There is a sharp contrast between how the first and second half of the latest Janhvi Kapoor starrer, Ulajh, is conceived. The first half is highly difficult to digest as the naivety associated with the leading lady, who, by the way, is a high-rank diplomat, is too much, and she is making silly mistakes one after the other. Because of how logically inconsistent that first half was, you sort of get a feeling that the second half, which has a lot of running, chasing, and twists, is better. But when you backtrack the whole plot once you finish the film, Ulajh just feels like a botched mixture of wannabe espionage traits.
Suhana Bhatia, the daughter of Dhanraj Bhatia, a former diplomat, gets posted as Deputy High Commissioner of the Indian embassy in London. Her posting created some debates because of how such a young girl reached such a powerful position in a short time. And obviously, her colleagues in London were miffed with her. Things took a drastic turn when Suhana got involved with a man in London, and his intentions were malicious. How Suhana deals with that situation is what we see in Ulajh.
SPOILER ALERT! Remember how Nick Fury or SHEILD agents used to come at the end of most of the phase one MCU films to make the heroes part of SHIELD? Well, something of that sort is happening in Ulajh. The problem is that the movie’s first half gives us an impression of how clumsy and impulsive Suahana is, and even in the relatively thrilling second half, she does not look sharp in decision-making. So, seeing such a character getting an invite to an elite force can make you question the sensibility of the film’s writers about a fictional spy team in India.
I am a bit confused about giving feedback on Janhvi’s performance. In the movie’s early portions, where the script feels terribly flawed and makes the character act so dumb in tense situations, her performance is accurate. But whenever Suhana tries to be in command of her position, the performance feels unrealistic, and that expected grace is not there. Gulshan Devaiah, as the antagonist, pretty much sleepwalks through the generic villain character. Roshan Mathew, whose role is vital in the film’s second half, was the most organic performer in the whole cast. Even the seemingly odd funny bits featuring him landed smoothly. And it was good to hear proper Malayalam in a Hindi film. Adil Hussain has very less scenes in the movie. So was Meiyang Chang, who had just one “doubting” expression. Rajesh Tailang plays an important character with relatively less screen time.
The script, written by director Sudhanshu Saria and Parveez Shaikh, is the main issue. The loud way of showing diplomatic negotiations and how they are making the leading lady act like a newly graduated Gen Z girl who is yet to figure out what she wants in life just makes the premise look really silly. The makers might argue that her lack of experience was a reason why she got played. But the writing was making her look like an absolute novice who got nepotistic privileges to bunk even IFS training. Even in the second half, where the rhythm of the movie changes and everything is happening fast-paced, you are not getting that wow factor in any of Suhana’s strategies, and even some logical questions that will pop into our heads are ignored using creative liberty. The only instance that I liked was when Kutty asked a shopkeeper to record a video of him and Suhana talking.
In many ways, Ulajh is a spy thriller that sort of ridicules India’s secret security forces in order to make the heroine a patriotic figure who never wanted to let her family and country down. The clues given by the villain were so obvious that you sort of cracked the location even before Suhana. Well, she getting recruited to a higher security force, was somewhat like the Galaga guy from the first Avengers movie getting to be a part of the Avengers because of his tab-switching talent.
In many ways, Ulajh is a spy thriller that sort of ridicules India's secret security forces in order to make the heroine a patriotic figure who never wanted to let her family and country down.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
