Is Udta Punjab worth all the hue and cry ? Yes, every bit of it is shocking and sensational. The fact that almost 70% of homes in punjab have atleast one drug addict, is just horrifying. Four out of every ten men in punjab are drug addicts and whats even more disturbing is that most of them are in the age group of 15 to 25 .

Udta punjab is the third film from Balaji motion pictures this year, after the unwatchable Kya Kool hai hum 3 and not-so-well-narrated Azhar. It is also Abhishek Chaubey’s third film as a director. His first and second being Ishqiya and  Dedh Ishqiya respectively. He had started his career as an associate director and co-writer with Vishal Bharadwaj in the year 2002 . Music is composed by Amit Trivedi, who also gave music for Queen, Highway, Shaandar and Fitoor. The movie has 7 songs in all. "Chitta ve" is the most catchy tune of all. “Vadiya” is sung by Amit himself. Not so hummable but good music. I guess, he made it for the pubs and Discos.   

The movie has four lead characters and their stories running on parallel tracks. One is Tommy Singh(Shahid), who is a Rock star and a drug addict himself, mis-influencing the youth of punjab with his songs about drugs and intoxication. Only when he gets arrested and is forced to meet a couple of young drug addicts, he realises the kind of damage he has been doing, almost unknowingly, to the youth of punjab. When he tries to clear his conscience at a concert, all he gets is booing from the audience, to which he responds by peeing on a section of the audience. Thats the only scene cut off by the censor. Even though initially 89 cuts were suggested. I wonder what would have left of the movie after 89 cuts!! Anyways, the angry mob tries to beat him up but somehow he escapes from there. Shahid’s role demands very high levels of energy with loud and nasty dialogues filled with curse words, which he did total justice to. I can think of only Ranvir singh who could have done justice to this role other than shahid. 

Meanwhile a Bihari migrant girl(Alia Bhatt) escapes from local drug mafia and bumps into Tommy Singh. She accidentally finds a 3kg pack of heroin and in an attempt to make some money by selling it and solve her own problems , she gets into the clutches of the local drug mafia who use her as a sex-slave. When she narrates her story to shahid that she had been a state level hockey player and had to give up her dreams  when her father dies and the responsibility of her family comes onto her shoulders, she was every bit convincing. First time ever, I felt respect for Alia . She knew her job and she knew it very well. Just wow performance by Alia Bhatt. She is indeed the star of the movie. When she saves Tommy singh from the angry mob, his heart goes out for her too.

Sartaj singh (Diljeet Dosanjh) and Dr.Preet Sahani(Kareena ) are the other two lead characters of the story.  Sartaj is a corrupt police inspector who is a part of the whole system, making it easy for the drugs to cross border and enter Punjab. He doesn’t realise his hand in ruining the state until his own younger brother is discovered to be a drug addict too. Thats when he meets Dr.Preet who runs a rehab for drug addicts. She and Sartaj decide to expose this drug racket. Amidst this jasoosi, Sartaj expresses his feelings for her under the influence of an accidental Heroin injected to him by a security guard. I felt that was totally an unnecessary love-track included in an otherwise interesting plot. Nonetheless, they gather all the evidence and decide to hand it over to the Election commission.  Just then, Sartaj’s brother kills Dr.Preet in an attempt to escape from the rehab.

 Sartaj’s superior who is also corrupt, gets his hand on this file of evidence gathered by the Dr and Sartaj. Sartaj, Tommy and Alia are all at the same venue by the end of the movie. Tommy comes to save Alia from her abducters and Sartaj fights back the goons to save his brother and  to retrieve the evidence & send it to the Election commission as per the initial plan, thus things come under investigation. 

Happy and hopeful ending but where is it in reality? A report says that Pakistan smuggles drugs worth Rs 7,500 crore into Punjab every year. Punjab’s geographical location is such that it acts as the gateway for drugs to enter and travel to the rest of the country. While Punjab is feared to become the next Mexico, latest news is that Uttar pradesh is becoming the next Punjab. 

Happy ? Hopeful? I think not.