'Eek' - The Power of a Mess

Ek-The Power of One
Cast: Bobby Deol, Nana Patekar, Shriya Saran
Director: Sangeeth Sivan
Rating: *

We start in Chamku part 2, move into Aloo Chaat meets Jab We Met, cut into Welcome and No Entry and finish up with Ek — The Power of One (Expression). All in all, it’s a mess. Bobby Deol is back as a contract killer with one expression (though there are attempts at a second), a bad hair day accentuated by a dash of eye liner.

When a contract job meets with an unexpected result, Nandu finds himself a fugitive on the run from the law. He assumes a new identity and assimilates into a Yash Chopra like Punjabi village life. A boy from the streets grows up to become a cold-hearted assassin in designer jackets and speaking English in a clipped accent and finds love in this house within the mustard fields.

Inspector Rane (Nana Patekar) is a super-sleazy cop on Nandu’s (Deol) tail. Besides overt sexual references, Patekar even stoops so low as to do a scene walking around with a lassi mustache.

A remake of Telugu film Athadu, about the parallel stories of a cop and the killer he’s pursuing, Ek is also a weak attempt at a reformation story. But the total absence of emotion, logic, script and expressions, make it an inadvertent train wreck.

There are a couple of moments of spontaneous laughs though, like the monologue by Kulbhushan Kharbanda about setting suns and birds and Patekar’s attempt at being intellectual.

The writers and director seem to believe the audience is stupid and therefore spell out every move and detail throughout the film. It’s unlikely many will be stupid enough to watch this film.