Soaring and often sour, Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab leaves you shaking with its grim portrayal of the drug menace ravaging Punjab.
Gone are the lush green fields in which stars sneaked kisses from their lady friends. You’re more likely to find used needles and packets of heroin here, Chaubey tells us.
It’s probably not true, the man next to me told his friend. You want to believe him too. Until a quick Google search sets us right.
The sort of issue that has been widely reported, yet ignored. It can’t be, we say. Yet, here it is.
Udta Punjab introduces a Punjab that is much like Mexico, lawless and brutal, with its men and women actively participating in drugging each other and their children.
It is the sort of brutal imagery you never unsee.
*****
Gabru begins the film. Here it is, the frenetic, pulsating world of a Rockstar – hard drugs, harder liquor and free love. So glamourous. Shahid Kapur plays Gabru as a drug addled shrieking mess, right down to that manic gleam in his eyes. Lest we get seduced by the glamour, Chaubey also shows us the flip side of things – the worn out men and women who live for their next high. It is a frightening reality.
In the midst of this all is Kareena Kapoor Khan as Preet Sahni. She’s a good woman – a doctor who runs a rehab centre – with a desperate desire to do something to help the people under her care. This leads her down perilous paths – full of drug addled men, women and yes, children. She uncovers startling truths about the origins of the drug trade, and a Government which turns a blind eye to the menace.
Sartaj – a brilliant debut by Diljit Dosanjh – assists her in her endeavours, a calm, solicitous contrast to the sometimes hyperactive Kareena’s Geet like behaviour. He is that rare cop – scarred by his brother’s own addiction – who refuses to look the other way as his colleagues actively foster the drug kingpins.
And then we have Alia Bhatt as Pinky. A pint sized warrior more at home with a hockey stick, fate hands her a sickle instead. In a bid to escape her fate, Pinky decides to get into drug trafficking; trusting the wrong people and being held captive in a house in the middle of nowhere, ravaged by men who bring her ‘bed tea’ and big smiles.
Somewhere along the way, she runs into Gabru. A tenuous connection is enough for the deliciously haunting Ikk Kudi (some top notch work by composer Amit Trivedi here) to play in the background; a startling contrast to the rather mediocre numbers Gabru churned out in his singer avatar.
Ikk Kudi Jida Naam Mohabbat
Recommended
Gum hai, gum hai, gum hai
*****
Udta Punjab is not without its faults. The contrived ending, the tacked on romance between Sartaj and Preet, how the lead pair’s ‘love’ is borderline stalking. But the faults do not matter.
They just don’t matter, because Udta Punjab is an unrelentingly brutal film. You are forced to watch in horrified fascination as people do to others things they wouldn’t wish on their own families. And you walk away, struggling to process the enormity of the things you witnessed.
There’s sorrow at the Pinky’s and the Balli’s of the world, and the huge personal losses they endure. And rage at the system that allows it.
What contrived ending?
The Udta Punjab review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.