Utt Pataang
wogma rating: Add to that never-watched 'To Watch' list (?)
When a 100-minute film with a reasonably interesting story, a fantastic flow in the screenplay, and decent performances seems slow and boring, I am depressed while walking out of the theater. I'd blame the plain and predictable dialogue for this one.
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'Life is more than fair' even if things don't actually turn out the way you'd like them. A beautiful thought, especially where many of us are competing in cynicism. But by the time you reach that conclusion with Utt Patang you are pretty bored with what's going. Because of repetition; because of jokes that might have worked well on paper, but didn't quite get there when delivered; because the lines that led up to the joke were as plain as they could get.
And that's what is sad. Good gags getting murdered by mediocre writing or over/under-acting. Here at least, the performers do their job well. Sure, Vinay Pathak goes over-the-top when he plays Lucky, the underworld don obsessed by everything French - I told ya, it sounds funny, but isn't as funny to watch - we can hardly fault Vinay Pathak, it’s the way the character is written. Besides he does a wonderful job as Ram, though nothing we haven't seen earlier. (There's no particular agenda behind Vinay Pathak's double role, but I liked the choice of names for them - an obvious reference one of my favorite comedies, Golmaal.)
While Saurabh Shukla too does his usual thing of being the round man who everyone can laugh at, I thoroughly enjoyed Mona Singh's performance. Her confused, zombie-like daze is just what a woman who has recently broken up would wear. Mahie Gill sticks out like a sore thumb in this milieu. Maybe it is her loud character, maybe bad make-up, maybe the off-dubbing or then again, maybe it's just plain bad acting.
What works best is the way in which the film is put together. I'm not talking about the editing or the transitions, but the non-linear narration flows back and forth smoothly. And the beauty is that even after the audience has put together the pieces in order, the basic plot has potential to maintain attention. I always disproportionately like parts of films that fool me. In a couple of scenes I cringed at the repetition of dialogue, only to find out later that the redundancy had a strong reason.
Unfortunately, none of this adds up to a film that entertains or enlightens or gets me to stand up for a character or slap one. It's one of those films that you'd watch if it happened to be playing while switching channels. Such a viewing might then seem just about fair.
- meeta, a part of the audience
Thumbs up, by Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama : ...springs a pleasant surprise... full review
Thumbs up, by Pankaj Sabnani, Glamsham.com : ...Mahie Gill (DEV D) is passable. She lacks the edginess required for the role. ... full review
So-So, by Preeti Arora, Rediff : ...Shukla has a large role but he's also the screenplay writer of the film, which explains it all!... full review
So-So, by Nikhat Kazmi, Times of India : ...Intermittently interesting, Utt Pataang has a problem of plenty.... full review
Thumbs down, by Nikhil Kumar, Apun Ka Choice : ...the variety of humour in the film is strictly mediocre... full review
Thumbs down, bigoye.com : ...Vinay Pathak, as expected, comes as a natural in front of the camera as a good guy but his double role as the gangster with a French tadka is too loud and unappealing. ... full review
Thumbs down, by Bobby Sing, Bobby Talks Cinema.com : ...Ignoring this fact the major problem in UTT PATAANG comes in the first 15 minutes itself where the proceedings are pretty slow and uninteresting which really put you off.... full review
Thumbs down, by Deepa Gahlot, Film Impressions : ...The device of capturing a moment from various points of view to complete a jigsaw of events that take place in one night would have been exciting to watch, if the characters and what they were going through was interesting or novel. ... full review
Thumbs down, by Kakoli Mukherjee, fullhyd.com : ...A story that could have been moulded into a thriller-comedy banking on the credentials of the star-cast falls flat in Utt Pataang due to gaping loopholes in writing.... full review
Thumbs down, by Shubhra Gupta, indian express : ...Mona Singh, who was last seen playing the hapless woman who had a baby hosed out of her in ‘3 Idiots’, could have gone somewhere with her lost-in-this-big-bad-city part, but this is not a film that takes anyone anywhere. ... full review
Thumbs down, by Komal Nahta, koimoi : ...Vinay Pathak does a very fine job of both the characters, Ram and Lucky. However, his character of Lucky will be appreciated by the city folk only.... full review
Thumbs down, by Bryan Durham, MiD DAY : ...a definite miss... full review
Thumbs down, Movie Talkies : ...Brought into an urbane setting, Gill loses the rustic charm that earned her praise in 'Dev D'.... full review
Thumbs down, by Noyon Jyoti Parasara, Now Running.com : ...Thankfully for the film there were no songs to loosen the pace. The first half is pretty decent. The second half loses way only to find the rhythm back later.... full review
Thumbs down, by Sudhish Kamath, The Hindu : ...If Mishra frustrates you with just too many characters doing too many things, Srikant irritates you by telling you the same story from multiple points of view (of different characters in the film).... full review
Thumbs down, by Mr Care, Upper Stall : ...The film works on the idea of showing the same sequence of events repeatedly from each of the character's perspective. Interesting thought. Sure. But when perspective translates to merely a different camera angle, and nothing else, you end up watching the same movie over, and over, and over, and over for more than an hour.... full review
ThyNameShirish: #utt pataang - different genre of a movie. nice to watch.
s_h_i_k_h_a: Guys do check out Utt Pataang. Very nice film.
ronydutta: Utt Pataang review: Watch Utt Pataang not for sheer entertainment but for the way it pulls you into its story. http://bit.ly/i6UBgZ
ramganeshi: UTT PATANG IS GOOD BUT NO RESPONCE BY AUDIENCE
Ehsan041: Re: Utt Pataang-2011: zaberdast Movie Hai Dear Ehsaan......Thanks For SharingKeep It Up http://bit.ly/fKilS7
Bhavuk7: Utt patang is now what i wud call my kind of a film,rarely do v get 2 watch a movie like this in bollywood so appreciate them fr taking risk
gunnygun3: Utt patang ok ok ...
CineMagik: i liked 'utt pataang' better than 'sanctum' but didn't like it so much to review it. vinay pathak rocked in a double role.
ShreyanshS: BAD! not a cohesive screenplay RT @imsabbah: Has 'Utt Patang' released? Reviews anybody?
SarahS89117: Almost puts you to sleep - Utt Pataang: Another case of the 90s influence. Guy Ritchie, Tarantino and the Coen B... http://bit.ly/fuJaUq
aphodiinae: In Utt Patang, the script is childish.
This page has additional observations, other than the ones noted in the main review.
Parental Guidance:
- Violence: A couple of scenes with goons beating up people.
- Language: Curses used liberally
- Nudity & Sexual content: A making out scene, people watching porn.
- Concept: A middle-class person would much rather stay honest than keep money that doesn't belong to him.
- General Look and Feel: bright, not too loud.
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Comments (1)
Utt Pataang is upcoming movie Directed by Srikanth Velegaleti and produced by Aparna Joshi .This is comedy starting Vinay Pathak,Mahie Gill ,Saurabh Shukla. the Background music is given my Sanjay Chowdhary.
UTT PATAANG is a comedy thriller of happenings of one night that finds a simpleton Vinay Pathak who is on the brink of a break up, caught in a dangerous money deal gone horribly wrong. Caught in this chase for the bagful of money, is his private detective friend Saurabh Shukla, a heartbroken woman (Mona Singh), a French-obsessed gangster (Vinay Pathak again) and the gangster’s moll (Mahie Gill), all thrown into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse chase. Layers of secrecy unfold and game gets worse as the night wears on.
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