A (not really!) errant husband, Kesari (Sohum Shah), whose only wrongdoing is ogling at his seductive neighbor. A wife, Pushpa (Nushrratt Bharuccha) who because of his perverted activity goes into a weepy huff and carts their son too away from this wrong ‘un of a husband to her parents’ house in a different town.
A drug parcel is mistakenly delivered to the same man’s address. Cops and detectives are after the consignment and culprits. A solidly illegal activity is going on in the man’s residential block. Two dead bodies. A disappearing corpse. A mix-up of two heavy and identical suitcases, both of which contain something a normal suitcase should not.
Phew! Sounds like a recipe for a tight thriller. Correction. A dark comedy of errors, of siyappas (blunders or messes). And that’s what Ufff Yeh Siyappa is, though it does not reach the heights of the gold standard in silent movies—Hollywood’s Silent Movie in the 1970s, or Kamal Haasan’s and Singheetham Srinivasa Rao’s 1987 Pushpak. Yes, this movie is wordless so far as the featured characters are concerned. There are some WhatsApp messages though.
Let us analyze why it does not reach the Silent Movie-Pushpak level first before going into its doubtless virtues. First, it has within it a bevy of confusing sequences. There is a wafer-thin line between being intelligent and bewildering, and I was personally a shade bemused by some segments as being a rather puzzling digression in the pattern rather than being a part of a lucid flow. This also includes the role of one cop.
Second, we even have a lost and found element in the storyline. No, this statement is no spoiler, but there is an absurd angle given to it in the final analysis.
To compensate, we have the angle of the ‘hot’ neighbor who puzzlingly seems to be standing in the corridor outside her apartment most of the time.
Having said all this, I admit I found the rest of the saga quite soberly funny and ironic and some dramatic licenses I guess can be permitted. I loved the way the wife is tempted not to leave her husband in the beginning but changes back to her determined angry misery twice because Kamini unwittingly steps into the scene again!
The climactic pipe sequences too are far from original, ditto the suitcase exchange, but overall, the humor is quite engaging most of the time. However, the climax is too long, all things considered and takes up 15 minutes-plus of the 116 minutes duration of the film.
G. Ashok, the writer and director, must be appreciated for choosing to write and also helm such an offbeat subject and aim it at the big screen in these money-obsessed industry phase. The film’s promotion is minimal and such experimental films need greater awareness when the poster merely seems to indicate a ‘normal’ small-budget comedy, not a wordless one.
Sohum Shah as Kesari and (especially) Luv Films’ favorite Nushrratt Bharuccha excel in their roles, and playing such roles is an obvious extra challenge, something both actors meet head-on. Why Nushrratt has an edge must be seen in the movie itself. Nora Fatehi as the hot neighbor has nothing much to do, but Omkar Kapoor as the weird cop, Hasmukh (he is anything but smiling as per his name!) and the other actors are good. Guru Shivam is good as Monty, while Vanita Kharat as the maid impresses in a cameo, but Sharib Hashmi is just adequate.
The songs are okay (Tamancha and Dil parinda work well in the film), but A.R. Rahman’s background music is cerebral and fresh.
I would recommend watching this film for its different spin on a dark thriller-comedy.
Rating: ***1/2
Luv Films’ Ufff Yeh Siyappa Produced by: Luv Ranjan Written and directed by: G. Ashok Music: A.R. Rahman Starring: Sohum Shah, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Nora Fatehi, Omkar Kapoor, Sharib Hashmi, Guru Shivam, Vanita Kharat & others
