Name: Ek Villain Returns
Director: Mohit Suri
Cast: John Abraham, Disha Patani, Arjun Kapoor, Tara Sutaria
Release: Theatres
Rating: 2 / 5
It’s easier to keep the audience interested when you start with a bang, and director Mohit Suri’s Ek Villain Returns’ opening sequence immediately pulls you into his world where villains thrive and heroes don’t exist. However, it fails to attain consistency in the ‘staying interested’ aspect. Disha Patani, John Abraham, Tara Sutaria and Arjun Kapoor starrer revolves around an investigation looking into the murder of those women, who have been killed for being in unrequited love stories. All is well until now. However, the real problem begins when you start seeking more than just that from this crime-thriller, and that is exactly where the film suffers.
Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t have much to offer in terms of thrills and chills that one would expect from a project like this. Ek Villain Returns is expected to be on the edge of the seat experience, but this one doesn’t give you that escapade. The filmmaker takes almost the entire first half to establish the characters, the back stories, and their contrast, resulting in expectations for the second half to speed up. However, the latter part of the film lacks pace and high points too. Story and screenplay writers Mohit Suri and Aseem Arora should have focused on that while working on the script.
In terms of performances, Arjun Kapoor shines in his spoilt-brat-of-a-rich dad character, while Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria live up to their parts too. However, John Abraham could have done much more with his layered character. JD Chakravarthy’s role has an interesting growth, but Shaad Randhawa’s character as a cop seemed confused and remained like that consistently throughout. Ek Villain Returns has an exciting cameo, which for me was the only highlight of the film.
On the face of it, Ek Villain Returns was a promising entertainer, but it is the overall story that proves to be a bummer. The film deserves a star-and-a-half, but I would add another half to it for Arjun’s performance.