Movie: Ujda Chaman
Cast: Sunny Singh, Karishma Sharma, Maanvi Gagroo, Saurabh Shukla
Director: Abhishek Pathak
We, as Indians, are primarily obsessed when it comes to things like skin tone, height, weight, and perhaps the most important of them all that beats any grooming segment, ‘hair’. It is that permanent partner of ours, which we often don’t value for sticking with us through ‘thick and thin’ and perhaps that’s why the ‘permanent’ nature of the hair follicle dies and thus human beings face the scare of loss. Ujda Chaman is that one movie that takes you through the journey of how a 30-year-old man finds it ridiculously tough to find himself a girl worth marrying because his premature baldness is the biggest reason why he has been rejected by more than 50 girls already in his life. But then, is it the end there? Definitely not. As to how this ‘Ujda’ Chaman finds his go-to woman is what we discover in the Ujda Chaman journey. Read on to find more –
Chaman, aka Sunny Singh, is a 30-year-old Hindi Professor at a top institute in Delhi and is the ideal tall, well-built ‘Punjabi’ munda hailing from Delhi, for whom any girl would go weak in the knees. But everything isn’t so hunky-dory always as they say. There’s a problem with Chaman and the problem is that of ‘premature baldness’, which he has received because of his grandfather’s genes. Due to this reason, he ends up in his 30s but still struggles to find a partner for himself. His parents give their best shot to get him married off, by registering at various matrimonial sites and what not, but then dealing with 50+ rejections just because of your baldness isn’t easy, right? A dejected Chaman tries his best to find love. After several failed attempts in places like his college friend’s wedding where he tries to pick up a girl he likes, to his own college where he tries on almost every colleague to go on a date with, he finds rejection everywhere. Add to that, foul cries and tag teases of words like ‘takla’ and ‘ujda’ add to his misery and he becomes someone who’s extremely attentive to what society has to say on his baldness and looks.
However, even though temporarily, he finds a girl for himself (or rather the girl finds him for her own requirement). The girl happens to be a first-year girl of the same college he teaches Hindi in, named Alisha, aka Karishma Sharma. Alisha tricks Chaman into liking her romantically and Chaman falls for the trap as well and the trap is as hilarious as to just pass the semester examinations with ease. Hence she uses Chaman as a trump card and gateway to get leaked papers. As one would expect, the moment her semesters are cleared, she blocks him and makes him look like a fool. A desperate and dejected Chaman finally takes to Tinder to find ‘love’ for himself and in the process, he meets Apsara (Maanvi Gagroo). While one would expect Chaman and Apsara to be happy with each other as they both are dealing with their own societal complications of ‘baldness’ and ‘fatness’, the reality is very different and they initially look down on each other because ‘expectations hurt’ and ‘what you see on social media vs what you see in real life’ can sometimes be really different and that’s what happens between the two. But destiny has other plans and eventually, after a lot of internal realization battles, they, and especially Chaman realizes that love isn’t about ‘perfection’ but about finding ‘perfection within the imperfections’. Eventually, they accept each other the way they are because society can obviously go to ‘hell’. You need to watch the movie to understand how the journey unfolds and how realization dawns upon the latter.
IWMBuzz Verdict: The story, as we all know in a nutshell, is about the struggles of a man suffering from premature baldness. So there’s no way ‘Ujda Chaman’ will surprise you with the narrative and hence the narrative looks extremely predictable, that’s for sure. The direction is average and director Abhishek Pathak fails to put a lot of attention on Sunny Singh’s expressions, as in certain areas which had plenty of comic potential, he seems extremely flat and that’s a loss for sure. The screenplay, although engaging and interesting, could have been better as the film looks dragged in certain areas, especially the second half. What was the need of the hour was finer and crisper editing and that’s where Pathak misses a trick or two. The cinematography sticks to its basics and does a decent enough job, but what could have been better were the dialogues, as one or two might just come off as a bit ‘sexist’ to some people. Sunny Singh and Maanvi Gagroo perform to the fullest of their potential, especially Maanvi Gagroo, who simply slays like a queen in her ‘heavy’ avatar. However, Sunny Singh, we feel, can do much better with his expressions as the guy has a lot of potential for sure. Saurabh Shukla in his limited special appearance is a ‘boss’ as usual and one will surely enjoy his ‘Pandit ji’ wala avatar. Aishwarya Sakhuja as the college professor does full justice to her limited scope and each and every element adds up to making Ujda Chaman a watchable film. But the best part of the film happens to be the message that it tries to disseminate, which is that love isn’t just about the ‘perfect face’ or the ‘perfect body’ but it is about accepting each other along with their imperfections. Overall, a fine film. Watch it, and you won’t be bored for sure.
3/5 stars