Ugly

Ugly (2013) is a punishing Indian crime thriller from director Anurag Kashyap, available to watch online on iFILM. A missing child is just the crack that exposes the adults.

A ten-year-old girl vanishes in the minutes her father looks away. The clock starts, but the search keeps stalling: her biological father is a failed actor, her stepfather a hard-edged cop nursing an old grudge, and everyone is busier with their own ego than with the child. Vanity, jealousy and buried scores keep shoving aside the only question that matters — where is she.

Kashyap isn't really making a whodunit; he's painting the cold human ugliness the title points to. The film screened at Cannes in the Directors' Fortnight, and a young Alia Bhatt appears in an early bit part. Bleak, angry, and refusing any comfort at the end — for anyone who values Indian auteur cinema beyond Bollywood. Stream Ugly (2013) online on iFILM.