WAGGING TME FINGER

prevents the plot from tripp ing over with self-importance, it also undermines the g ravity 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 maul i ng the characters' innate sense of joie de vivre. This is where Ung Ii parts ways w ith Rang De Basanti, the other more important film on youthful vigilantism that Rensil d'Silva wrote. In the earlier film the youngsters took to the gun after being personally pushed to the wall.

For a film that wastes no time in p reambles, the narration is strangely sapless in the beginning, with episodes reading like scenes from a television serial.

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

The rest of the cast too is above average even at the lowest level. Barring Kangna who has a what-am -I- doinghere look whenever she appears, the smallest of characters are played with conviction Randeep Hood a 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 a nd passion

Emraan Hash mi's role seems inspi red by Matt Damon i n Martin Scorcsese's The Departed Except that Damon wou ld n' t go aroun d kissi n g just because he is expected to

The angst never reaches any pinnacle, though t h e cinematograph er Hemant Chatur vedi struggles to g ive the characters a l ife beyond the l imitations im posed on the script by the absence of a vitality in the execution

Maybe the director wanted to keep the sloganeering against co r ruption quiet. Ominously Ungli seldom rises above expectations But it does manage to keep afloat, touching raw nerves in the audience by addressi ng cor r uption on the streets.