Daily Archives: January 13, 2025

‘UI’ Movie Ending Explained & Summary: What Happened To Upendra’s Film?

Written and directed by Upendra, UI is a socio-political satire where the filmmaker takes an unconventional approach to express his opinions and present his viewpoint to his audience. When it comes to giving a social message, I believe that UI does a great job, but that said, it is hard to sit through the entire duration of the film. The film lacks entertainment value, and somewhere, it isn’t able to captivate you entirely. You understand the motive of the filmmaker and how he is trying to make a difference through his voice, but in my personal opinion, you need more than just a positive message to grasp someone’s attention. So, let’s find out what the film has to offer and what Upendra wants to say about the society we live in.

Spoiler Alert

Why wasn’t Kiran Adarsh writing the film review?

A film named “UI” was released in theatres, and it had the kind of impact on the audience that nobody could have imagined. People generally go gaga over the protagonist; some idolize them, and some try to copy their fashion sense, but after watching “UI,” people literally went crazy. There were a lot of people who came out of the theatres feeling very different from within. For example, there was a goon who took all his jewelry and money and handed it all to his men. He then told them to keep watching the film until they got “focus.” Nobody knew what the word focus meant in the context of the film. However, somehow, these people got the courage to sacrifice their material wealth and end the relationships that they had maintained only due to societal pressure. Some expressed their love, some showed their anger, some protested against the government, and some realized the real truth of life. But for some unknown reason, not everybody got that focus. One of the most famous film critics, Kiran Adarsh, watched the film four times, but he couldn’t understand why it was affecting people the way it was as he didn’t feel any such emotional kick. The publication for which Kiran used to write constantly asked him to submit a review, but he told them that until and unless he did some background research on the maker’s point of view, he would not be able to do so. So Kiran Adarsh went to the cottage where Upendra, the writer, star and director of the film, had written the screenplay. He learned from the house help there that, after writing the screenplay, Upendra had burnt the entire script, but somehow, the house help managed to save it. Kiran started reading the burnt pages, and that’s when he relayed the story of “UI”. 

What happened in Upendra’s film? 

Once Kiran started reading the partially burnt screenplay of “UI”, we got to know of the fantasy land that Upendra had tried to create, how he used symbolism to critique contemporary society, and how he got disappointed at the end because the story didn’t turn out the way he would have liked. In Upendra’s story, a woman was tortured and raped by certain anonymous criminals. As a result of the abuse, she got pregnant, and a learned astrologer who went by the name of Veer Brahmendra Guru prophesied that if the woman gave birth at exactly the stroke of midnight, then the child born would be a reincarnation of Kalki, the Hindu god Vishnu’s tenth reincarnation. The astrologer believed that the woman’s child would bring the end of Kalyug, or the Kali Yuga, and usher in a new era, i.e., the Satyug. But the child was born five minutes before the clock struck 12. The kid, named Satya, did not exhibit the traits of Kalki, and he grew up to become a sage who believed that through his teachings and his social work, he would be able to transform society. But no matter how much Satya tried, he wasn’t able to end the corruption, the crime, the discrimination, or the prejudices of this dystopian society. The gap between the rich and the poor was widening. Corruption was increasing every day. People were killing each other in the name of religion. The corrupt regime was able to influence the people so that they never asked the real questions. The media, too, created a fake narrative, spread lies, and made sure that a discussion on the real issues never happened.

Amidst all that, a revelation was made in UI. We got to know that the aggrieved woman, i.e., Satya’s mother, gave birth to another child just 5 minutes after she gave birth to Satya. Kalki, Satya’s twin brother, was born exactly at 12 o’clock. He was the complete opposite of Satya. He wanted to make the world suffer, just like people had made their mother suffer. He didn’t have any hopes for humanity. Kalki knew how human psychology functioned and how he could brainwash them easily into believing that whatever he was saying was for their welfare. Kalki wanted to see the world burn. There came a time when Kalki and Satya came face to face. Kalki captured Satya, and he told him that he could free himself, provided he applied his brain and understood how the maze was created to trap the human mind. Once Satya came out of that maze, Kalki used his tricks to turn his own people against him. They made Satya their enemy, and they killed him. The man who put his faith in humanity was betrayed by the very same humans. The purported Kalki won, and in the process, he made Satya realize that whatever he thought about the human race was absolutely true. 

At the end of Upendra’s story, Kalki became the uncrowned emperor, and he made the people suffer. People got addicted to all sorts of vices. They were constantly fed false news through social media and other media outlets. They were ready to kill one another in the name of religion, caste, race and nationality. They considered themselves to be the custodians of religion, of the caste they belonged to, and of the society they lived in. The irony was that these people struggled for the basic necessities of life. But Kalki’s regime knew that they needed to do something to distract them and not let them think about these real issues. So they were all handed a mobile phone each like rations. The content they were fed was curated in a manner that made society its own enemy. In the end, after Upendra completed his script, he got frustrated with what he had written. He didn’t want the future to look like that, but somehow, he had created a pessimistic story where humanity was doomed. It was probably Upendra’s alter ego who came in the form of Kalki and made him write those lines. Maybe deep down beneath all the hope, Upendra knew that humanity was headed towards its own doom and everybody was contributing towards it. Maybe Upendra’s inner voice told him that fabricating the narrative, painting a false picture, will not change the reality. But Upendra was not ready to take such a pragmatic approach; that is why he burnt his script and decided not to make a film on it. 

What was the aftermath of Upendra’s film?

There were riots and protests to ban the film, as the government didn’t want to get exposed in front of the people. The citizens were realizing that the world they lived in, the man-made system that had been created, the policies, and every other facet of a civilized society were just a big sham. As stated earlier, UI makes use of symbolism to reflect on the times that we live in, and somewhere, Upendra wants to tell his audience that our reality is as absurd as his film. Kalki’s mother symbolically represented Mother Earth. She was abused and violated, similarly, our Mother Earth has been violated for centuries. 

In Upendra’s story, we saw that an Afghan man kept Kalki with him, and he was heavily influenced by his two wives, one Russian and one American. But in the end, those two wives betrayed him, and the Afghan’s life was turned upside down. That subplot of Upendra’s film was a direct representation of how the West exploited the Middle East for its own interests. Upendra did not refrain from stating how social media is used to create a false narrative and brainwash people. He also tells us how entertainment and content could be used to distract people from the real issues. We saw a couple of people sitting in rags on a heap of garbage and celebrating the victory of their nation in a sporting event. Upendra questions the irony of nationalism: what does it mean to be patriotic, and how do the politicians use it to their advantage? 

The filmmaker satirically talks about the caste system, too, and how absurd it looks when you watch it from a third person’s perspective. In Upendra’s script, Kalki, after assuming power, divided society on the basis of castes (basically numbers in this universe) and then decided on their hierarchy. So when the food trucks came, they gave preference to the upper-caste people, while the lower castes resorted to all sorts of illegitimate activities to survive because they were left with no option. Now, this classification (much like our obsolete class system) wasn’t based on any particular parameter. One day, somebody decided to divide the people, and a hierarchy was created. The birth of a human being decided its fate to a certain extent, and even if it didn’t have the calibre, it got certain privileges and vice versa. The last conversation that happened between Upendra and his alter ego, Kalki, was also quite fascinating. We saw that Kalki told Upendra how everybody wanted to see larger-than-life protagonists who did great things, fought against the odds, and made sure that they didn’t give up on their morals and ethics. Kalki believed that a common man who was drowning in his own misery wanted to believe that such real-life figures, notions like justice, equality, and moral uprightness, could exist in the real world, too. A common man liked living in a bubble as he knew that the real world was too harsh, too brutal, and too hopeless. 

After watching UI, you tend to raise the question of how dangerous addiction to social media could turn out to be. Today’s generation is glued to their screens, and Upendra predicts that the outcome could be hazardous. UI takes a radically skeptical viewpoint, and Upendra considers his nihilism as the future of humanity if we don’t mend our ways. 

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‘The Room Next Door’ Movie Ending Explained & Summary: Is Martha Dead Or Alive?

Legendary filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s English language debut film, The Room Next Door, is intriguing and thought-provoking, to say the least. The colorful visuals contrast the profound subject matter that the film addresses. Death, of course, comes with a sense of melancholy, and one does not usually imagine a pop of colors when visualizing death or the last day of one’s existence in the world. But in Almodovar’s world, death is almost a tragic relief that his subject yearns for. The Room Next Door is centered around Martha (Tilda Swinton) and Ingrid (Julianne Moore), two friends who had not been in contact for quite some time, but in a way, death brought them together. They revisited fond memories, until one day, Martha decided it was time she ended her life. Can Ingrid support her friend’s decision? How far was she willing to go for friendship?

Spoiler Alert

Why did Martha decide to end her life?

Martha had been diagnosed with third-stage cervical cancer; it was inoperable. She had signed up for an experimental treatment that so far had been effective, and she was showing improvements. As a war correspondent, Martha missed the thrill and excitement that life had abundantly thrown at her path and that she had enthusiastically embraced. Martha had never imagined she’d end up confined to a bed, and she struggled to cope with her reality. The experimental medication helped her feel hopeful about her future, though on most days she struggled to see the silver lining. She perhaps did not expect to see her old friend, Ingrid, walk through the door of her hospital room. They had been out of touch, and there had been several occasions when Martha intended to reach out to her, but somehow it never worked out. Ingrid had recently launched her book, and it was quite successful. She had eager readers lined up waiting for her to sign their copies, and Ingrid happily obliged. It was the only time she got to meet her readers, and she cherished the little time she got to spend with them. Ingrid was surprised to see her old friend, Stella, in the line, and it was from her that she learned about Martha’s condition. Ingrid immediately decided to visit her friend, and the minute they met, they immediately connected.

Life had got so busy for both of them that they did not have the time to catch up with each other, and it was in Martha’s hospital room that they finally got to share all those things that mattered in their lives. Martha was a teenager when she conceived her daughter, Michelle. She had been mostly absent from her daughter’s life, because she was busy trying to build her career. Martha mentioned with a sense of regret and remorse that her daughter had simply stated, “Your choice,” when she tried to discuss the experimental treatment option with her. She could not fathom that her own daughter had become so distant from her. She believed it was because Michelle suspected Martha was somehow responsible for not letting her father get more involved in their lives. But in reality, her father was never interested in them. He had recently returned from the war in Vietnam, and he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He did not intend to devote himself to his family yet, and was trying to figure his life out. Martha raised her child on her own with the help of her parents because she did not intend to burden him with responsibilities. However, Martha could not explain her struggles to her daughter, leading to severe misunderstandings. 

Unlike most days, when Martha and Ingrid discussed their pasts, literature that moved them, and paintings that intrigued them, one day, when Ingrid visited Martha, she was in distress, screaming and crying her heart out. She explained that she had developed metastasis in her liver and it had become evident that the treatment was not working. While the doctors had advised her to continue with the treatment, Martha decided against it. She believed she deserved to die a respectable death, and she could already anticipate that the treatment would leave her completely destroyed, both physically and mentally. Considering her chances of survival were slim, she preferred to die with dignity rather than like a discarded lab rat used in a medical experiment. 

That day, she witnessed what appeared to be a pink snowfall; Martha thought it was possibly because of climate change, but regardless, it was an unforgettable view. Martha’s body degrading to a point of no return and the earth reaching a point beyond recovery is a parallel that one will repeatedly think of while watching The Room Next Door. There are days when nature shines with all its might, but as much as it tries, man-made disasters are often impossible to recover from, and everything coming to an end seems almost inevitable. In the film, John Turturro’s Damian character echoed the same idea, a feeling of complete hopelessness about the ever degrading condition of nature. 

Why did Ingrid agree to help Martha?

After Martha had mentally prepared herself to end her life, she discussed her plan with Ingrid. Not only did Ingrid have to come to terms with the possibility that she would no longer get to see her friend, but she also had to make up her mind about Martha’s request. She had procured a pill to euthanize herself through the dark web, and she wanted a friend by her side. Her daughter was too distant, and Martha did not wish to disclose all that she was going through at the time to her. Ingrid wondered why Martha chose her for the role, and not her other friends she was way closer to. Martha explained that she had considered them first and had requested them to help her, but they had all declined. They were petrified after learning of her plan, and they did not intend to play any part in her suicide mission. 

Ingrid, who had a complex relationship with death and had written a book about it, did not know how to respond. Death scared her, but she knew that Martha deserved to see a familiar face before she passed away. Moreover, she admired Martha’s courage and her decision to be in complete control of her life, but she wondered if she was audacious enough to face death. It would be inhumane to decline her request and suddenly discover that she had carried out her plan alone and was lonely at the time of her death. Ingrid prioritized her friend’s happiness over her own discomfort and agreed to be there for her. Somewhere deep down, Ingrid was also hopeful that maybe Martha would change her mind.

Did Martha end her life?

Martha rented a place near Woodstock for a month to carry out her plan. She did not wish to die at a familiar place she was too attached to. She wanted to spend her last few days close to nature, soaking it all in and leaving without any sense of regret. As a war correspondent, Martha had seen brutality and bloodshed up close, but she’d never predicted that one day she would be at war with herself. For Martha, being in control was important, and dying a dignified death was her way of winning the war, she had every intention of bravely looking death in the eye and submitting to it without any sense of remorse.

Upon reaching the place, Ingrid chose a room on the ground floor just below Martha’s room. While it was not exactly the room next door, Martha was happy to have Ingrid by her side to keep her company. Martha was devastated when she discovered that she had left the pill at home, and while Ingrid suggested they go to the apartment the next day, Martha felt a sudden rush of urgency to find the pill. The fear of her plan falling apart scared her, and she knew it would be extremely difficult to get her hands on the medication once again. After going through all of Martha’s stuff in her study, Ingrid discovered an envelope labeled ‘goodbye’ that had the pill in it. She had also come across Martha’s memoir; presumably Ingrid will refer to the red notebook in the future every now and then to sketch an idea of her friend’s life.  Martha was finally relieved, and they returned to their rented place. Ingrid tried to suggest that maybe leaving the pill behind was a sign, but Martha refused to listen to anything that would discourage her from taking the step. She was well aware of what she was doing, and she did not need her friend to repeatedly ask her to consider going through months of grueling pain with barely any chances of survival. Martha had instructed Ingrid to always check her door; if closed, it would indicate that she had carried out her plan. One day, when Ingrid woke up to a closed door, she was in tears and gulped down a sedative to ease her pain, only to realize that Martha had not executed her plan, and it was just the wind that had closed the door. Nature’s dark humor did not play well on Ingrid.

Out of everything that Martha had lost to cancer, she particularly regretted losing her attention span. She could not do the things that once made her happy, such as reading a book or watching a classic. The little joys in life were taken away from her, and with them, all her raison d’etre. On the night of the scare, Ingrid and Martha watched The Dead (directed by John Huston, an adaptation of James Joyce’s short story that goes by the same name). Martha resonated with Joyce’s perspective on life and death– the uneasiness that comes with thinking of mortality, of being reduced to nothing, of one’s body resting in the cold and a gush of snow falling on their grave. Tears trickled down Martha’s cheek; the melancholy was all too palpable. The next morning, Martha soaked in the sunshine and enjoyed the slightly chilly wind that entered through her window. Ingrid left to meet her friend Damian, one of the very few people Ingrid had told about Martha’s plan. Martha was against Ingrid informing anyone of anything because she did not wish for Ingrid to get entangled in a mess with the police after her death, but Ingrid trusted Damian, and they both thought having a lawyer by their side who could help Ingrid if things got complicated could be of advantage.

During The Room Next Door’s ending, when Ingrid returned home, she found Martha’s lifeless body on the sunlounger by the pool. Martha had a bright yellow outfit on for the occasion and sported a red lip. She was feeling her best that morning and was ready to face death valiantly.

Did Michelle forgive her mother?

The policeman who interrogated Ingrid after Martha’s death was anything but understanding. He was a religious extremist who considered the act of suicide a sin and intended to put Ingrid behind bars for assisting her friend in executing her plan. But Ingrid denied her involvement and repeatedly stated that she had come on vacation with Martha, and her decision was a surprise to her as well. But as it so happened, their friend Stella had told the police that Martha had asked her to be with her to carry out her plan, and that was all the more reason why the police suspected her. Ingrid contacted Damian, and his lawyer helped sort out the issue. 

When Ingrid left the police station, she received a call from Martha’s daughter, Michelle, who wanted to visit the place where her mother had spent her final days. Michelle looked exactly like her mother. While Ingrid dearly missed her friend, spending time with her daughter helped her heal. She explained how Martha barely had any role in Michelle’s father’s disinterest in knowing his daughter better. Knowing the truth helped Michelle forgive her mother and see her in a softer light. She felt closer to her mother after her death than she ever felt when she was alive. Ingrid continued to write letters to Martha and expressed how little things around her reminded her of her friend. 

In The Room Next Door’s ending, when Ingrid saw Michelle resting at the same spot where she had discovered Martha’s body, it was almost a surreal experience, especially because they looked so alike. Seeing Michelle alive and well made Ingrid feel hopeful; she could almost see her friend in Michelle, even though she was not there; she had left behind an important piece of her. 

The snowfall in the end was cathartic; it reminded Ingrid of Martha, of all the time they had spent together, of all the places they had been to, and the snowfall they had witnessed together. She was gone, but her story lived on, her memories lingered, and as a writer, Ingrid perhaps will ensure that Martha was remembered fondly by those who knew her. Strangers would discover her story and all that she had been through. And there would be days when little things would make Ingrid think of Martha, almost as a reminder that she was still around, somewhere.

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