“If you are intelligent, get out of the theatre right now.” However, “if you are a fool, watch the entire movie.” “The intelligent people appear to be fools” while “fools appear to be intelligent people.” So greets the audience assembled to immerse themselves in the marverick and mercurial movie maker ‘Real Star’ Upendra’s latest ‘UI” at the Gandhinagar theatres’ turnstile.

The film further flummoxes the gathered Friday first day, first show film buffs with its twin censor certificates. If the first, the mandatory one, provided by the CBFC Regional Office reads “UA”, the one Uppi dada inserts as howls and hoots greet the film reads “UI,” meaning “Universal Intelligence.”

He goes on “till now you saw the real in reel & in real have also seen the reel”. “Do you have the capacity to focus watching real in real?” he throws the gauntlet at the awestruck audiences mirroring everyday occurrences at movie theatres and mechanisations of moviedom.

As to whether the eager bever excited and expectant “A” star fans exercise their “minds” over his yet another “gimmicky” Uppi template trademark film making is moot. For, going by the “Statutory Warning” or “Sane Advice” with which “UI” opens, the hall should have emptied and the film left to its own destiny in the nearly 132.11 minutes of run time.

But then, trust our star struck, cine addicted audiences, athirst for entertainment ambrosia at the theatres, to summon sufficient “intelligence” to scurry to the nearest exit having paid a hefty sum to watch their “Fedora Hat” donned “Topiwala” to heed to his “honest” hint.

Nay. As if to lend truism to the “Universal Intelligence” they stay put firmly glued to their seats caring two hoots what the “wise” world may think of them even as Uppi gleefully chuckles in having made “fools” of them, and eating out of his hands to “watch the entire movie.” That one dunce of a dimwit among many patiently perched to partake in the pastiche being yours truly as well.

Like the confused film critic in the film unable to comprehend as to the purport of UI, asking audiences to digest the reality, one is at a loss of words as to how to dissect and demistify the film and its maker’s intended purpose behind it.

As “Suprabhatam” resonates across the high decibel auditorium you simply chant “Om” and “Shh” at everyone bringing the house down with their cacophonic cat calls and see what the “Tharle Nan Maga” has concoted to catch audiences fancy, wondering whether it will be “A” positive turning out to be a fantastical “Super” showman spectacle.

Returning after nearly haitus of nine long years from Sandalwood’s “make or break” film fortune street since his “Uppi 2” an immensely indulgent fare the moviemaker shows not for nothing had he taken that long, lengthy break but was working on how to pour scorn and vitriol on a world that has been prophesied would end in the “Kaliyuga.”

Wearing several hats in the film – as director, as savant Sathya, the horse riding Bhagwan Khalki. Uppi leaves no stoned unturned or pugnaciously pelted at as he goes out pithily parodying and poking unmitigated contempt at the State of the World sneering and scoffing without let or hinderance. What a two hour plus mind benumbing roller coaster ride it turns out to be. As one would put in the filmi parlance full “paisa vasool.”

Upendra, in a no holds barred fashion, leaves nothing to fans fanciful imagination but simply socks the participants in their solax plexus with his viscreal, vicarious and vivacious visual vaudeville taking them on a right royal ride.

From how the audiences, the filmmakers, and the very entertainment industry are all intricately knit in a vicious circle each feeding on the other’s indulgences – the audiences hero worshiping, the idol adulation, racing to the first day first show, the audiences first reaction, the celebrations to draw the crowd to the film, to protests against the film, the boxoffice., the blackmarket, the entire works.

Following his 16.22 minutes prologue to the pastiche that follows drawing the viewer into the film properyou have Upendra turn philosopher and prophet and Deus ex Machinaspouting metaphysical to metaphorical wisdom in a highly politically and socially surchaged homily driven UI.

He spotlights on how the trusting diaspora are all caught in the cosmos of corruption, politics, in the name of race, religion, caste, divisions, strifes, what have you, all suffering and stifling looking to a messaiah to save them from the miseries of their own creation.

Allegorising the raped woman to that of Mother Earth who has been wantonly exploited by mainkind waging wars and exploiting its rich resources to attain supremacy, Uppi speaks of how driven by selfishness and personal aggrandisement mankind has been exploiting and destroying Planet Earth.

From film crazy fans, to the workings of the entire entertainment industry, caste and class divide and discrimination, religious exploitation and blind faith, modern day addictions to social media, corrupt and self serving politicians, with a joker on the fence watching the goings-on, Upendra’s diatribe at humanity and its sorry pass leaves none and makes no bones about vociferously expressing his malice towards mankind.

As Sathya seeking to mirror the truths around us and as Kalki astride the Black Stallion decimating the evil-doers Upendra turns both sage, savant and soldier, to save humanity from destruction. Donning his true self as the director of the film in the end he hopes his audiences who have watched reality unfold before them will realise what is happening amidst us today and would rise to the occasion to purge society from the systemic rotthat has set in.

Pungent and pointblank in its searing, scathing and satirical purport Uppi’s politically surcharged UI seeks to rouse the Universal Intelligence of people to rise up to the harsh reality around them.

Unpredictable and out of the box as has been his filmmaking so is his UI as audacious, adventurous and adroit in teasing and taunting audiences to stir themselves out of the deep slumber they have gone into.

While UI could be appreciated for its archetypal experimentations, UI, however, woefully falls short of deft and delectable sliver of cinema given Uppi’s footloose fancy free approach to have audiences gluttonously glued to his over the top gimmicky ridden wobbly, cacophonous work.

“I present my ideas in my own way, through films. Cinema, for me, is the space, where I choose to make my voice heard” Upendra puts it. True. But when the enterprise turns into a vehicle for preachy discourse for audience seeking unmitigated adrenaline inducing entertainment than the whole exercise careens towards sporofic ennui driven balderdash.

by

S VISWANATH is a veteran film critic who officiates as JURY at several National & International Film Festivals. He deputises as CHIEF CINEMA CURATOR/PROGRAMMER & CREATIVE ADVISOR for Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes). He also curates & advises on the selection of shorts & documentaries for Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). Mr Viswanath is the author of “RANDOM REFLECTIONS: A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema”.