But for its
gripping post-interval section, “Udta Punjab” could have been dismissed as yet
another sloppy work of the noir genre with pretensions of realism. In the end,
one does feel like giving its makers a round of applause not least because
after grating the ears for close to three years the movie signs off with “Hass
Nach Le”, the only track
worthy of being called music in a film that has half-a-dozen
songs with lyrics that are obscene but thankfully incomprehensible for the most
part.
One can not,
however, shake off the thought that Tommy Singh’s character is the weakest link
in the plot though that is not to be blamed entirely on Shahid Kapoor. The only
disappointment caused by the actor is his toned physique, which seems out of
place for a wayward rock-star addicted to cocaine. But the character he plays has
many gaping holes. He gets inspired to give up his addiction after a brief
meeting with Alia Bhatt, a migrant labourer who has been reduced to a physical
and emotional wreck by those trading in narcotics who had been holding her
captive since she picked up a packet of heroin from a field, and ended up
throwing it inside a well when her plans to clandestinely sell it off to someone
well-heeled goes awry. Bhatt’s resolve to redeem herself is convincing. Not a
drug addict herself, she has been made dependent on heroin thanks to forcible
injections by her tormentors who put her body, housed in an unconscious mind,
to unspeakable uses. But Tommy? He succeeds in kicking cocaine, just like that,
upon learning from Alia the simple fact that there are lives messier and
sorrier than his own. This could have possible only if (a) Alia were a prophet
with superhuman ability to alter other people’s consciousness (b) Tommy were taking
something harmless, mistakenly believing that it was crack.
Characters played
by Kareena Kapoor and Diljit Dosanjh are competent. There is a hint of
contrivance in the way their characters have been etched out and their lives
have been made to intertwine. This contrivance, mercifully, does not slacken
the pace of the narrative nor does it cause any great deviation from the
central theme.
Satish Kaushik,
who has got rave reviews from many critics, is a disappointment. While he ends
up doing what he has been doing for so many years, his character remains
grossly undeveloped. As a promoter of the delinquent rockstar, “Tayaji” ought
to have played some role in either the degeneration of Tommy Singh or his
journey towards recovery. The screenplay writers never explored this
possibility, which could have also lent some meaning to Tommy’s annoying
presence in the story.
Full marks
to the film for its refusal to get stuck with drugs smuggled from Pakistan,
after depicting the phenomenon in the opening sequence. Allegedly prepared and
sold across the world with the help of the ISI, heroin is said to be Pakistan’s
chief export. But, like cocaine smuggled from Africa and Latin America, heroin is
prohibitively expensive and unlikely to have many users from the lower strata
of the society. As per reports, the drug problem of Punjab is not confined to
its city-dwelling neo-rich class. The scourge is being considered a cause for
alarm precisely because it is said to have engulfed its vastly populous lower
middle class, including those living in villages and dependent on a hard agricultural
labour for their living. One does not and can not know the full truth of Punjab’s
drug problem. The movie shows that crude concoctions made of prescription
drugs, which give the users an instant high but are potentially lethal, have
become a flourishing trade in the state. This does not seem to be unlikely as
such concoctions are often available for throwaway prices. The involvement of
myopic politicians and rapacious policemen also does not seem to be
implausible. Overall, a good film but certainly not great.
