Torn apart. Review on Ek Villain

The concept of the Villain in the movie industry is as old as itself. The Hindi film industry has had several stereotyped villains who would ultimately die or be imprisoned at the end of the movie,be it Mogambo,Shakaal,Dr Dang,or any of the other famous names.

However,since the past few years,this trend has taken a different tone altogether.Although the stereotyped villain barely exists anymore,Bollywood is now portraying to us a reality of life i.e villains are formed out of unfavourable circumstances in many cases.This is exactly what this 2014 starrer Ek Villain is all about.

Plot:-

The film begins with Aisha(Shraddha Kapoor) calling her husband and leaving a message for him.Moments later,a man in a hood enters the house,stabs her with a screwdriver and throws her out of the window. Later,CBI officer Aditya Rathore(Shaad Randhawa) points out to the police that a full on investigation must be done on the killing in order to prevent her husband,Guru(Siddharth Malhotra),another hardened criminal,from setting loose on a killing spree.

Aditya tries to convince Guru(who was Aisha's husband) that his former chief,Caesar(Remo Fernandes),for whom Guru worked as a serial killer, was behind the killings.This places Guru in a frenzy and when confronting Caesar,he realises that it was not Caesar but somebody else responsible for the killings.

Guru now is in a desperate search to find Aisha's killer. In a parallel case,Rakesh Mahadkar(Ritesh Deshmukh) is an unsuccessful person who is living with his wife Sulochana(Aamna Sharif) and little son.He gets insulted and ridiculed by his seniors and colleagues in his workplace and by his wife at home for not being able to achieve success in his life and career.Being henpecked,he does not confront his wife but develops a psychopathic hatred against people,particularly women who insult him.He tracks down and murders a young woman who insulted him at the railway station and later,while he was about to attack his female boss for insulting him at work while she was returning home,Guru stops and attacks him and warns him that he had would make his life and circumstances so miserable that he would plead for death but wouldn't be fortunate enough to get it.He gets Rakesh admitted in a hospital and Rakesh follows his instincts of attempting to murder a nurse who behaves harshly with him,and Guru repeats the same assault on Rakesh.Just as Rakesh was about to die,Guru desperately gives him a hard tranquilizer shot to revive him,to stand by his promise of torturing Rakesh by keeping him alive as a revenge for Aisha's killing.

The film goes into a flashback revealing how Guru meets Aisha and develops feelings for her.Aisha is a free spirited girl full of life and she works for the old and underprivileged in a charity home.Guru falls in love with her and they get married,only later to be shocked to find out that she is suffering from a terminal illness and wouldnt' survive long.It is also revealed that she is pregnant but later out of the injury of being stabbed,she did not survive,despite Guru's desperate attempts.

The film also reveals as to how Guru entered the crime world as he saw his parents being killed by two armed men at their home and in a desperate search for revenge,he meets Caesar who gives him the opportunity to nab and murder the assassins.

The investigations are carried on and towards the end,Caesar promises Guru that he would not spare Aisha's assassins and his family.Caesar murders Sulochana and on a television news broadcast,Rakesh,shocked on seeing his wife murdered now plans to kill Guru,assuming that Guru was behind it, but gets hit by a vehicle at the end and dies.

Guru now decides to adopt Rakesh's little son as a fulfillment of one of Aisha's wishlist since their little child did not survive to see this world.

Performances/Direction:-

It is difficult to ascertain as to which artist steals the show,but all the three main actors-Siddharth Malhotra,Shraddha Kapoor and Ritesh Deshmukh gave in their best shot to make their roles appear convincing enough.

Siddharth Malhotra fits in the look of a hardened criminal who has a soft corner for Aisha whom he loves dearly.His portrayal of a person who is torn apart by his love and the crime world is done with ease and a world of difference from his debut movie Student of the Year where he played the ravishing college dude.

Shraddha Kapoor's look a bubbly,chirping and full of life free spirited girl quite suited her real life persona.Her innocence in the movie gelled with the character of living with the underprivileged,meeting her soulmate and becoming terminally ill,before being murdered.

Ritesh Deshmukh,with this role to whom the title belongs to has taken a absolute U-turn with a negative character,compared to all the comedy and fun loving roles he has portrayed in the past.His character is quite similar to the psychopathic serial killers of today,often essayed in several other films,who turn evil because of the unfortunate circumstances they go through in their lives.

Director Mohit Suri is known to direct films inspired by the dark events or happenings of our world such as in Kalyug,which portrayed the porn industry, Crook,based on the racist attacks on Indians in Australia, Murder 2 based on crime, just to name a few. He maintains a narrative which keeps a suspense and intrigue till the end.After his success at Aashiqui 2,he does equal justice to his directions,the story and characters.

Music:-

Music of this film is composed by Mithoon and Ankit Tiwari(who achieved phenomenal fame through Aashiqui 2). The track Galliyan achieved popularity several weeks before the film's release while Zarroorat,Hamdard,Banjaara and Awaari being well appreciated. Ankit Tiwari,Arijit Singh,Mohd Irffan and Mustafa Zahid are some of the singers who lent their voices for the movie.