Ek Villain Returns (2022)
Movie Review -
Mohit Suri managed to get an exciting cast of John Abraham, Arjun Kapoor, Disha Patani, and Tara Sutaria together for Ek Villain Returns. Did any of them excite you for an acting-driven show? Ask this question to yourself and please keep the answer to yourself only. Well, not many people know this, or maybe some social media fanatics know, that Mohit Suri is one of those Bollywood directors who has done more remakes and adaptations than the original works. Forget other films for now, let's talk about Ek Villain (2014). Many of today's youth cinema lovers have seen the South Korean action thriller "I Saw The Devil" (2010), so they know how much its plot contributes to Ek Villain. With Ek Villain Returns, he tries a new erotic film with those gone-dated thriller formulas we saw in Hollywood classics like "Fight Club," "The Sixth Sense," and "Shutter Island." This mess of an erotic thriller and psychic notions spoils good-looking logic for you and, moreover, terrible performances and unnecessary loud moments burn down every single expectation of yours.
Ek Villain Returns is a story about love, betrayal, and revenge, all mixed into a boring musical potboiler. Bhairav (John Abraham), a cab driver in love with a salesgirl Rasika (Disha Patani), is now a serial killer-cum-messiah for the one-sided lovers. On the other hand, Gautam (Arjun Kapoor), the spoiled son of a rich businessman, falls in love with an emerging rockstar singer, Aarvi (Tara Sutaria). With opposite thoughts about love, these two male lovers cross each other as their motives clash to decide who's the villain and who's the hero, and who wins at the end. The involvement of the police is as useless as traffic signals in car racing games, so you can assume how assuring the writing is.
In the press conference, Ekta Kapoor said that Rohit Shetty called it a blockbuster script and passed it to Mohit Suri. I can understand why Rohit passed the script, but I cannot understand why he called it a "blockbuster one." The last two films where Mohit was involved in the writing were Crook (2010) and Raaz 2 (2009). He returns as a writer again. Why? Aseem Arora is doing a mix bag nowadays, so basically the duo has written a mix bag for the viewers, which confers audiences with known formulas with illogical characters. That suspense with John and Disha's characters is clearly visible by the time you reach the interval point, because you see them behaving weirdly all of a sudden, without any concrete reasons. One can easily predict the suspense there, while Arjun and Tara's characters are sidelined already. Those crooked one-sided lovers have nothing to learn from here, like they had in "Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2".
Talking about performances, I think two minutes of silence should be followed here. John Abraham's choices of films and roles are getting worse day by day. The same man who has worked in films like "Parmanu" and "Batla House" has done five duds in a row-"Pagalpanti," "Mumbai Saga," "Satyameva Jayate 2," "Attack Part 1," and "EVR". He always says, "Good films work and the bad ones don't." Well, he is damn honest and right. Hopefully, we'll see the result again with Ek Villian Returns. Arjun Kapoor looks like a handsome playboy and has acted well in a few scenes. Disha Patani spills glamour with grey shades, and that's the best she could do. For Tara Sutaria, the selection is even worse than John. SOTY 2, Marjaavaan, Tadap, Heropanti 2 and now this. Come on, Tara, please justify your name by doing something starry. I hope that happens with your next one, "Apurva," as you have called it that one content-driven film and the role you were looking for. The rest of the actors in Ek Villain Returns are barely noticeable, so better not talk about them. And yes, Riteish Deshmukh fans are in for an illogical surprise here. Those who have seen Ek Villain (2014) will know why it's illogical.
The Ek Villain franchise is known for music, and even Mohit Suri's films are known for their music albums more than the content. Ek Villain Returns had a huge pressure of that thing but somehow managed to carry the load safely. However, the video songs have made this film damn slow and boring. The audios of "Dil," "Galiyaan Returns," "Shaamat," and "Naa Tere Bin" are groovy enough, though. Can't say well done, but well attempted by Ankit Tiwari, Tanishk Bagchi and Kaushik-Guddu. The dialogues are bearable and the action sequences are passable. Technically, Ek Villain Returns is a much better product than what it is as a whole. The editing has made things simple for you because all the trauma passes quickly in two hours so that it doesn't become a headache, and the background score is scary enough to awaken you in case you have fallen asleep during the watch.
Mohit Suri's last outing Malang introduced us to cliches in his own dark and erotic form, yet failed to make a good cinematic experience. Comparatively, Malang looks a better film than Ek Villain Returns now. The pandemic has made viewers more mature, and this will surely make things difficult for Ek Villain Returns. Suri's draft is weak, but his direction looks helpless as you see the paperwork being converted into on-screen spectacle with no improvisation. The framework is so bad in some scenes, and who said cut to those extra loud moments that have no feelings? It was Mohit only. At least in the writing, Ek Villain deserved a better successor. I hate remakes, but if Mohit is trying to rip off things like this in so-called original films, then it's better he remakes or adopts Korean films. As a whole, Ek Villain Returns is a huge disappointment in almost every department, be it acting, writing, screenwriting, or direction. Will we see addition of box office to this list soon?
RATING - 4/10*
