Ek Villain(Hindi) Rating: * * ½ Best described as a schizo-fried requiem, this Mohit Suri film has characters that function on the basis of a script ideated in an altered reality. Soulful songs, haunting score, an eventful non-linear structure and decent performances keep the interest going in an otherwise fist-heavy, Ghajini inspired love ,loss and revenge drama. #EktaKapoor #MohitSuri #balajiFilms #SiddharthMalhotra #ShraddhaKapoor #ShaadRandhawa #RemoFernandes #ReteishDeshmulh
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Hindi Film Review
Johnson Thomas
Schizo-fried Requiem
Film: Ek Villain
Cast: Siddharth malhotra. Shraddha Kapoor, Remo Fernandes, Kamal Khan, Aamna Sharif, Retiesh Deshmukh, Shaad Randhawa
Director: Mohit Suri
Rating: * * ½
After struggling to break even with her recent cinematic endeavors, Ekta Kapoor puts her money on Mohit Suri’s magic touch to do the needful at the box-office. And considering that he knows the pulse of his young audience( given that his films are all about the dark and the mostly doomed set of characters) this one is sure to do well at the box-office. But that won’t be because this film under review is a great piece of art, In fact it’s otherwise.
Inspired largely by Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-Woon's ‘I Saw the Devil’ (2010), Mohit Suri's romantic thriller follows the usual Bollywood tradition of bastardising the original. While the Korean film relied largely on action, blood and gore, Suri's film tries a judicious mix of romance, violence and unsavory meanderings to make up it’s dark hued core.
All Mohit Suri’s films are laced with a haunting melodic track that lends a certain attachment to the darkness he seeks to enshrine through his faulty characters. Music composers Mithoon and Ankit Tiwari do a bang-on job for him on that front. 'Galliyan', 'Banjaara', 'Zaroorat' and 'Awari' have the soulful engagement to keep you interested. Raju Singh’s accompanying background score uses deceptiveness and guile to provide the under current tempo to help the story along.
So even if the characters’ motivations are suspect you get so caught up in the artificially evoked pathos, that you are partially hooked to the faux drama that ensues. The narrative in fact begins with a bang. You see a young woman Ayesha(Shradha Kapoor) talking to her husband Guru(Siddharth Malhotra) on the cell phone and this gist comes through- he’s at an interview for a job and she’s driving her way home while still in conversation. A near accident leads to a pointed exchange and the lady walks into her house. A few moments later, she’s back on the cellphone, her husband calls wanting to tell her his bad news… or is it good? While she’still on the phone, in walks the telephone repairman. He’s wearing a cloak and a hood and has a screwdriver in one hand. Instead of figuring out why he’s worn a hood and cloak , she’s busy berating him for barging into the house without an invitation. The reaction sucks big time. Anyone in their sane mind would at first glance run for cover but our damsel is so sweet and unworldly that she only wants to gently admonish him for his unwelcome effrontery. Once she is attacked by the screw driver she realizes her folly and pleads for mercy. But this killer is not convinced, and pulls her up by her neck and throws her out of the window. (Almost seemed like a superhuman effort to me) After that the narrative goes back and forth giving us more details of Guru’s origins, Ayesha’s raison d’être and the killer’s warped reasoning- all shoddily rendered. The editing cuts keep the pace happening but the believability and conviction become a sore point. Needless to say , by the end of it all, you are left confused as to what this film was all about?
The big fight is no longer about good versus evil. The fight now is between evil and greater evil. So in this film we are confronted with four villains expending villainy of varying degrees- All half-baked. And of course one of the villains, Guru, touched by the goodness of the delicate waif-like fatalistic heroine’s love, is the anointed hero here. The cop( Shaad Randhawa) the murderer Rakesh(Retiesh Deshmukh) and the gangster Caesar(Remo Fernandes) vie for the rest of the fast diminishing pie. Though the killer is the catalyst for the revenge drama that takes up most of the post interval half, there’s really no constructive buildup happening here to define his going over the top. Other than a token in the form of a shrewish ever-nagging wife Sulu( essayed with shrill relish by Aamna Shareif) -who he continues to love! He kills almost every woman who nags or casts aspersions on his manhood but leaves alone a friend(Kamal Khan) who constantly carps and belittles him. Caesar is utilized mainly as a red herring while the Cop has the ubiquitous job of ensuring the narrative follows the path that Mohit Suri sets for it.
The script is totally confounding. The characters lack conviction while their reactions to unexpected crisis situations are simply put, unbelievable. Milap Zhaveri’s dialogues make a ‘mickey’ out of every moment. And most times, the wordiness tends to kill the flow. D.o.P Vishnu Rao’s takes are distinctive enough but the lack of consistency in the telling diminishes it’s effect. There’s not much tension in the telling but the pathos is heavy laden. The mesmeric combination of edgy characters, haunting score and pathos laden narration does manage some effect on your senses. So all is not lost. Retiesh Deshmukh’s surprise casting as the serial killer will probably work in favor of his earnest though undistinguished performance. Siddharth Malhotra lacks fire, even so, his looks and presence manage some semblance of impact. Shraddha is more lively in this film than we’ve seen before. She also has a delicate, vulnerable femininity that helps her performance along. Shaad has a thankless role and Remo is miscast. Kamal Khan is a joke! This is a film that manages to hold on to a fraction of what it promised!
Hindi Film Review
Johnson Thomas
Schizo-fried Requiem
Film: Ek Villain
Cast: Siddharth malhotra. Shraddha Kapoor, Remo Fernandes, Kamal Khan, Aamna Sharif, Retiesh Deshmukh, Shaad Randhawa
Director: Mohit Suri
Rating: * * ½
Inspired largely by Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-Woon's ‘I Saw the Devil’ (2010), Mohit Suri's romantic thriller follows the usual Bollywood tradition of bastardising the original.
All Mohit Suri’s films are laced with a haunting melodic track that lends a certain attachment to the darkness he seeks to enshrine through his faulty characters. Music composers Mithoon and Ankit Tiwari do a bang-on job for him on that front. 'Galliyan', 'Banjaara', 'Zaroorat' and 'Awari' have the soulful engagement to keep you interested. Raju Singh’s accompanying background score uses deceptiveness and guile to provide the under current tempo to help the story along.
So even if the characters’ motivations are suspect you get so caught up in the artificially evoked pathos, that you are partially hooked to the faux drama that ensues. The narrative in fact begins with a bang. You see a young woman Ayesha(Shradha Kapoor) talking to her husband Guru(Siddharth Malhotra) on the cell phone and this gist comes through- he’s at an interview for a job and she’s driving her way home while still in conversation. A near accident leads to a pointed exchange and the lady walks into her house. A few moments later, in a shocking incident She is thrown out of the window by a serial killer.
It’s what happens with most of the characters in this film. They all have trajectories that are unjustified and unbelievable. So what happens next is shocking no doubt but… After that the narrative goes back and forth giving us more details of Guru’s origins, Ayesha’s raison d’être and the killer’s warped reasoning- all shoddily rendered. The editing cuts keep the pace happening but the believability and conviction become a sore point. Needless to say , by the end of it all, you are left confused as to what this film was all about?
In this film we are confronted with four villains expending villainy of varying degrees- All half-baked. And of course one of the villains, Guru, touched by the goodness of the delicate waif-like fatalistic heroine’s love, is the anointed hero here. The cop( Shaad Randhawa) the murderer Rakesh(Retiesh Deshmukh) and the gangster Caesar(Remo Fernandes) vie for the rest of the fast diminishing pie. The script is totally confounding. The characters lack conviction while their reactions to unexpected crisis situations are simply put, unbelievable. Milap Zhaveri’s dialogues make a ‘mickey’ out of every moment. And most times, the wordiness tends to kill the flow. D.o.P Vishnu Rao’s takes are distinctive enough but the lack of consistency in the telling diminishes it’s effect. There’s not much tension in the telling but the pathos is heavy laden. The mesmeric combination of edgy characters, haunting score and pathos laden narration does manage some effect on your senses. So all is not lost. Retiesh Deshmukh’s surprise casting as the serial killer will probably work in favor of his earnest though undistinguished performance. Siddharth Malhotra lacks fire, even so, his looks and presence manage some semblance of impact. Shraddha is more lively in this film than we’ve seen before. She also has a delicate, vulnerable femininity that helps her performance along. Shaad has a thankless role and Remo is miscast. Kamal Khan is a joke! This is a film that manages to hold on to a fraction of what it promised!
