Ugly aur Pagli

What would any self-respecting guy do if a gal slaps him for no apparent reason? Slap her right back, right? So, so wrong. In 8216;Ugly aur Pagli8217;, Kabir not just turns the other cheek, he practically lays out a red carpet for Kuhu to trample all over him. After, of course, she8217;s finished barfing down his sweat-shirt, and had him sent to jail.

Debutant director Sachin Khot is not content with just one slap. Pagli Kuhu Mallika goes through two hours and some more targeting the hapless Ugly Kabir8217;s Ranvir cheeks. And other body parts. The tagline says 8220;99 slaps, 1 kiss8221;; after a while, you stop counting. The slaps, that is. For the one kiss, you have to wait all the way to the end.

And that8217;s exactly the problem with this could-have-been-hilarious rom com, which is rumoured to have been 8216;inspired8217; by Korean hit flick 8216;My Sassy Girl8217;: its one-line premise stretches thin, and the plot doesn8217;t have enough for both the Ks to do, other than look for opportunities to slap, and be slapped. Here goes the one in a seedy hotel room, here8217;s another on a terrace, and oh look, one more in a coffee shop. Or was it in an apartment? Who cares?

At this early stage in her career, Mallika has begun playing Mallika: no matter that Kuhu wears: colourful barrettes in her curly long locks, and leggings under short skirts, something Ms Sherawat hasn8217;t done before, but she comes across as she has all the times before. She was so good in her previous oddballs-in-love picture 8216;Pyar Ke Side Effects8217;, back in 2006. Two years on, it looks like she8217;s bought into her own myth of stardom, and that8217;s sad because she8217;s got both the looks and talent to take risks and do something new, everytime she takes on a role .

But Sachin Khot saves his movie in spadefuls because he8217;s been clever enough to offset Mallika with Ranvir. As a lovable loser, who8217;s flunked several straight years of engineering college, and who makes being slapped as pleasurable as being kissed well, almost, he8217;s terrific. He knows that being slapped is a mug8217;s game, but he surges ahead with just the right emphasis on the anticipatory wince after he8217;s been slapped, and the tremulous smile after he8217;s smitten. You wish, though, that he hadn8217;t wimped out completely: even one return slap would have done the trick.

The final kiss is a real humdinger. Pity the movie isn8217;t. No matter. Watch it for Ranvir.

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