Genre – Spy + Conspiracy thriller
Time: 2 Hours, 8 minutes
Platform: NetFlix
Director: Sudhanshu Saria
Cast: Janhvi Kapoor. Roshan Mathew. Gulshan Devaiah.
Many spy thrillers commonly talk of honey trapping which is sexually entrapping a male and blackmailing him to obtain secrets. The opposite of that is the Romeo Spy – using a male to entrap a female. The former East German foreign intelligence Agency HVA sent almost hundred plus male agents to entrap lone single women working in West German defense and government ministries. These “Romeo” spies were highly successful as their “wives”/ girlfriends willingly stole secrets and handed it over to the Romeo spy – for love. After German unification in 1990, the East German HVA spy head Markus Wolf, said that it was the most successful HUMAN -Human intelligence – operation run by the HVA. For more on Romeo spies, refer this link.
The Pakistani ISI seems to have absorbed this lesson as their Romeo spy entrapped an Indian diplomat in Islamabad.
If we keep these references, then the core plot of Ulajh makes sense. Somewhat.
Before the film starts there is a tribute to the IFS for taking care of India’s diplomacy and even preventing wars! Duh!
Suhana Bhatia is a third generation IFS officer and is appointed as Deputy High Commissioner at the Indian Embassy in London, at a very young age. There is talk of nepotism . She feels she has achieved it on her own merit. She has an affair with a man Nakul who turns out to be a blackmailer who wants details of some business deals. She complies reluctantly and confides in her chauffeur Saleem that she may be in trouble. He promised to help her. Nakul then demands the name of the Indian agents in Islamabad. Things go steadily downhill for Suhana.
The premise is not all that bad. A Romeo spy who wants things done as per his way. Only he is nasty and she feels the pressure from him all the time as his demands keep increasing. A classic blackmail situation.
When a film released in August 2024, is on OTT within a month, you naturally think – is it so bad ? or so good that the producers want everyone to enjoy it and not diss it ? We soon see why it ended up so quickly on OTT. It ends up like a hundred conspiracy thrillers where an innocent man on the run has to prevent a terrorist event – a bombing or an assassination. The only twist is that here it is an innocent woman.
The media have praised Janhvi Kapoor for accepting a risky role that does not demand singing and dancing but has to act. And the risk doesn’t pay off. Her WOODEN ACTING and monotone grates and doesn’t help the otherwise interesting script. More attention is paid to her wardrobe than her performance. Which is probably where the fault lies. Gulshan Deviah as Nakul is competent while Roshan Mathew as the Malayali RAW officer, Sebin Kutty, delivers a decent performance as a hothead who reverts to his mother tongue in times of extreme stress. Adil Hussain as Suhana’s father is always in fine form even if he is there in only couple of scenes. Watch out for Meiyang Chang as Jacob, the RAW officer in London who suspects Suhana. Even in a tiny role, he shines. If only his role had been enlarged !
The film had huge potential but is let down by the wooden acting of the lead performer.
The director also could have done with a tighter script that could have easily knocked off half an hour and made the film tighter and could have been an excellent thriller. Watch it if you have nothing else to do and wonder what could have been possible with a decent performance from some other actress.
Lead performers – 1 out of 5
Script – 3 out of 5
Story – 3 out of 5
Direction – 3 out of 5
Photography – 4 out of 5
Total – 2.8 out of 5