Ek Villain Do Sau Problem!

Ek Villain’s stupendous box office success – Rs 77 crore in 8 days, all set to surpass Holiday

Ek Villain’s stupendous box office success – Rs 77 crore in 8 days, all set to surpass Holiday – has puzzled me on how a movie with all the wrong messages can work so well with the Indian audience. It shouldn’t have. This is a nation where Heropanti, Humshakals garner Rs 50+ crore each while Citylights & Filmistaan combined couldn’t make 14 crore.

On the face of it, EV is a half-baked masala movie where very few things work… and even they come with a rider.

– All the songs are good barring the unnecessary item number.
– Siddharth Malhotra looks cute without ever scaring (which was  expected of his character).
– Shraddha Kapoor makes an honest attempt to establish herself without succeeding much
– The audience neither feels for her illness, nor enjoys her chirpiness.
– Kamaal Rashid Khan easily towers above the ordinary cast and impresses as a MCP with North Indian roots.

Its KRKs dialogues which linger in the mind longer. Specially, when he justifies that a middle class man sandwiched and frustrated with daily hassles, ‘must beat’ his wife daily, to reduce stress, if not by visiting a red light area, that night.

If that message wasn’t bad enough, the ‘villain’ goes around murdering women who shout at his incompetence. He kills only women, not men! Why? Because he will then steal the victim’s jewellery and bring it home to his ever nagging wife. The woman in question is portrayed as greedy to the extent that she will only serve her useless husband for the day, if and only if, he gets money or jewellery home!

Even India’s multiplex audience is likely to interpret the husband’s violent instinct as a justified output of his woman’s dominance and greediness. It’s the worst kind of message to be sent to a society where 92 women are reported raped everyday.

Yet, distributors are happy that crowds are flocking and cash registers are ringing… If Humshakals isn’t driving our fascination for crassness higher, then Ek Villain is boosting the patriarchal ways of society further.

No complaints towards the makers, who felt the audience pulse best and got everything right. They first sprinkled a few good looking stars, enough to draw audiences. Then managed a PG-13 certification for a movie which thrives on needless murders with a screwdriver. Lastly they impressed critics enough to get decent ratings and praise the Deshmukh kin’s acting abilities wholeheartedly. Riteish’s wooden face act neither scared nor impressed.

Often I have heard people say that 80’s was the worst era of our cinema. I disagree. The manufacturers gave what the consumer demanded. And even today, the consumer hasn’t matured much despite the progressive environment. Worse, now that, we have a higher weighted average for multiplex audience (as tickets cost higher), it’s further proven that even the higher echelons of the society haven’t yet got out of the stone age.

The movie had Ek Villain, it may have just encouraged do sau more!

Avijit Das Patnaik is Administrator of Moviemaniacs Facebook Group. The opinions shared by the reviewers are their personal opinions and does not reflect the collective opinion of Moviemaniacs Facebook Group or Learning and Creativity emagazine.

Ek Villain Theatrical Trailer | Siddharth Malhotra, Shraddha Kapoor

Ek Villain Do Sau Problem! By Avijit Das Patnaik #EkVillain #Movies http://t.co/1olU7mBI6D

— Learning&Creativity (@LearnNCreate) July 7, 2014

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Avijit Das Patnaik ( 22 Posts)

Avijit Das Patnaik is a banker by profession, network marketeer by choice, frequent traveller by rule, mad about sports by religion, socially active, foodie, stand up comedian (even while sitting) and Moviemaniac by diet.
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