No tangles here

Sheetal

We’ve seen movies involving Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies, where things generally don’t end well for the ones on the evil side. But what happens when your protagonist is cooperating with the enemy? Director Sudhanshu Saria has made ‘Ulajh’ to answer that.
Suhana Bhatia (Janhvi Kapoor), the newly-appointed Deputy High Command Officer at the Indian High Commission’s London office, finds herself in the centre of a conspiracy involving both RAW and ISI agents. Like many other women, Suhana is at the receiving end of questions and allegations for landing herself an impressive position at such a young age. She finds a friend and confidant in Nakul, played by Gulshan Devaiah, only to be deceived and taken advantage of soon. Friendship changes into blackmail and she is forced to leak India’s secrets.
The director seems to have had no intentions of making the film an actioner or about roughing up some bad guys. Rather, he takes it forward as it should have been with a female lead. Janhvi’s performance is also controlled, as if she is walking on a tightrope, playing only the diplomat, not an agent. As Sebin Josephkutty, played by Roshan Mathew, steers the second half alongside Suhana, they also exchange some fun banter on being RAW agents and diplomats, respectively.
In a quest to not portray Janhvi Kapoor as the alpha woman, the storyline steals the limelight off her, and Gulshan Devaiah, with all his grey shades, gets better attention from the writers and, hence, the viewers. We can also blame it on his acting prowess — the guy really knows how to change his game in a split second. Roshan has much to offer if a sequel happens. As for Meiyang Chang, he stands wasted. Adil as Suhana’s father gets less screen space but makes a mark. Rajesh Tailang, as always, delivers a powerful performance.
The first half, except for Devaiah’s scenes, is boring, but the second half picks pace. Atika Chohan’s dialogue writing is impressive in bits and pieces. She always adds flavour when working in any female-led projects, such as ‘Chhapaak’.
The film also adds to the list of Janhvi’s bold projects, such as ‘Gunjan Saxena’, that narrate the stories of women at positions not often talked about.
The film makes a point about fair treatment to women at work, nepotism, sexist mindsets and, above all, that women can take revenge too, with a touch of diplomacy, not bloodshed. At the same time, the cross-bidding by RAW and ISI agents and politicians’ vested interests make it predictable. A one-time watch.