Ek Villain

<p>A young woman, Aisha Verma, tries to leave a message for her husband, Guru Divekar, when a masked man who has entered her house kills her by . At her funeral, officer Aditya Rathore points out that it is vital to track down the murderer or else Guru will go on a killing spree. : Guru was a ruthless working for mob boss Caesar, who raised and trained him to murder the goons who killed his parents. When Guru is arrested for killing Debu, Debu’s mother refuses to testify against him and warns him that one day God will make him pay for his crimes by making him lose his loved one. Guru soon falls in love with Aisha, an optimistic girl dying from a terminal illness, and they get married. Guru gives up his old life and gets a job while Aisha receives treatment in Mumbai and recovers. She discovers she is pregnant and decides to tell Guru in person when he returns from his interview, but is murdered before she could. : Rakesh Mahadkar is an unsuccessful man who is constantly insulted and ridiculed by his wife, Sulochana “Sulu” Mahadkar, for his shortcomings. While he dearly loves his wife, he vents his frustration by murdering other women who speak rudely to him, and Aisha turns out to be one of them. Guru hunts down Rakesh and brutally beats him up, then admits him to a hospital and pays for the expenses, intending to punish him by repeatedly bringing him to the brink of death, saving him, and doing it all over again. At the hospital, when Guru learns that Aisha was pregnant, he is devastated. While assaulting a nurse, Rakesh is again interrupted by Guru. Rakesh realizes that Guru is Aisha’s husband and is seeking vengeance. Upon the suggestion of his friend Brijesh, he taunts Guru over the phone and then kills Aisha’s father. Rakesh expects Guru to kill him so that he can die as a hero in the eyes of Sulochana and everyone else, while Guru will be tarnished. However, Caesar calls Guru and says that he has killed Sulochana to avenge Aisha for Guru and left Rakesh’s little son Manish for Guru to kill. An enraged Rakesh stabs Guru with a and takes up a boulder to kill him, but is hit by a car and dies from his injuries. Guru adopts Manish and completes the wishes on Aisha’s . Ekta Kapoor signed Mohit Suri to direct a romantic thriller. has been reported to be a remake of the film , though Suri, the director, has refuted the claim. Suri has stated that every character in the film comes with grey shades. The (CBFC) cleared the film with a U/A certificate after a total of eight cuts designed to tone down the action sequences and mute a particular word. , representative of stated the cuts were less than a minute of screen time. The movie’s official teaser which was released on 4 April 2014 with the film , got 1 million views on within three days of release. The official trailer of 2 minutes 18 secs was launched later and was well received by critics, as well as garnered praise from around the industry, including , , among others. , , , and the film’s music directors attended a musical event in to promote the soundtrack of the film. Further, Malhotra and Kapoor promoted the movie at the IPL semi-finals as well as on reality shows like . Promotion campaigns were also organized across the country in cities like , and . As a part of the promotional strategy, a television show based on villains was hosted by Malhotra. The songs are composed by , and the band Soch. The lyrics are written by , and members of Soch. The album consists of six songs with Tiwari composing ” “, Mithoon composing “Zaroorat”, “Humdard,” and “Banjaara” while the remaining track “Awari” is composed by Soch. The was composed by . was released theatrically on 27 June 2014, in 2539 screens in the domestic market. received positive reviews from critics with praise for the performances of Deshmukh in particular. Taran Adarsh of awarded the movie 4/5 stars and wrote that, “On the whole, is a stylish, spellbinding and terrifying edge-of-the-seat thriller. It’s a step forward in this genre, without a doubt. A sure-shot winner!” Raedita Tandon from gave the film 4/5 stars and stated that, “Though indulgent in parts, packs in a punch. Copy of a Korean film or not, it’s ‘good’ paisa vasool entertainment.” Meena Iyer of gave the film 3 stars in a scale of 5, stating that “You cannot fault the scale of or berate its lead star cast. But you wish you could celebrate this thriller like you did Suri’s last movie outing . This one lacks soul.” Aparna Mudi of gave the film a rating of 2.5/5 stars, concluding her review that “The unveiling of the visceral saga has a lot of strong characters and Mohit has done a good job in adapting a foreign film and complementing it with the drama that the Indian audience is used to. But he has gone a tad over in making a thriller. Maybe, filmmakers should step out of this trap more often and we wouldn`t be too far from making beacons of world cinema.” Rajeev Masand of stated that “I’m going with two-and-a-half out of five for ‘Ek Villain’. If you’re still wondering, the real villain here is the lousy script”. Shubhra Gupta of gave the film 2 stars, commenting that “Suri is an innate storyteller, and can keep things moving. All he needs is a strong, all-the-way credible, original plot.” Saibal Chatterjee of rated the film 2/5 and wrote that “As a whole, this film, besides its surface flair, does not have too much to fall back upon. Watch it only if that is good enough for you.” Raja Sen of gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5, stating that “Given free tickets, sure, you could escape in theatres this weekend with this mediocre effort, but I say do yourself a favour and seek out the Korean DVD. (Uncover it, even.) Now that’s bloody special.” had what Box Office India called “very good” opening, with occupancies at around 55–60%. The film earned around (US$2.0 million) in its first day and around (US$6.0 million) in its first weekend, collecting around (US$2.0 million) and (US$2.1 million) in its second and third days respectively. The film collected around (US$960,000) in its fourth day and around (US$800,000) in its fifth day. The film collected (US$12 million) in two weeks and around (US$12 million) in three weeks. reported that it will earn around (US$13 million) in India alone. The film earned a distributor share of around (US$6.0 million) (Share). collected (US$1.6 million) outside India in its first weekend. A , , which was later renamed as , was officially announced on 30 January 2020. The film shows a face-off between two villains played by & while & play female leads, and was released on 29 July 2022. The song “Galliyan” was recreated for the film titled “Galliyan Returns” sung and composed by Tiwari and written by Muntashir. and reprise their roles as ACP Aditya Rathore and Rakesh Mahadkar from the first film, respectively; with Deshmukh appearing in archived footage and later physically as a cameo in the mid-credits scene, revealing that he survived his fate from the first film.</p>