'Ek' was best left alone in the 1990s

Ek – The Power Of One
Director: Sangeeth Sivan
Cast: Bobby Deol, Nana Patekar, Sriya Saran
Rating: *

The makers of Ek – The Power Of One are stuck in a time warp. Although a remake of Telegu film Athadu, which released in 2005, Ek is at least 10 years too late. Don’t we all remember those 90s masala flicks, most starring hero Bobby Deol’s elder brother Sunny paaji, where there’s a sister who needs to get married off, a grandfather waiting for his offspring to return, the criminal-turned-do-gooder looking for salvation and action galore.

Cliched plot lines, twists-and-turns, loud and cheap characters, evil politicians, situation less songs and expected endings were part of the package – a package director Sangeeth Sivan represents here with slick editing and South Indian-style action. All the film does in the end is make you guffaw, and not intentionally.

Nandu (Bobby) is a hit-man trained by Jackie Shroff (if you ain’t getting better roles, don’t do these at least). Along with an accomplice, Nandu carries out marksman jobs in cold-blooded fashion. To make the character look stylish or sinister or god-knows-what, you have Nandu playing a game of golf in an under-construction building, just before he takes aim at politician Mhatre (Sachin Khedekar).

If you’ve ever heard of a term called convenient screenplay, you’ll get to see it here in full glory. The game of golf had to be there in the script. How else would CBI Inspector Rane (Nana Patekar) track down Nandu, if not with the help of fingerprints left by him on the golf sticks?

Mhatre, by the way, has planned the assassination attempt himself. Only, Nandu is not supposed to kill him, but only injure him. Why? Because with his dwindling popularity, Mhatre feels that an assassination attempt is just what he needs to win the CM’s kursi.

“The sympathy wave that will sweep the state after the assassination attempt on me is what will make me the CM,” says Mhatre smugly and the secretary only smiles back. The scene brings the house down.

When the plan goes awry and Mhatre actually gets shot in the middle of his head and drops dead, you feel no remorse for Mhatre. The dufus deserved it!

Nandu hasn’t done it though. He has taken aim at Mhatre yes – after the game of golf – but Mhatre is shot at by an unknown assailant. But Nandu is framed, is on the run, and lands up in the house of a Punjab ham-house (everyone screams and overacts so much, you wanna scream). From here the film gets as painful as it is predictable: a romantic track with a village belle, a fight with the zamindar’s henchmen and wedding ceremonies making it the perfect setting for yawn-inducing songs.

And then you have Inspector Rane himself. Just when you though Nana Patekar couldn’t get more vulgar with his roles, Ek will surprise you with the sexual innuendos uttered by Nana in the role of a cop with a wandering eye. And guess what – he gets the women too! He speaks awful English in his trademark twang, makes comments about women’s private parts and bra sizes, ogles at their cleavage and then gets the women too.

In the last scene, he gets a call from his wife. “Please return home”, he tells her. “I miss you. And now my hands are tired too,” he says. As if the film hasn’t given you a headache already, you leave the cinema hall with the dialogue in your mind. If you make it to the last scene, that is.

Let’s not talk performances and actors here. With the huge ensemble cast, it’ll just be a painful exercise. Khulbhushan Kharbanda delivers the best performance though. Every time he utters a dialogue in that Punjabi accent, you can’t help but guffaw.

If spoofs are what you have in mind this weekend, Ek is the film for you. For the others, stay home and pray you never run into Inspector Rane again.