Movie Review:
As the title mocks, Ujda Chaman is the story of a person who suffers from premature baldness and hence faces various issues in his life. The lead character Chaman (Sunny Singh) is a 30-year-old lecturer in a Government college but is unmarried due to being an egghead. He’s been teased and abused by everyone around and that makes him insecure.
Chaman meets Apsara (Maanvi Gagroo) through a dating app but could never get close to her as she’s fat. Apsara tries a lot to maintain the relationship but fails to do so. The rest of the story is all about how Chaman realizes that he’s wrong and will he be able to make his amends.
Writing:
It’s a direct lift from Ondu Motteya Kathe and Danish J Singh has made some changes to the original script which never helps the film. The original one had innocence and cause behind the insecurity of the lead character, Ujda Chaman establishes nothing to create a connection with the character.
Direction:
Abhishek Pathak marks his directorial debut with Ujda Chaman. As far as the filmmaking is concerned, Pathak sticks to the basics and does not go over the board with the transitions, editing.
Music:
There are three songs and one end-credits Guru Randhawa dance track in the film. None of the songs serve any value to the narrative. It’s the last song that sounds fun but by then the ship of your excitement sinks.
Technical Departments:
The issue is in the script of Ujda Chaman and that remains throughout. Adapting from the original, makers lose out on what was the USP of it. Sudhir K Chaudhary captures the heart of Delhi and tries to be clean and neat all the time. Despite being just 120 minutes, Mitesh Soni’s editing seems stretched because of the poor writing.
Performances:
Sunny Singh delivers a lazy performance. The character of Chaman is poorly written and Sunny surrenders himself to the wrong script. There are just a couple of expressions on which Sunny acts throughout the film, Ujda Chaman. Maanvi Gagroo does decent but yet again falls prey to the poor writing. She has the spark on her face which makes her very likable. Saurabh Shukla in his cameo is a waste. Sharib Hashmi is good with the little screen-space he gets.
Verdict:
Overall, Ujda Chaman isn’t entertaining and serves no solid argument to the social issues of fat & body-shaming which it was made for.
Critics Review:
Box Office Review
Thumbs Up
- Some entertaining dialogues
- Direction at some extent
Thumbs Down
- Weak script
- Lazy performance
