EK VILLAIN:ANEK KAHAANI

(Star rating:2 stars)

Bottomline:Too many villains and plots spoil the kill.

Rakesh Mahadkar (Riteish Deshmukh) loves his wife, Sulu (Aamna Sharif) immensely. She is beautiful. And she drives him crazy. Literally.

Like any middle class housewife, she is a bit of a nag and a sucker for gifts. The fact that her husband is aseedha saada, good for nothing man who can barely afford to pay Rs 125 for auto rickshaw; doesn’t help much. So she bombards him endlessly with insults and taunts. He in turn tries to please her with more gifts and trinkets. Sometimes it’s an anklet. Sometimes it’s a necklace. Only, he hasn’t bought them. He has just wrenched them off the women he tortures and kills with a screwdriver.

Twisted but interesting, so far. Unfortunately, that’s the only track that carries the entire film through. This is a film, which has been widely marketed as a love story of a villain. This is both true and false; depending on whose story you follow. If it’s that of the heroine who insists on calling her hero ‘ae villain’, there is major disappointment in store. Unless you like seeing the most clichéd character, the sweetest, nicest girl whose aim in life is to help the needy. Think Gajni. Think Asin. Here, it is Aisha (Shraddha Kapoor). She loves keeping a wish list diary. Butterflies and snowflakes are a part of her dream. So is kidnapping lovers and getting them married. She draws smiley faces and cracks jokes to hide her own sad story. Not that it matters. A miracle changes that into a happy story ever after. So Miss Smiley and her ‘villain’ goon hero, Guru (Siddharth Malhotra) have nothing to worry about, do they? Apparently they do. The boring love story, rescued by Mithoon and Ankit Tiwari’s melodious music; finally gets interesting. The real villain’s (Riteish) own twisted love story comes in the way.

In a screenplay that uses several flashbacks and more twists and characters, all playing ‘villain’ to one another; it’s the tight edit that holds the film together. The violent revenge saga between Siddharth and Riteish lacks the punch of a deadly face-off. (Incidentally, the poster is rip off of the John Travolta film.) Some ridiculous moments involve Siddharth jabbing a needle into Riteish’s chest to bring him back from the dead. The plot turns around more than one man’s revenge and a messy chase wrecks all hell on screen.

While the director, Mohit Suri tries to repeat Aashiqui 2 with the music and Shraddha’s charm; Guru and Aisha’s love story just does not appeal to the heart. More so, with Siddharth’s solo, monotonous, grumpy look. The real deal in acting, comes from the minor characters, the women who fall victims, particularly Riteish’s boss who mocks him. For some amusement and Riteish’s psycho character explanation, there is also the weirdo friend, Kamaal R Khan.

Riteish Deshmukh is the savior and the hero. His mild, gentle manner, the lover’s sincerity and the vulnerability in his body language changing to steely murderous, is a delight to watch. Aamna Sharif as his nagging wife, steals the show. The two together, make this otherwise twisted love story, somewhat tolerable.

Thanks to Ek Villain, Riteish Deshmukh is the newfound Amol Palekar. Someone who says “I love you” in the deadliest way possible.

(This has first appeared in Tellychakkar.com)