For the second time this year, the darkness of human spirit is evaluated through the foul mist surrounding the disappearance of a little girl. There's probably a realistic middle ground somewhere between Mardaani's Delhi-based child-trafficking underbelly and Anurag Kashyap's nauseating deconstruction of Mumbai's desperate survival instinct. However, Ugly visibly strives for a more uncomfortable rendition of real events.

What's the opposite of rose-coloured glasses? Grey-tinted? We all know that Kashyap is a glass-half-empty sort of a guy, but with 'Ugly' it looks like he's caught in the web of his own image. This 'gritty' and 'dark' director, on whose shoulders cynicism and realism sat easy during commendable films like 'Black Friday', 'Dev D' etc., gets too dark for comfort or discomfort with this one.

When you get to see noir at its best in a Bollywood film. The film true to its name is Ugly. It is dark and certainly not for the faint-hearted. Anurag Kashyap is one of the few directors who knows how to build a plot with multiple characters and yet leave us wanting for more as we meander into their lives and try to find a reasoning to their actions. Unraveling the true nature of human greed, this film is a mirror for all of us who have demons inside us.

People are selfish, greedy and violent. In real life redemption is as rare as innocence. Our past and our baggage govern how we behave and react in the present. The future is as dark and unknown as our inherent vice. That is the Ugly truth. And that is why Anurag Kashyap's latest film deserves its name to the hilt. This crime thriller is the ugliest form of reality you'll ever watch. It will shake you up, churn your emotions in a meat grinder and spew it out for nothing. It's the darkest film in a decade and if you are 18 years of age and above, you should be watching it.

It may not be the best film to watch around Christmas but it's one hell of movie that shouldn't be missed. Anurag Kashyap is at his best once again. Ugly is dark and hard-hitting like his critically acclaimed film Black Friday (2007). The film is an eye opener. It reflects human nature in today's times. Those who are unhappy and entangled in messy relationships have no one else but themselves to blame. All the characters in the film live an ugly life because of negativity in their minds.

You wonder, sometimes, about Anurag Kashyap's inner life: what is it that makes him veer so much towards the dark side? All his films, even in their upbeat parts, celebrate that part of ourselves which we prefer keeping in the shadow, hidden even from our own eyes. Because some things are too hard to watch. 'Ugly' takes that darkness to an extreme, even more so that his first, unreleased 'Paanch': a little girl goes missing, and what happens subsequently (and consequently) does not just flow from the fear and anguish that result from the disappearance, but also from anger and old resentment and twisted feelings and present torment.

A 10-year-girl, left alone in a car in a busy Mumbai neighbourhood, disappears. Her actor-father and his casting agent-friend go to a nearby police station to lodge a complaint. What ensues is by far the best-written scene in Anurag Kashyap's Ugly, a disquieting noir thriller that hinges on a slew of dodgy characters prone to dangerous temptations. The police station conversation is amusing and annoying at once - amusing for the audience, annoying for the two worried men desperately seeking a sliver of hope. The inspector (National Award-winning Marathi screenwriter and actor Girish Kulkarni in his first Hindi role) turns the tables on the duo with a mix of pokerfaced humour and unrelenting examination.