the sensible people see the Cinema the makers have to show. Let them know that the story On-screen is no different that what's happening Off-screen.

 Coz Udta Punjab naa Lallu hai naa Fuddu... par saala Gabru jarur hai !

        Writing is the Hero of this film. Sudip Sharma the one who wrote Story, Screenplay and Dialogues along with the director who had his say in the Story and Screenplay has made up the strong base. It has so many things to say, it has so much of subtext in it. Every scene and every dialogue is aptly written and perfectly placed. It cannot get more easy and yet deeper than this. A little more in depth information would call a war with neighboring nations.

       Rajeev Ravi, The guy who shot most of Anurag Kashyap's films is the eye of this film. The perfect mixture where the film sometimes looks like a fiction and sometime a documentary helps us feel that things are happening for real. It's damn impactful. And to add this impact - Editing and background score have played major roles. Coming back to that later, Every track of the character has a slightly different camera and lighting treatment according to the story of each one of it. Rajeev Ravi transits your mind subconsciously from one track to another.

       Coming to the editing, the director and editor together have conceived superb transitions from one story to another. The connections that are shown are the signs of mature direction and thorough knowledge of editing the director and the writers have. Meghna Sen had to CUT the pissing shot, must have pissed her off for sure.

      
       Amit Trivedi's Music is very very good. It is perfectly complementing the genre and the attitude in which the film progresses. They are shot so well that you get too engrossed in the picturisation and the songs sub-consciously creating the impact within you. And equally good is the background score by Naren Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylore. The contrast score against the angry and scornful sequences make you quiet and speechless. It makes you eager wherever required and makes you stunned feeling helpless at times.

       Production Design is the key element in giving us the feel of everything being shot at real places and as if some real sting operation is going on at times. The director's treatment of giving too much of visual information in one shot required the set-up to be a step ahead of his thinking.

       Coming to the performances - This film is one of the best examples of perfect Casting. You cannot imagine anyone other than Shahid Kapoor in the place of Tommy Singh. Somehwere Ranbir might have done it but the feel would have been completely different. Shahid is rising above his capacity every time. Kareena Kapoor looks gorgeous as always. She has a very simple role. Her simplicity took me back to her role in Yuva. Damn cute.
In the Shaandaar review I had said that Alia Looks so cute that I feel like packing her and taking her home. But here the cutest actress in B-Town has shut all the mouths by giving us a grungy and gasping performance. She is made look normal and she doesn't look CUTE one bit. She is the character that she is supposed to play. Respect for Alia. Diljit is Punjabi Films' superstar as it is, but bollywood will surely welcome him after this composed and expressive role pulled off by him.
 

Apart from these stars there are others who shine and glitter more than the biggies - Satish Kaushik's presence is too strong, he makes himself feel even while we have Shahid in the frame space.
 Prabhjyot Singh as Balli is very much a Kashyap character. His entry and his over-all presence in the film make us feel bad for Punjab's young blood.
Harpreet Singh has a strong role.

       Abhishek Chaubey had impressed me right from the time I knew that he is Vishal Bhardwaj's associate director. If Vishal ji is his film school then Abhishek sure has come out as the best student. Taking wise Udta Punjab is weaker than his last film "Dedh Ishqiya" - That one being unconventionally conventional.
Udta Punjab is content wise stronger and stronger on all other stages being a completely unconventional cinema. He has grown as a director pretty much and here there is no involvement of Vishal Bhardwaj what so ever in this film. Abhishek has treated this film in the best possible manner and the efforts will surely pay off.

Udta Punjab is going to make it to the list of my favourites for sure. And will stay with me for a long long time.

Verdict : 9.5/10

**Kyuke ache ache kaam ko nazar na lage!