Editor’s Note: This year, as a part of MCSM’s new freshman writing curriculum, students in Mr. Powell’s and Ms. Cooper’s 8th period English class were asked to experiment with writing formal movie reviews, just like those you might read in any daily newspaper. Students chose to watch and analyze many different types of film, from the new *Annie,* to the most recent Transformers epic. But one of the most surprising reviews was a detailed critique of the classic and strange Bollywood thriller *Ek Villain.* It’s young author, Saiful Islam, has given the RamPage permission to publish his review for your enjoyment. If you have never seen this film, beware of the “spoiler” warnings below!!!
By Saiful Islam
The movie Ek Villain is a movie you have to see. The complicated plot centers around a murder committed by an unknown man in a hood. This man murders a young woman named Aisha Verma with a screwdriver and throws her out a window after breaking into her house. At her funeral, a CBI officer, Aditya Rathore, points out to the police that it is vital to track down the murderer, or else Guru, Aisha’s husband, might go on a killing spree. Then he deliberately misguides Guru by blaming Guru’s former boss, the gangster Caesar, for killing Aisha. In a flashback, it is revealed that Guru used to work as a hitman for Caesar, and that two years ago Guru had viciously killed a young man in a fit of anger, right in front of the young man’s mother and younger brother.
Then Guru meets Aisha, a free-spirited girl in love with life, who requests him to help her reunite two aged lovers. They soon become friends and Aisha reveals to him that she is suffering from a terminal illness, then tells him about her “bucket list.” Guru helps her fulfill most of those wishes, but her health weakens. Falling in love with her, Guru marries Aisha . He tries every means to save her. She receives treatment in Mumbai and remarkably recovers. A few days later she discovers she is pregnant, but keeps the fact hidden from Guru. In another flashback story that becomes part of the plot, Rakesh Mahadkar appears as an unsuccessful man who is constantly nagged and humiliated by his wife Sulochana for being useless and poor. He gets out of his frustration by murdering women who speak rudely to him, and Aisha turns out to be one of them.
Back in the present, Guru tries to track down Aisha’s killer. After finding out that Caesar was not behind the murder, he finally tracks down Rakesh, while Rakesh is assaulting another victim. Guru beats him brutally but later takes him to a hospital and pays the expenses, intending to return. While at the hospital, Guru finds out that Aisha was pregnant, which makes him even more angry.
While assaulting a nurse who had earlier spoken rudely to him, Rakesh again encounters Guru, who almost kills him this time. But instead Guru revives Rakesh with an adrenaline shot before setting him free. Meanwhile the police discover the truth about Rakesh and take his wife in for questioning. Rakesh goes to his friend Brijesh Yadav, who suggests that Guru must be the husband of one of his victims and must be taking revenge. Rakesh then realizes that Guru is Aisha’s husband, remembering that Aisha had begged him not to kill her by saying that she is pregnant.
Rakesh, who now knows Guru’s identity, teases him over the phone before killing Aisha’s father, and then surrenders himself to Guru. Rakesh now expects Guru to kill him so that he can become a “hero” in the eyes of his wife and everyone else, while Guru would look like the “villain.” However, Caesar calls Guru just at that moment and says that he has killed Rakesh’s wife, then asks Guru to finish off Rakesh”s son. Enraged, Rakesh injures Guru and is about to kill him when he is run over by a car and dies on the spot. WARNING: Do not read the next sentence unless you want the ending to get spoiled! Guru then decides to adopt Rakesh’s son instead of killing him, and slowly completes the remaining wishes on Aisha’s bucket list.
Although the movie Ek Villain has an official rating of 2.5 stars, I believe the makers of the movie did a great job. The only possible thing I can think of that they could have done better was to improve the actors’ performances, especially the expressions on the actor’s faces. The actors didn’t express much of each character’s feelings in the movie. Without expressive acting, viewers won’t understand how depressed a character is or how horrifying something is supposed to be as the film plays out. For example, how would you feel if one evening you walked into your home and found it ransacked and your loved one brutally assaulted? Your heart would be ransacked, right? Well the same situation happened in the first ten minutes of this film, but didn’t appear to shock the onscreen characters as much as we would think it really should have. So, better acting could have made certain scenes more believable.
My favorite scene came at the end of Ek Villain. WARNING: If you do not want the ending to get spoiled then do not read this paragraph! What made the ending my favorite part was that although Rakesh murdered Guru’s wife, Guru still spared Rakesh’s son because of something Aisha had said. Aisha told Guru “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Before murdering Rakesh’s son, Guru remembered what Aisha had said to him and spared Rakesh’s son. Guru thought that Rakesh’s son seemed just like Guru had been when he was younger, hiding under the table like Rakesh’s son did while witnessing his parent’s death. He wanted to take Rakesh’s son out of darkness and bring him into the light by adopting him and raising him the way Guru wished he had been raised. That’s why this moment stands out as my favorite scene in the whole movie.
On the other hand, I think the worst scene in Ek Villain is when Guru is shown viciously killing a man in a fit of anger. It was the worst scene of the movie because he killed a man who didn’t do anything wrong. Another reason I think this was the worst scene is because I feel that Guru lost Aisha because of killing this guy. Since Guru killed someone else’s loved one for no exceptional reason, he lost his loved one too. I feel that if Guru hadn’t killed this guy, Aisha wouldn’t have been murdered either. This is why I chose this scene as the worst part of the film. Nevertheless, I sincerely recommend this movie for anyone who loves romantic and heart-touching stories. Parents, however, should be warned that this movie has a lot of shocking and horrifying parts which will most likely frighten young kids. Ek Villain will appeal to both boys and girls, but would most likely appeal more to boys because the main story is about a man who lost his loved one. Ek Villain could also be watched during a date because the film is very romantic. Overall, I would rate this movie a 4.5.