Eight years after the original comes the sequel, ‘Ek Villain Returns’, in which the theme, ‘every story has a villain’ gets a refresh. This time around, the story expands its base with two male characters ricocheting between being hero and villain, one masked, another struggling to find his real face. There could have been something to this idea, that everyone has elements of hero and villain within and the one that comes up top depends upon our circumstances. But a disjointed plot and pedestrian performances do not an effective film make: in comparison, the less than middling ‘Ek Villain’, starring Siddharth Malhotra-Riteish Deshmukh-Shraddha Kapoor, feels like a better film.
Arjun Kapoor plays Gautam, a spoilt, rich brat who swaggers in and out of his father’s plush office, open-air concert theatres, and a wedding venue. A heart-break leads him into all kinds of questionable activities, with the film trying to tell us that here’s a good-at-heart man-child in search of a good woman (Tara Sutaria) who will save him from himself. John Abraham is Bhairav, a naive and innocent taxi-driver in love with a pretty young thing (Disha Patani) whose wiles are hidden behind a fresh face.
The two men clash, what else, in this spot-the-serial-killer game. They also have scenes with their love-interests, whenever the script can be bothered to find them: both Patani and Sutaria are given chances to speak but only when their men have caused some mayhem, and they scurry to pick up the pieces, showing off their svelte lines more than their dialogues.
There’s an attempt at actual characterisation. Gautam is given life-lessons by his millionaire father: only when you support someone, you will grow. Ditto Bhairav, who the dictum this movie wants to push– one-sided love can be enough. But whatever happened to strong plots and story-telling? An able actor like JD Chakrvarthy, part of the crime team trying to crack the case, is made to flounder: the cops, as ever, are late to the party, which involves a zoo-keeper and buckets of human flesh.
Mohit Suri’s editions of his dark, pulpy universe, buoyed by Sufi ditties, used to be able to keep us with them, but even by the law of diminishing returns, ‘Ek Villain Returns’ has sunk to a low low.
Ek Villain Returns movie cast: John Abraham, Arjun Kapoor, Disha Patani, Tara Sutaria, J D Chakravarthy
Ek Villain Returns movie director: Mohit Suri
Ek Villain Returns movie rating: 1 star