Ek Villain: Its in the Plot

There is no doubt that, “Ek Villain” in recent times has been one of the films which have created a lot of curiosity through its trailer and its chartbuster music only added to the hype. Mohit Suri, who is known to direct Thrillers, had last directed a love story Ashiqui 2, has tried to blend the two genre with his latest film.

 

The film is rumoured to be a take-off a Korean film with desi love tadka. “Ek Villain” is a story of 2 antagonists Guru and Rakesh – how their love makes them choose a different path from what they ought to be and how they crisis-cross each other’s path only  to make an unforgettable impact. While the basic premise is interesting, it is the screenplay that falls flat. The film begins on a high, and then juggles between the past and present, rather struggles to keep the interest of the audience going. With zero twist in the plot and audience knowing who is the villain within first 20 minutes of the movie, the film rests upon its lead characters and moments between them to keep the film going along with its music popping up in between. The film neither scores as a thriller not really up there as a love story; however the film has lot of blood gore.

However the film has 3  high points – the characterization of the main protagonists or antagonists in this case, the performances and its soulful music, which probably just add up to make it a one- time watch. The romantic moment between Guru and Ayesha adds to the emotional base of the movie and provides the much needed lighter moments in this otherwise dark story. The irony of the film lies in its character- while one turns in a way hero for his girl trying to be a villain and the other turns villain trying to be hero in front of his wife’s eyes.

 

Shraddha Kapoor is delightful to watch on-screen and oozes her own charm and innocence. However when it comes to acting, she is at best average. But she has a lovely mellifluous voice. Aamna Sharif, as Ritesh’s wife, surprises with a spirited performance. But its the male leads who saves the day-  Ritesh Deshmukh, who is known for his comic timing, gets an author backed role of a psychologically challenged person and he kills it totally with his menacing act, literally and figuratively. While Ritesh’s performance has been critically acclaimed wide across, I somehow feel its Siddharth, who holds the film together, by delivering an intense silent performance. The expression in his eyes  almost depicts the graph of the story, from anger to hope to love to pathos to despair and back to hope again.

 Mohit Suri yet again manages to show case his talent with great music, good characterization and performances in his film, but as usual in this one too his story and screenplay ironically becomes the main Villain.

Book Review : The Bhairav Putras

Book : The Bhairav Putras

Author : Suhail Mathur

Published by : Red Ink Publishers

Genre: Fiction/Novel

Pages: 343

Price: INR 245

ISBN: 9788192932491

On the Jacket: The Bhairav Putras, set on backdrop of Pre-independence era where India was fighting for its independence from British Raj, is a story of group of brave men, who chose to challenge the powerful British and uproot them of their very existence, from their town of Bhairavgarh. The story narrates the valiant effort of these brave men, their challenges, their sacrifices and most importantly how they stood for each other when it mattered. But don't mistake this for just another story of Indian freedom movement, the story comes with elements of mythology and with grand twist. We often have heard the idiom Fortune favours the brave, but one has to read the book to find out who favors the brave.

Review:

The cover-page is beautifully designed and had elements which generated enough interest in me to pick up the book and frankly speaking, it was a good decision.

Plot: The book in terms of plot is a refreshing change from the rom-coms that have flooded in the Indian market in the name of new age writing and contemporary story telling. The plot weaves a unique tale of freedom fight, garbed under a thriller, with larger than life twists. Only draw-back are the co-incidences that happen too often and too easy.

Characters: The characters are uniformly written and the graph of the main protagonist grows with the story. Among all the characters, character of Bira and Keshav stands out. It is very interesting how the writers have connected the characters of the story with the freedom fighters of the real freedom movement. Also the fact that the character comes from different sects of life – from a Zamindar to a priest’s son to a washer man to unite for a common cause specially at a time when division of society was highly prevalent – is a nice underlying message from the author.

The characters successfully evoke passion in the mind of readers. One however wished a little more flesh in the character of Gita, who plays love interest of Bira and also supports in the revolution. One should watch out for the big twist in the end and beautiful inter-linking of some of the characters with mythology.

Narration: The writer has chosen a simple lucid style to narrate the story, that is easy on eyes and to read. The cleverly used one-liners add a solid punch to the narration. The writer effort to detailing specially the nature or the combats between the revolutionary and British are laudable and stand out in the book. In some of the sequences however writing looks inconsistent and there is a continuity problem. The clever twist and turns in the story keeps the reader hooked and the author keeps his best for the grand climax. Few of the scenes specially one which elements of mythology, are highly creative and works wonders for the book.

The book could have been edited better in few portions. But keeping aside, this minor glitches, The Bhairav Putras, is truly an excellent effort by first time author Suhail Mathur, who has achieved two significant elements through this book : a) A novel concept b) Good Characterization and masterful amalgamation of history and mythology in one platter. If you are bored the run of mill stuff, this book is likely to give you that much needed break. Recommended!!!

Disclaimer: Incidentally this is my first review of any book too J