Movie Review: Ujda Chaman

Producers- Kumar Mangat and Abhishek Pathak

Director- Abhishek Pathak

Star Cast- Sunny Singh, Maanvi Gagroo, Atul Kumar, Grusha Kapoor, Sharib Hashmi, Saurabh Shukla and Karishma Sharma

Genre- Social

Rating- **1/2

Contemporary but predictable!

Jyothi Venkatesh

The film revolves around the contemporary topic of the New Delhi based Chaman Kohli, (Sunny Singh) a 30-year-old college lecturer who  is plagued by problems arising from his receding hairline, as he often finds himself as the butt of insensitive jokes. Though his middle class family wants to hook him up with an eligible girl, to his chagrin he always finds himself being rejected owing to his looks. The film is about whether he will be able to find love finally?

The film Ujda Chaman is the official remake of the 2017 Kannada film, 'Ondu Motteya Kathe'. While the first half of the film tries to be quirky and comic, the 'very loud Delhi family' humour and the even louder background score prove to be sore points. In fact, the background score ensures that there is no scope for subtlety or gentle humor. Though the first part hammers the ridicule of a bald person scene after scene to the point of exhaustion, in the second half, the film redeems itself to a certain extent here by bringing in the message of accepting people for who they are ad looking beyond their outward appearances. The biggest handicap that the film has is the weak screenplay writing that doesn't explore beyond the germ of the idea.

As far as performances go, I should concede that while Sunny Singh tries his best to fit into the role of an underdog and turns on an innocent charm, his expression remains wooden throughout the film (glazed eyes and sullen face) and after a certain point it stops making any impact. Maanvi Gagroo pulls in a heartfelt performance and scores as the overweight girl who falls for the bald boy. Though Sharib Hashmi has been saddled with a bit role of a peon in the college, he succeeds in making a big impact, especially with his side story. Karishma Sharma and Aishwarya Sakhuja are effective in their small parts but have roles that can easily be dismissed off. Atul Kumar is effective as the hapless father while Grusha Kapoor is a revelation as the mother in distress.

On the whole, the film not only lacks face value but also the right tempo and starts oscillates between predictable dialogues and stale proceedings, at time falling flat on its face when kit tries to make fun of either bald or obese people and hence can sustain till Bala, the nest film on a bald hero is released, which at least has three successful faces- Ayushmann Khurrana , besides Bhumi Pednekar and Yami Gautam in it to pull in the audiences to the theatres.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Movie Review, Ujda Chaman, Sunny Singh, Maanvi Gagroo, Atul Kumar, Grusha Kapoor, Sharib Hashmi, Saurabh Shukla, Karishma Sharma