Ek Villain Returns

There used to be a time when Mohit Suri’s films were sweet, cheesy, and romantic. Even though I was never a big fan of those films, they were rarely unwatchable, and movies like Awarapan and Aashiqui 2 were pretty much those guilty pleasure casual watch films. Off late, all of Suri’s characters and stories are pretty loud, and Ek Villain Returns, is perhaps his dumbest film. With a desperate attempt to convolute the screenplay to look cool, Ek Villain Returns is so bad that psychopaths will find it offensive.

Gautam Mehra, a spoiled brat of a millionaire in Mumbai, is living this reckless life. His main entertainment is ruining the life or career of his female acquaintances. One such relationship he had was with Aarvi Malhotra, an aspiring singer who was a social media star. As always, this fling also ended when Gautam messed it up, and soon after, Aarvi’s apartment was attacked by a person who wore the mask Gautam used to wear. The movie shows us what happened with Aarvi going missing and Gautam getting framed as the killer.

The sheer laziness in this movie’s writing annoys you the most. The introduction scenes of both the heroes (or villains) are just bizarre. One is supposed to establish the character’s arrogant attitude, and the other is trying to depict the character’s naivety. And in the presentation of both the characters, I think Mohit Suri has taken guidance from Milap Zaveri. The film’s writers clearly have an issue with the word consent, and how they have made an antagonist by creating an unrealistic lover character just shows their peripheral gaze towards human emotions.

Mohit Suri has no interest in developing his characters. He is in a hurry to take the movie to mediocrity. The things Gautham does for Aarvi are presented as some kind of cool show of talent; frankly, it’s a sequence that will make you facepalm. The melodrama in the John Abraham track is also unbearable. By around the interval slot, Mohit Suri is trying to pack the movie as some sort of action entertainer, and the imagination is pathetic. It’s almost like they read the script to someone with a brain, and when that person questioned the logic of that, they tweaked it with an even dumber idea. So many green screen visual effects shots are there, and the quality is trashy. Because the visuals make no sense in terms of content, it was difficult to judge the quality of the songs, which sounded pretty much like the Siddharth Malhotra starrer.

The acting department of the movie has everyone competing for the golden raspberry. With that evil smile, Arjun Kapoor is a perfect fit for this terribly written character. John Abraham’s attempt to play this easily manipulatable hunk offers unintentional comedy. Tara Sutaria acts as if she came for the shooting right after wrapping Tadap. Besides showing off her enviable physique, Disha Patani tried to act in this movie, and the audience had to pay the price for that. JD Chakravarthy plays the most intelligent police officer in this version of Mumbai Police.

If abusing your brain is a way of entertainment, according to you, then Ek Villain Returns is the perfect package. It is a fiesta of bad acting, sloppy making, and terrible writing. If Ankit Tiwari’s sad songs were meant for the characters in the 2014 film, in 2022, it feels more like he is singing for the audience who are in deep pain. There is a mid-credit scene for this movie that was scarier than the whole film.