FILM: Ungli
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Emraan Hashmi, Randeeo Hooda, Kangna Ranaut, Neel Bhoopalam, Neha Dhupia…
DIRECTOR: Rensil d’Silva

Ungli is what one would call a late bloomer. Don’t get me wrong. It doesn’t take long to get to the point. In fact the film’s vigilante intentions are unmasked immediately after the film opens. No beating around the bush. No introductory songs.
No nonsense?
Well, not quite that. An utterly unnecessary and badly-choreographed item song by Shradha Kapoor shows up like a bad omen. Before I finished shaking my head in dismay and disbelief, the corruption in this anti-corruption film got worse. Emraan Hashmi was forced into doing what he knows best. The smooch is stuck into the script like a tail pinned to a donkey. And according to the script, Emraan is a cop.
We always knew the law is an ass. Four youngsters out to cleanse our country of corruption make a total ass of the law. Masked but alas not menacing Randeep Hooda, Neela Bhoopalam(remember his stellar turn as the honourable politician in Anil Kapoor television series “24”?), Angad Bedi and Kangna Ranaut go for the jugular like four highschool students playing Enid Blyton’s Adventure 4.
There is a sense of mischief about the Swachch Bharat andolan undertaken by d’Silva’s adamant quartet. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad. While the twinkle-eyed approach prevents the plot from tripping over with self-importance, it also undermines the gravity of the situation where the rich and the privileged are shown to get away with much more than murder.
Significantly Rensil’s film is able to show the murder of values without mauling the characters’ innate sense of joie de vivre. This is where “Ungli” parts ways with “Rang De Basanti”, the other far more important film on youthful vigilantism that Rensil d’Silva wrote. In the earlier film the youngsters(the youngest of the group was Aamir Khan) took to the gun after being personally pushed to the wall.
In Ungli, the belligerent bunch is driven into lawless lawry from the word go.
For a film that wastes no time in preambles, the narration is strangely sapless in the beginning, with episodes reading like scenes from a television serial, albeit a series you wouldn’t want to miss to catch “Bigg Boss”.
Ironically it’s Sanjay Dutt’s entry that livens up the proceedings considerably. He plays a jaded cop with refreshing candour and he precipitates the film’s climax .
We miss you, Mr Dutt
The rest of the cast too is above average even at the lowest level. Barring Kangna who has a what-am-I-doing-here look whenever she appears, the smallest of characters are played with conviction. Randeep Hooda as a Clark Kent-Superman kind of newshound leading a dual life while wooing his Louis Lane (Neha Dhupia, capable as always) is unusually blithe in his grim part. I wish there was more of Neil Bhoopalam and Angad Bedi on screen.Whatever they do, they do with feeling and passion.
Emraan Hashmi’s role seems inspired by Matt Damon in Martin Scorcsese’s “The Departed”. Except that Damon wouldn’t go around kissing just because he is expected to. The angst never reaches any pinnacle, though the cinematographer Hemant Chaturvedi struggles to give the characters a life beyond the limitations imposed on the script by the absence of a vitality in the execution.
Maybe the director wanted to keep the sloganeering against corruption quiet. Rensil takes a potshot at his own “Rang De Basanti” brand of protest when someone sneers at the culture of candelight vigil.
Ominously Ungli seldom rises above expectations. But it does manage to keep afloat, touching raw nerves in the audience by addressing corruption on the streets. There is a sequence where Reema Lagoo(long time no see) is snubbed by a series of autoricksha-wallahs as she huffs for a ride home.  This is a moment when you want to murder the perpetrator of callousness. In moments such as these, Rensil d’Silva kills it. (IANS)

FILM: The Penguins of Madagascar
Voice overs by: Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovitch, Conrad Vernon…
DIRECTORs: Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith

These animated, flightless birds fly high in the entertainment arena! In this edition, the no-nonsense tactical team of penguins, who stole hearts in the previous three Madagascar films, get their own feature to prove that they are high-profile entertainers.
Directed by Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith from a finely tuned script designed by screenwriters Brandon Sawyer, John Aboud and Michael Colton, the film is a high-pitched and action-packed, revenge saga.
The film begins by reintroducing, to the audience, the illustrious globe-trotting spy team of the Madagascar series.
The back-story: Three penguins — Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller) and Rico (Conrad Vernon) step out of the norm of their traditional “flocking together” group to save an abandoned rolling egg from hungry seals. The little penguin that hatches from the egg is named Private (Christopher Knights). Together, they form a formidable group unearthing covert operatives ever since.
Ten years later, during one of their espionage expeditions at the behest of Dave (John Malkovich), also known as Dr. Octavius Brine who is a super genius Octopus disguised as a human scientist, the quartet are captured by North Wind rescue team.
This is an elite undercover inter-species task force dedicated to helping animals who can’t help themselves.
Now in captivity, the four of them realise that Dave is nursing a grudge against them for stealing the attention showered on him years ago at the San Diego Marine Park, although they were oblivious of the incident.
And now he is out to seek revenge against all penguins for being the more popular and beloved attractions at soos. He intends carrying out his plan by subjecting all penguins to “Medusa Serum”, a solution he developed which would change them and thus render them unappealing to humans for the rest of time.
Luckily for the penguins, the North Wind rescue team arrive to help. The team is headed by the arrogant gray wolf known only as Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch).
He is assisted by the loving bear Corporal (Peter Stormare), the hot-headed, explosive and demolition expert harp seal known as Short Fuse (Ken Jeong) and the intelligent “Intelligence Analyst” snowy owl Eva (Annet Mahendru),
It’s race against time for the combined teams under Skipper and Classified to see if they can stop Dave before he succeeds.
Narrated in a non-linear fashion, the story is not at all elevating. The plot is simple, cute and occasionally funny.
The voices lent by the star cast synchronise aptly with the characters and their moods.
While the kids will ruminate over the high octane action scenes, it’s the pun-filled dialogues like “Nicohlas! Cage them,” or “We are North Wind! Nobody dare break wind” that will keep the adults in splits.
Overall, with attractive well-packaged visuals, good picture-perfect animation and competitive background score, the film will appeal to kids and adults alike.
It is engaging and entertaining at the same time. (IANS)