Masand's verdict: Ugly Aur Pagli, corny comedy

ODD NOTE: There's a simmering sadness to the film that is both rare and unique.

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Cast: Ranvir Shorey, Mallika Sherawat

Director: Sachin Khot

It's not enough that we've been stealing every halfway decent action movie plot they come up with, now Bollywood's whacking even romantic comedies from Korea.

Ugly Aur Pagli, this week's new release, is a pretty straightforward lift of the South Korean film My Sassy Girl, which was produced and released eastside seven years ago. I must confess here, I haven't actually seen the original film and chances are you wouldn't have either.

You're probably wondering then, how I'm so sure Ugly Aur Pagli is copied from that film. Well, here's what to do. Get on to the Internet, log on to the search engine wikipedia.com, and punch in the title My Sassy Girl.

Just read the detailed plot breakdown of the Korean film that comes up and you'll understand exactly why I'm so shocked someone was shameless enough to take story and screenplay credit for this desi remake.

Ugly Aur Pagli stars Ranvir Shorey as Kabir, a loveless engineering student whose life changes when he rescues an intoxicated girl at a railway station one night. That seemingly helpless girl Kuhu (played by Mallika Sherawat) turns out to be dominating, opinionated and even sadistic to a point.

Over the next few weeks, she more or less takes over Kabir's life, slapping him around at will, ordering him out on dates, deciding what he can and can't order when he's with her, and demanding that he do all sorts of odd things to please her.

Convinced she's got a pain inside that's manifesting itself in all these strange ways, Kabir decides to go along with Kuhu's mad demands in the hope of pleasing her and curing her of her pain. But it can't be easy for a guy, can it? Wearing her stilettos and walking down Marine Drive; riding around in a petticoat on a bicycle without a seat; and visiting film producers' offices with her ridiculous screenplays.