Movie: Ek Villain
Director: Mohit Suri
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Riteish Deshmukh, Shraddha Kapoor, Aamna Sharif
Rating: ***1/2
Mohit Suri is one who respects clichés the most in Hindi cinema apart from someone like a Subhash Ghai or a Rajkumar Santoshi. He wants their embedded silliness to be those relieving resemblances among the host of poetic unknowns. In the early part of the film, when Shraddha Kapoor in her trademark manufactured-to-be-cute voice questions Siddharth Malhotra if the sadoo look in the face of a gangster is compulsory, you also want to ask in your topmost voice to the Aashiqui 2 maker of the necessity behind the same idiosyncrasy in the girl’s character. No doubt that she is designed to be the sunshine in a cold-blooded life of a gangster, but does that mean you give her a painfully cinematic part where she is busying herself with re-marriages of grandfathers, playing in snow and seeing a butterfly stay still on her palms in the quest of fulfilling her wishes written in a diary ? You try your best not to make fuss about these stereotypes as the intentional touches are continuous.
Aisha enters the scene by talking to a godly idol placed by her side. This too could have been a senselessly cinematic moment in any other film. Here, the object is a tool for a nearly suggestive super-natural reference. She, in a sequence says that only light can drive darkness and love in the case of hatred. She repeatedly draws a smiley on moist windows. This adds up to what could have also been an awaiting silly exercise.
Ek Villain is one such film that doesn’t want you buy its story but the subtle mysteries, masked with stereotypes, behind an each ghastly episode. Mohit doesn’t part with the old-world backdrop he used to great effect in Aashiqui 2. He thrives for drama in place of something that’s very generic. There’s a momentary mortal-like tag attached to everything you see. For a while, you sense hope and then drastically shift to sympathy. For every smile that comes, there’s a slow foundation of danger that is set to arrive. In the case of the clear antagonist, he collects an accessory each from the place he goes and gives it to his wife he fondly calls Sulu. This is the director’s way of showcasing you how is he accumulating the sins he has been committing.
Although you are still puzzled by the jarring elaborations that every character gets in justifying their respective psyches, you can’t deny the maker’s wile to create an ideal atmosphere for every situation. A convenient example can be that of the arrogant nurse in a hospital where he teases you between life and death through the flickering tubelights. Knowing his very capability of accomplishing such tension into the narrative, you wonder if it was the same person who lets his arresting-flow get goofed by a series of extremely avoidable explanatory lines later.
The male protagonist, Siddharth Malhotra in Ek Villain has an interesting role to play with. He needs to be cold and internalise his pain on a consistent basis. Even in Riteish Deshmukh, as an insecure egoist Rakesh Mahadkar, the reasons are of paramount significance than the acts. Both are fragile at heart. They are absolutely hinted at two sides of the coin to what Aisha says earlier. While one tries to heal his wounds with love, the other does it with blood. Watching this through the eyes of the Korean original I Saw the Devil might give you a completely different perspective altogether, but the respect the film gives to the mind over the body in a regional context helps it scale above an ordinary revenge drama. You almost see a Randeep Hooda in Highway continuing his story here. This is drama over substance that heartens, fulfills, disappoints and surprises. The experience after all feels complete