Upendra’s Messy World War of Kalki vs. Satya

RATING – 2/5*

UI Review Movie Talkies: 

Upendra’s film “UI”  opens with a superficial touch as we see warnings on the screen about “being intelligent,” “being a fool,” and “being both intelligent and a fool at the same time.” This occurs while the audience watches ‘UI’ in the cinema hall, and after the screening, a few find their “focus,” while others demand a ban on the film.

A parody character of film critic Taran Adarsh, known as Kiran Adarsh (Murali Sharma), is unable to review the film even after two weeks. This is humorous because, in today’s time, nobody wants or reads a review a day after—let alone two weeks or four weeks, as suggested by that character. He discovers half-burnt pages of Upendra’s script and starts reading the ‘UI’ film as we actually enter the movie.

In that film, a prophecy states that a soon-to-be-born child at the merging of three Nakshatras, to be born at twelve o’clock at midnight, will be the avatar of Kalki and will show the path of “Satya” to the world. However, the child is born five minutes early, and he becomes Satya, a white soul. Now there is a twist in the tale as we have his twin brother, Kalki, a black man.

As mythology has it, white signifies good/angel, while black signifies bad/evil, and they both try to spread their messages in the world. Satya (Upendra) wants a peaceful existence, while Kalki (also played by Upendra) desires everyone to kill each other and become his slaves as part of his revenge for what happened to their mother. That’s another intriguing story: a wealthy woman, who represents our Earth, is raped by technology, medical science, development, commercialization, and the darker aspects of human nature. Kalki seeks revenge against them for taking everything from his mother.

In this battle, we know who is going to win, but we don’t get the answers because we have to watch the film again to understand. It’s a particular method to confuse the audience and encourage them to view the movie from a different perspective so they can analyze it differently. Upendra tries hard, but excluding the “everyone knows it” taunt, nothing really works. The adaptation of the dystopian world appears messy, with characters behaving foolishly, especially the girl in love with Satya.

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Power, politics, and social awareness are twisted into jokes but for reasons that don’t really make much sense. The performances are subpar, the screenplay is engaging despite the flawed plot, the cinematography is acceptable, and the other technical aspects are average. The VFX is of low quality, as is the production design. Upendra’s attempt is too subtle to be taken seriously, whether as an audience member or a human. ‘UI’ may become relevant when the world enters a dystopian era, but for now, it offers nothing of value.