Ulajh - Movie Review

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Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is among the most coveted departments in the Government of India where one gets to explore the world, even as their negotiating with one another foreign country’s office either in India or where they are posted. From responding to SOS messages on social media platforms to ensuring the top brass of governance know what / how to respond on crucial matters, the life of an IFS staffer is excruciating. 

In the Hindi language movie Ulajh (meaning Entangled), Jahnvi Kapoor does full justice to her role as a newbie IFS officer – from the first screen till the end. 


Initially posted in Nepal, Suhana Bhatia (Jahnvi) is the daughter of IFS Officer Dhanraj Bhatia (Adil Hussain) gets posted in the UK. Her father is not happy, even as she occupies a senior office at such a young role and that the media is constantly assessing her abilities, giver her lineage. Her grandfather was an IFS officer too, according to the story. 



Once in London, Suhana befriends Michelin star rater Chef Nakul Sharma (Gulshan Devaiah) at an official party. The two hook up sooner than expected even as he identifies his original identity as ISI Agent Humayun who shows an intimate video of the two and threatens to leak it to the media, if she doesn’t follow her orders.


Suhana is cornered and shares the desired information from the Indian Embassy but with a few changes. Thereafter, the threats from Humayun keep coming in.


Her colleagues at the embassy, who are RAW agents, keep a trail on her and apprehend her when she is at the house of her driver Salim Sayyed (Rajesh Tailang). She convincer her colleague about her reasoning and the two work on the reasons why the ISI agent and his masters are seeking critical information.




On the backdrop is the young Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahzad Alam (Rushad rana) who is headed to India to be a Chief Guest on its Independence Day event, and to hand over a dreaded terrorist. 


Of the terrorist is hence handed over to India, he will spill the beans about 

the rats in the Indian foreign services including at various Indian embassies worldwide. Therefore, there is a gang which is out to kill the Pakistan PM in Indian soil, thereby creating a bloodbath thereafter. 


Suhana and Sebin Joseph (Roshan Mathew) leave the UK only to come to New Delhi but they cannot reveal their whereabouts even to their colleagues, since they do not know who are the rats that are giving away the much secretive information to ISI. 



Will Suhana and Sebin give their own blood at the hands of Humayun alias David – a Canadian by upbringing, to save the PM of Pakistan and thereby hold high the values of IFS? 


Jahnvi Kapoor as a young and brave IFS Officer has given her best in the movie. Adil Hussain has yet again proved why he is the right one for roles depicting such diplomatic characters. 


Director Sudhanshu Saria has done justice to the script co-written with Parveez Sheikh and Atika Chohan.Gulshan Devaiah as the notorious ISI handler has performed excellent in a role that seems to have been written especially for him. 



Dialogues by Atika Chohan are not as script and pointed as they could be, especially in thriller dramas such as this. The weak screenplay gives away the suspense element from time to time and almost around the end of the fil, the viewer would actually guess the ending. 


The cinematography by Shreya Dev Dube is wonderful, whether showing the mountainous terrain of the Himalayas in Nepal, the streets of London or those in Central Delhi.


The feature film, produced by Vineet Jain of Junglee Pictures on a budget of INR 35 Crores, released in theatres worldwide on 2nd Aug. ’24 and raked in just over INR 11 Crores. 




The movie is currently streaming on OTT platform Netflix. A bit more dramatization of the screenplay would have certainly helped the film to be appreciated even on a small screen platform. 

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