In the present scenario of Hindi films, the first ace you specifically need to play with is ‘Good Music’, which EK VILLAIN successfully displayed a month before the release and won the first round. Next it has to be an appealing young star cast which already has made its ground with some hit films in the recent past and EK VILLAIN did have that second ace in its sleeve too with a fine cast ensemble. Third comes an interesting novel kind of storyline essentially having the element of romance in it, which can be marketed well with some interesting promos and EK VILLAIN smartly acquired this third ace too, though taking it all from a foreign flick unofficially following the ages old trend.
So if one wishes to know about the business aspect then EK VILLAIN is a perfect product to sell with its three aces and should easily make some quick bucks at the box office before any other product gets released on the coming Friday. But looking at the product beneath its attractive packaging, it just remains a well-planned and intelligently marketed soul-less venture without any great quality of its own to make any long lasting impact. And today since our cinema as well as its viewers are fast becoming habitual of these kinds of deliberately made ‘Sale products’ only and not ‘Cinematic Expressions’, therefore I would not be surprised if this also does well at the box office, proving the above fact once again unfortunately.
However for friends who are willing to know about the film in real terms then this is a plain, toned down, inspired Indianised version of the Korean film I SAW THE DEVIL (2010) which purely followed a particular dark genre more interested in showing blood, gore and torture with an element of suspense. But since that kind of brutal treatment was anyway not suitable for our Indian market, so the makers mixed the basic theme of the original film with some romance, suspense, middle class trauma, emotional drama and a bit of controlled violence too, giving it an interesting, unusual title EK VILLAIN.
Now the move was no doubt fine to tone down the gruesome Korean film as per the Indian mindset. But making it with a questionable hasty vision, without caring about any emotional depth or exact characterisations in the script was a pretty bad & cruel decision by the team, ruining the interesting plot.
Beginning with a decent sequence giving the viewer an early shock, the film soon goes into the routine settings of a bubbly, talkative girl trying to woo the tough hero. And then as the songs start coming in, you are quickly forced to assume that an eternal love is already there between the lead pair just out of nothing. Further the narration introduces more phony characters like the irritating gangster, the frustrated middle class man, his more frustrated strange friend, a helpless or rather funny kind of police officer (who is never willing to take any solid action) and then weaves a quite emotionless deliberate film around these all.
The otherwise soothing songs keep coming at regular intervals which start disturbing the pace post intermission and this even includes a well-publicized item number thrown in carelessly (without any need) featuring the sizzling Prachi Desai. To praise the right departments, yes the frames are pretty colourful, the cinematography is impressive, the background score does well and the soundtrack has already proved itself before the release very deservingly.
But what doesn’t work in the film throughout is its shaky writing with cardboard characters, many strange poetic dialogues (not suiting the individuals) and no serious intensity at all similar to mere beautiful plastic flowers having no fragrance of their own, to say the truth. Moreover the silly explanations in many important sequences turn it into a simply below average film like the way its hero reaches the actual killer through a child, how the killer manages to find anyone to murder and that too so easily reaching their actual residence, the strange behavior of the don, the climax having a deliberate social angle and above all the questionable projection of police in the film doing just nothing. Also the whole hospital sequence post interval really made me laugh with such a childish execution wherein doctors are talking to the people so rudely, the nurses are saying to the patient “Janey Kahan Kahan Se Aa Jatey Hain” and a mother telling her child to roam freely in the hospital but don’t go out of it as if it was a shopping mall.
Still among these laughable insertions EK VILLAIN does manage to keep you engrossed for some good 10 minutes when the whole proceedings are showcased in a reverse form connecting it with all the previous scenes of its first half. But then it soon returns back to the same over melodramatic and depthless execution heading towards a lifeless climax, due to which one neither feels anything for the suffering characters nor gets connected to the melodious music as desired.
In short, apart from its hit soundtrack, there is only one department where director Mohit Suri has proved his caliber as an experienced director admittedly and it is the performance section having three sincere acts extracted from its key characters. Leading the trio, Siddharth breaks through his set image and impresses playing the tough gangster. Riteish slips into the double layered character like a pro and Shraddha though irritates in the beginning but then manages to make a decent impact in her short role gaining the viewer’s sympathy.
In the supporting cast Aamna Shariff acts fine as the nagging wife, Shaad Randhawa gets no support from his given role and Kamaal R. Khan has just been signed in to spice up the film after his newly found fame on Twitter & Youtube. Talking about the projected Don, I love my ‘O Meri Munni & Jalwa’ man a lot but Remo in the film was a big miscast frankly.
To conclude, actually the concept behind the original film I SAW THE DEVIL and the title EK VILLAIN is that we all have a hidden villain inside us, who suddenly comes into existence in an extreme situation when someone hurts our beloveds unexpectedly and then we all split into a twin personality unknowingly. The meaningful theme is beautifully portrayed in the well-conceived Korean film, but gets completely lost in the muddled script of EK VILLAIN which is nothing more than a mixed sweet & sour dish well-presented in a superbly decorated plate without any appreciable taste.
So you can watch it if you must but only for its three sincere performances alone.
Rating : 2 / 5
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