Ek Villain Returns stars John Abraham as Bhairav, Arjun Kapoor as Gautam, Disha Patani as Rasika and Tara Sutaria as Aarvi. Directed by Mohit Suri, the story is penned by him and Aseem Arora. Aseem has also written the dialogues for the crime thriller movie. The background score is by Raju Singh, and the music is by Ankit Tiwari, Tanishk Bagchi and Kaushik-Guddu.
Produced by T-Series and Balaji Motion Pictures, the runtime is 128 minutes. It’s the second movie of Suri’s Villain franchise after Riteish Deshmukh, Shraddha Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra’s Ek Villain (2014).
Ek Villain Returns Review Contains Mild Spoilers
Ek Villain Returns: Plot Summary
Gautam (Arjun Kapoor) is a rich, spoilt brat who feels good about himself by humiliating others. He doesn’t like to lose and would do anything to “win”. Gautam meets Aarvi, an aspiring singer, and she falls in love with him. He also pretends to be in love only to reveal her big secret to the entire world. Months later, Aarvi goes missing and is considered to be dead.
Just like Aarvi, many girls have gone missing/murdered. The serial, aka smiley killer, is said to be killing these girls. The victims are girls who reject the romantic proposals of men. There’s also Bhairav (John Abraham) and Rasika (Disha Patani), who have a good time together. Somehow, Bhairav and Gautam’s worlds clash, and we have to figure out who’s the villain and the hero.
Ek Villain Returns: Discussion and Performances
The opening credits of Ek Villain Returns are uneasy to watch. By uneasy, I don’t mean they’re scary. The sequence is presented as if it’s a horror movie scene, and things happen too fast. We then meet Gautam, a man who gets high by being a d!ck to people around him. The rich, spoilt brat has no mission in life but to only win. However, his formula to win is by destroying other people’s life.
Gautam betrays and ruins Aarvi’s life by exposing her big secret to the world. He keeps saying, ‘Marna chalega par harna nahi’. The dialogue is repeated so much in the movie that one can play ‘take a shot every time he says…’. At least one will get drunk due to the shots and will have the capacity to tolerate the movie.
Anyway, after Aarvi goes missing, Gautam realises he’s in love with her. But he is also the main suspect in her kidnapping or murder. On the other side, Bhairav falls in love with Rasika. He’s a hard-working cab driver who also works at the zoo. Many random things happen, and Gautam and Bhairav have a long fight inside an empty Mumbai metro at night.
They keep calling each other the hero and villain of each other’s story. All of this happens to help us know the real villain in Ek Villain Returns. However, the first half is exhausting and confusing to watch. Gautam-Arvi and Bhairav-Rasika’s stories are shown one after the other, and it’s hard to take them seriously. The age difference between John and Disha is so evident that watching their romantic scenes feels awkward.
In the second half, we learn the killer’s identity and the person kills lot of girls because they reject or leave the men who are in love with them. At one point, I thought I was watching Netflix’s You but only with a lot of bad acting. I’m sad that I compared such a brilliant show to something weird.
After some point in the second half, the plot keeps getting unbearable and ridiculous. Mohit Suri is known for adding multiple twists in the end to shock the viewers. He does the same here too. However, one is so drained due to the random killings and boring characters, you lose interest in knowing the motive. The twists fail to add any shock value.
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Aseem Arora has penned the dialogues for Ek Villain Returns. However, the characters often talk in rhyme (WHY Though?). Even when they express their emotions to each other, the scenes appear ludicrous. It is a result of bad acting, bad execution and bad dialogues.
2014 movie Ek Villain received immense love for its soul-stirring music. However, in the 2022 movie, the music also fails to grab any interest. . Mohit ruined the emotionally stirring Galliyaan song by picturising it on John and Disha. I wish I could unsee that.
Coming to performances, John Abraham with his singular expression and Disha Patani with her no-expression face add more absurdity to the movie. Disha tries to say some words in Marathi and is horrible at it. If you want to give a character a catchphrase in Marathi, cast a Marathi actor! We have enough talent in this country. It seems like Tara Sutaria has been playing the same character since she debuted as an actor. Arjun Kapoor’s character is very unlikeable, but he was the only one who acted better than everyone else.
Ek Villain Returns Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, Ek Villain Returns is a serial killer movie that will give you migraine and make you pop pain killers. The story and the characters fail to generate any empathy or fear. The emotional scenes are acted badly by almost everyone. Hence, they come across funny. The twists are not startling. There’s an end-credit scene, and it’s the only best part of Mohit’s movie.
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