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Ek Villain Returns
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Wikipedia article
'Ek Villain Returns' is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by Mohit Suri, being a spiritual successor to his 2014 film 'Ek Villain', and produced by T-Series and Balaji Motion Pictures. It stars John Abraham, Arjun Kapoor, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria.
The film was released theatrically on 29 July 2022 and opened to mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
A masked intruder barges into an apartment complex, where he attacks and kills a singer named Aarvi Malhotra. The cops, headed by ex-CBI officer and DCP Aditya Rathore, deduce that the attack was orchested by Gautham Mehra, who is the son of a businessman named Divesh Mehra, and arrest him.
'Flashback': Gautam Mehra is a spoilt brat, who is berated by his father, Divesh, for having created a commotion at his ex-girlfriend's wedding. The commotion video has been made into a rap song by singer Aarvi. Gautam plans vengeance against Aarvi. Pretending to be in love with her, he helps her scare away her rival Qiran. Aarvi falls for Gautam and reveals her birth secret, that her father Balkrishnan Shastri, a popular singer, had an extramartial affair with her mother, but never accepted either of them. Her main goal is to make her father accept her as his daughter by becoming a famous singer. Gautam leaks Aarvi's childhood photos and Shastri publicly rejects his daughter. Aarvi is heartbroken. Three months after the breakup, when Gautam gets attacked by his ex-girlfriend's husband, and Aarvi takes care of him, he realizes his love for her. He pleads with her to give him a second chance, but Aarvi leaves him, albeit with a heavy heart.
'Present': Gautam escapes from the cops. ACP V. K. Ganesan surmises that Gautam hasn't killed Aarvi. The cops interrogate Bhairav Purohit, whom Aarvi had called from her phone, the day she was murdered, but he denies committing the crime and there is no evidence either. Ganesan determines a pattern, that the killer only targets young girls with one-sided lovers, after discovering that 18 girls have been murdered with similar modus operandi in the past 6 months. The ensuing circumstances Ganesan determine that Gautam is not the serial killer.
'Flashback': Bhairav is a cab-driver who also works part-time as a zookeeper along with his friend Keshav. He meets Rasika, a retail salesgirl at a mall, falls deeply in love with her and harbours plans of marriage. One day, Rasika injures a group of rogues that were eve-teasing her, which reveals her dark side to Bhairav. The day Bhairav decides to propose to Rasika, he witnesses her getting intimate with Atul,her manager, a married man, and he is heartbroken. Rasika subsequently instigates him to kill girls who dont reciprocates the feelings of their respective boyfriends. Bhairav is mentally tormented and starts murdering dozens of girls. One day when Aarvi is travelling in his cab, Bhairav misunderstands that she has dumped Gautam, and attacks her.
'Present': Gautam learns about Bhairav's zoo address and leaves to confront him. Ganesan is killed by Bhairav. It is revealed that Aarvi is in fact alive. She tries to escape the zoo where she had been kept by Bhairav but he catches her and locks her in an underground cage. Just as Gautam and Bhairav are about to fight, the police comes and detains Bhairav. They investigate Keshav's (Bhairav's friend at the zoo) kid who tells the police that his father is the killer. The police also investigate the crime scene where they find a girl's dead body inside the freezer, but it is not Aarvi. Outside the station, Gautam sees Bhairav and Rasika hugging. They both go to Aarvi's cage and think that she is unconscious. But she isn't and stabs Bhairav with a glass shard that she found there. Rasika starts to laugh while Bhairav attacks Aarvi. Gautam comes to save Aarvi and a fight ensues between the guys. Bhairav hits Gautam and he falls to the ground. Bhairav asks Rasika for a 5-star rating. Gautam starts to laugh and asks who is Rasika and where she is. He tells Bhairav that she is gone and that he was hallucinating her. Bhairav then reminisces that Rasika told him that Atul was planning to ditch his family for her and that he had in fact inadvertently killed Rasika by cracking her back, while hugging her and begging her not to leave him. The body that the police has found in the freezer was Rasikas, who Bhairav had kept for his own happiness. He drops to the ground in dismay while Gautam and Aarvi reconcile. Realizing his mistake, Bhairav walks inside the cage of the tiger only to meet the same fate of his victims. Aarvi can be seen singing at her concert with the support of her fans and Gautam.
In the post-credit scene, at a mental hospital we see Rakesh Mahadkar from the prequel, who has survived the accident and became paraplegic, meet Bhairav, who has lost an eye due to the tiger attack. Rakesh goes in Bhairav's room and unplugs Bhairav's medication and machines and recites his promise from the prequel and Bhairav wakes up just before the screen blacks out.
Cast
* John Abraham as Bhairav Singh Purohit
* Arjun Kapoor as Gautam Mehra
* Disha Patani as Rasika Mapuskar
* Tara Sutaria as Aarvi Malhotra
* J. D. Chakravarthy as ACP V. K. Ganesan
* Karishma Sharma as Siya, Gautam's ex-girlfriend
* Kaizaad Kotwal as Siya's Father
* Elena Roxana Maria Fernandes as Qiran
* Shaad Randhawa as ex-CBI officer DCP Aditya Rathore
* Bharat Dabholkar as Divesh Mehra, Gautam's father
* Ivan Rodrigues as Thapar
* Digvijay Rohildas as Keshav Rane, Bhairav's friend
* Neha Shitole as Chetna
* Satish Nakyodi as Satish
* Riteish Deshmukh in archived footage appearance and a mid-credits cameo appearance as Rakesh Mahadkar
* Badshah as himself in a cameo appearance in the song "Shaamat"
Production
Casting
Aditya Roy Kapur was originally signed for the role portrayed by Arjun Kapoor, but later backed out due to creative differences with director Mohit Suri. Then, Kartik Aaryan was approached but he could not accept the offer due to date clashes with his Dhamaka.Filming
Principal photography began on 1 March 2021. Abraham finished shooting in October 2021. The entire film was wrapped up on 24 March 2022.Music
The songs are composed by Ankit Tiwari, Tanishk Bagchi, and Kaushik-Guddu. The lyrics are written by Manoj Muntashir, Kunaal Vermaa, Tanishk Bagchi and Prince Dubey. The film score is composed by Raju Singh.
The song "Galliyan Returns" was recreated from the track 'Galliyan' for the 2014 film 'Ek Villain' which was sung by Ankit Tiwari and written by Manoj Muntashir. The second single named "Dil" was released on 8 July 2022. The third single titled "Shaamat" was released on 16 July 2022 with Tara Sutaria making her singing debut. The fourth single titled "Naa Tere Bin" was released on 22 July 2022.
Reception
Box office
'Ek Villain Returns' earned 7.05 crores at the domestic box office on its opening day. On the second day, the film collected 7.47 crore. On the third day, the film collected 9.02 crore, taking a total domestic weekend collection to 23.54 crore., the film grossed in India and overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of .
Critical response
'Ek Villain Returns' received mixed reviews from critics.A critic for 'Bollywood Hungama' rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "'EK VILLAIN RETURNS' is the epitome of supreme music, amazing visuals and thrilling moments". Shweta Keshri of 'India Today' rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "The gripping plot of 'Ek Villain Returns' is the winner with an engaging storyline. Mohit Suri, who did a good job with the first film of the Ek Villain franchise, brings a masala entertainer with massy dialogues, thrilling moments and good performances in the sequel". Rohit Bhatnagar of 'The Free Press Journal' rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Ek Villain Returns has surely returned but not with the vibe of the earlier one. Enjoy this film to experience a stylish thriller that copes well with the mass appeal". Rachana Dubey of 'The Times of India' rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "'Ek Villain Returns' dishes out plenty of twists and turns but doesn't make you emotionally cheer for any of the characters or the story, though you wish the situation was different". Nandini Ramnath of 'Scroll.in' rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Heads are bludgeoned and the blood flows throughout 'Ek Villain Returns', but there's nothing more frightening than the valourisation of misogyny". Avinash Lohana of 'Pinkvilla' rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "'Ek Villain Returns' was a promising entertainer, but it is the overall story that proves to be a bummer".
Sonil Dedhia of 'News 18' rated the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "'Ek Villain Returns' kicks in only after the interval, and then it becomes the film it should have been from the get-go. The first half is a waste, even if it tries hard to get the audience invested into the characters who say dialogues which are straight out of '80s Bollywood". Shubhra Gupta of 'The Indian Express' rated the film 1 out of 5 stars and wrote "Disha Patani, Tara Sutaria, Arjun Kapoor, John Abraham-starrer has a disjointed plot and pedestrian performances, which makes 'Ek Villain' look like a better film". Saibal Chatterjee of 'NDTV' rated the film 1 out of 5 stars and wrote "Arjun Kapoor and John Abraham outdo each other in matching the vacuity of the film. As for Tara Sutaria and Disha Patani, the less said the better". Anna M.M. Vetticad of 'Firstpost' rated the film 0.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "John Abraham barely alters his expression throughout 'Ek Villain Returns'. His co-stars do the best they can in what can only be described as dismal circumstances". Sukanya Vema of 'Rediff' rated the film 0.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "'Ek Villain Returns' falls back on the popularity of the Galliyan track to boost its appeal".
Release
Theatrical
The film was released in theatres worldwide on 29 July 2022.Home media
The digital streaming rights of the film was sold to Netflix. The film started streaming digitally on Netflix from 9 September 2022.References
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