Ek Villain (2014)

One of my biggest pet peeves about present day Bollywood is how it's always trying to be something else, especially by imitating Hollywood. It gets tiring and boring and everything that makes Hindi cinema special is lost in this needless charade. That's why I found Ek Villain both refreshing and engrossing- it never pretended to be more than what it was, aka a good old Bollywood thriller that was also a strong romantic drama. Sometimes you just gotta watch a lover avenge his beloved's death by all means necessary, and you know what? Ain't nothing wrong with that.

I particularly enjoyed Riteish Deshmukh's performance as the psychotic murderer. I was not expecting him to be so good, and I guess the moral of the story is that Riteish and Genelia should avoid movies with each other at all costs. I am also glad that the movie didn't throw in random psychological/psychiatric jargon to give his back story more "legitimacy". He was Bollywood crazy, and that's okay. Don't mess with what you don't know. 

Another surprise package for me was ma boi, ma bro, ma alter ego Sidharth Malhotra. He really gave it his all, and his performance was honestly the reason why I was as invested in this movie as I was. Shraddha annoyed me quite a bit in the beginning (mostly the fault of how her character was written, I suppose), but she did grow on me in the second half. I also felt like Sid and Shrads didn't have the kind of chemistry such a movie required, but both of them were individually excellent (especially Sid) so it's alright I guess. The Ritesh "romantic" track though- what an insane mess that was. Chef's kiss to everyone involved for executing it so well, especially Aamna Sharif who played his wife, Sulochana (I just saw that Aamna ji also played Komolika in the new Kasauti Zindagi Ki and yes, the math is mathing). 

In conclusion, finally some good fucking food. More of this, please @ Bollywood. 

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