Film Ek Villain is worthy to watch for an amazing performance by Riteish Deshmukh, the music and a well-written plot.

Film Ek Villain

Release Date : 27 June 2014 

Genre : Action | Romance 

Banner : Balaji Motion Pictures Ltd 

Producer : Ekta Kapoor 

Director : Mohit Suri 

Cast : Sidharth Malhotra, Riteish Deshmukh, Shraddha Kapoor, Aamna Shariff, Kamaal Rashid Khan

Ek Villain stands out for its cleverness; the story is interesting, the suspense dark and haunting. And, it does not leave you even more perplexed!  

The film starts with signature shot of Mohit Suri'. This is the one, set on a ferryboat, where Sidharth Malhotra covers quite a distance, walks almost indifferently, beats the pulp out of 20 odd goons who come to attack him, and meets the villain of the piece. All of that happens in a single shot where at times camera overtakes Sidharth and on a cue, allows the actor to take over. But, when it comes to establishing the director's prowess when it comes to extending a single shot scene in as dramatic a manner as possible with a sad song playing in the background, as was the case in a similar set up for a scene each in Awarapan and Kalyug to name a couple, this one does wonders. We can say that it is a paisa vasool scene of Ek Villain, although the fact remains that it had nothing to do with the core plot of the movie.

There’s one in every love story, tells the tagline of Ek Villain, and the movie has everything to justify it. The three main characters — Guru the loveless orphan grown into a gun-toting goon, Aisha the pretty girl busy ticking off items from a to-do list, and Rakesh the smarting-under-daily-humiliations-working-stiff — ricochet off each other, resulting in a film doused in schmaltzy romance and creepy violence.

Ek Villain's idea is simple. It’s an exciting tale of a gangster-turned-good (Siddharth Malhotra) with love and a psycho killer who lives in the guise of a middle-class 'good' man. When the two confront each other, you know what happens. In between, however, Ek Villain offers blood-chilling murders and nail-biting suspense, and that's what makes it worth a watch.  If you love suspense dramas, the fast-paced second half will keep you on the edge.  

As for the performances, Siddharth Malhotra tries too hard to get into the character of a distinctive Bollywood gangster - one who picked the gun because he was wronged. He looks too innocent to play the character of a man struggling to tame his anger and hatred. Shraddha Kapoor (love interest of Guru - Siddharth), does an excellent job of playing a girl who wants to live her life to the fullest before her life ends due to her sickness. 

However, Riteish Deshmukh steals the show with a stellar performance. From playing a dissatisfied employee who's called "more useless than a xerox machine" to a psycho who goes about killing women who call him "useless" just so that it'd stop him from killing his wife who also calls him thus, Riteish is by far the biggest surprise of this movie.  It is Riteish Deshmukh who sweeps the stakes, his eyes dead and speaking at the same time. Deshmukh has played second and third wheel in fourth rate comedies, and always managed to stay visible.

Mohit Suri’s another surprise as Kamal R Khan, who plays Riteish's friend and an abusive husband who beats up his wife just so that men can establish their supremacy.

Mohit Suri has a gift for dramatic characterization, even if some things are underlined a tad too much. He also does an excellent job with weaving high-octane moments around his characters. The well-knit plot begins with, as Guru (Malhotra) encounters the sprightly blabbermouth Aisha (Kapoor), and the grimness dissolves into softness, and as Rakesh (Deshmukh) becomes increasingly aware of his demoralized state from one day to another. Then begin a spate of killings, and a race to the bloody finish. Mohit  Suri is a natural story-teller, and can keep things moving.

Generally, the love story elements keep making an appearances right till the end, a little less of it and a little more of blood and violence would have made Ek Villain an even more fascinating affair.

Overall, it is worthy to watch for an amazing performance by Riteish Deshmukh, the music and a well-written plot. 

Humshakals is an average film with comical entertainment value!

Humshakals - a film with each of the three characters in a triple role, humor genre, promos that don't really cater to those who swear by festival cinema. In film, a set up that gives sufficient ammunition to so called intelligentsia to just go out there and dismiss it, perhaps without even watching it. Judgments are made at the launch itself, views are shared with much enthusiasm and result is out well before the real viewers has seen the movie.

And this is the reason why we personally prefer to watch a movie - especially the kind that is aimed for the masses - with the real audience to get a first hand review.

But, Humshakals proves to be a full on entertaining affair that doesn't pretend even once to be what it isn't. Right from the moment Saif and Riteish turn into dogs, you know that Sajid meant business when it came to making people laugh by any means. Certainly one may well ridicule at what plays on screen. However, if one can laugh at Jim Carrey's antics in The Mask, it isn't difficult to let the child in you be unleashed with Humshakals too.

No wonder, the 'sur' of the movie is captured at this point itself and really, if these aren't the kind of jokes that truly entertain you then you may as well stop reading this review!

But, there is a pair of cooks who indulge in making cocaine ke parathe, another who find themselves in a 'Mission Impossible' situation of a different kind, the ones who believe to be playing video games with a heart reading monitor, others who feel that a mansion is nothing but a Big Boss set up, and more. One comical episode after another follows that deal with an effeminate Jailor, an OCD patient, a Board meeting with double roles going wrong, a night out with the girls who just had vodka parathas, a bomb with batteries gone dry and a punishment worse than being killed, courtesy Himmatwala being forced upon the inmates.

Sajid's team gives him good support too with Saif and Riteish leading the charge. Both do quite well as required by Sajid and the confidence with which they deliver some of the lines and enact some of the scenes pretty much conveys the manner in which they totally surrender to the proceedings. Ram Kapoor is good too as required by each of the three parts where he plays a totally different character. As for Tamannaah, Bipasha and Esha, they are required to look good and dance well, which they do effortlessly. Satish Shah gets a solid role after a while and he is outstanding. Chunky Pandey is fun too while Nawab is balanced enough as the scientist. Music goes fine with the story with Barbaad Raat standing out.

With so much happening in the movie, Sajid makes it all very easy when the plot could have turned really complex. In that viewpoint, full marks to him as a story teller where he caters to viewers from 6 to 60, hence making sure that there is no confusion whatsoever in their mind.

Just like Housefull and Housefull 2 worked for Sajid, this one would certainly too!

In general, it is an average film with comical entertainment value!

Hrithik and Sussanne are glued to each other over their cell phones!

This is a heartwarming news. There might not be any sign of reconciliation, and both Hrithik and Sussanne are busy with their own thing, but the cutesy couple we hear, are keeping in touch like never before.

Yes, they have been always friendly with each other, but the phase they are in presently is super exciting. Both Hrithik and Sussanne are glued to their telephones most of the time, talking to each other.

We hear that, more often than not, it is Hrithik Roshan who makes the first move to buzz Sussanne and check on her and make sure she’s doing well. Though the actor is still coming to terms with the separation, he is doing much better than before. He is more often seen spending time with his kids and he looks his happiest best when he’s with them.

Off late, the actor’s taken to meditation and meeting spiritual advisers.

Rani Mukerji doesn’t want any fight with Bipasha Basu!

In order to keep away from the box office clash, Rani Mukerji asked her filmmaker friend Vikram Bhatt to postpone his horror film Creature 3D featuring Bipasha Bau and Vikram fulfilled her wish. It’s learnt that the two movies were initially supposed to clash at the box office on August 22 and later Vikram shifted his film release date to September 13.

Considering that when Mardaani producers, Yash Raj Films settled for September 19 as the release date of Rani’s comeback movie, Mardaani, Rani felt the movies clash could hamper the box office prospects of the two different genre films.

So, she spoke to Vikram and requested him to postpone his horror film’s release date by a week or so. A source reveals, “Its Rani’s comeback film and she doesn’t want to take any chance as far as the movie’s fate at the box office is concerned. And so she approached Vikram who obliged to her friend’s request.”

Vikram Bhatt directed Rani Mukerji in the 1998 movie, Ghulam starring Aamir Khan.

Friendship is over between Alia and Arjun due to possessiveness issue!

Memorize that overwhelming chemistry the duo shared just a few months back? Well, that’s all over now. The 2 States hot pair is no longer best friends. Read on to know the reason.

The two got along like a house on fire. They knew very well how to grab all eyes on them. And they were pretty adorable as well. Then what happened all of a sudden?

Actually, Arjun Kapoor is still a bit sentimental about his Ananya. Seemingly, during the film’s promotions, the duo spend a lot of time together, and Arjun ended up getting super possessive about Alia, which obviously did not go down very well with the latter.

Rumor has it that despite Alia making her displeasure clearly known to Arjun, yet he did not stop, due to which the duo had a small spat. Now, Alia and Arjun no longer share the same equation.

Akshay Kumar romances with Kriti Sanon instead of Priyanka Chopra!

Earlier, we had reported that Kriti Sanon had replaced Priyanka Chopra for a Cola brand commercial. And now, once more the Heropanti babe has replaced Piggy Chops the Akshay Kumar starrer, Singh Is Bling.

Directed by Prabhudeva, Singh Is Bling will see the leggy lass romance Mr Khiladi Kumar. It seems that, Priyanka wasn’t very relaxed working with Akshay Kumar due to alleged differences, and hence withdrew herself from the project.

Now that Prabhu has gone on to cast the 23 year old newcomer, we thinks, Akshay and Kriti will make a very refreshing pair on screen. While the thought of Akshay and Kriti as a couple sounds good, we will have to wait till the film release, to see their chemistry.

Saif and Tamannaah give a skip to Humshakals success party!

The success party of Humshakals held last night at a suburban five-star hotel was quite a simple affair. Considering the event was held to celebrate the film’s box office success, the makers and actors present at the venue were spotted in a not so happy mood and it seemed as if the party was thrown to silence the critics who panned the comedy and informing them about the movie making Rs 76 crores.

Though Sajid Khan, Vashu Bhagnani, Riteish Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor and Esha Gupta congratulated media and the viewers for their support, Saif Ali Khan and Tamannaah were noticeable by their absence. Bipasha, anyways, wasn’t expected for reasons best known to her.

Astonishingly, the lead actor of the movie, Saif is in Malaysia for a brand shoot and couldn’t attend the event. But we wonder why so rush for the party… it could’ve also done in the presence of Saif and Tamannaah.

Producer Vashu Bhagnani told, “This is the first party. We will throw second when the movie touches Rs 100 crore and third when it crosses Rs 100 crore. Since Humshakals was about three actors in triple roles, teen party toh banti hai na?”

JP Dutta’s daughter Nidhi and Nafisa Ali’s son Ajit bond very well before debut!

J P Dutta’s daughter Nidhi Dutta and Nafisa Ali’s son Ajit Sodhi are gearing up for their Bollywood debut by hitting the gym together as it is a norm these days.

The co-stars bond very well and were actually busy chatting instead of working out in the gym. But this was not acceptable to the gym instructor and hence they got a warning to be serious towards their work outs rather than fooling around.

Nidhi Dutta and Ajit Sodhi will be seen together in J P Gene’s production 1 along with Sagarika Ghatge, Taaha Shah and Diganth Manchale.

J P Gene is JP Dutta’s new production company which will focus on young movies and target younger viewers.

Emraan Hashmi's son Ayaan wins cancer battle!

In the beginning of this year, we had reported that Emraan Kashmi’s four-year-old toddler was diagnosed with first stage tumour. But guess what? The little cutie is a fighter, and has managed to successfully recover from the fatal disease.

All hell broke lose when the Hashmi family got to know about their little one’s aliment. Emraan got super panicky and cancelled all his shooting schedules just so that he could be with his son 24×7. Ayaan had undergone a surgery on Jan 15 post which he was flown to Canada for further treatment. By God’s grace, everything worked in Emraan’s favor and the little one is back home and is much better now. The actor daddy is much relieved now.

Emraan Hashmi said, “Throughout his illness, I managed to hold fast to the belief that everything will be alright. He’s healthy and back home now.”

He further told, “Obstacles come along but you can’t give up. You have to dive in and swim through.”

All is well that ends well! 

Menaka and Danny’s lip lock in Arijit Lahiri’s Out Of Time!

Menaka Lalwani, who played a key role in the Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer Miss Lovely, will next be seen in Arijit Lahiri’s Out Of Time opposite Danny Sura. Little did Menaka know she had to do a lip lock scene in the movie. And when she was informed, she and her co-star were slightly uncomfortable.

According to the sources, director Arijit explained Menaka and Danny the importance of kissing scene in the movie and they agreed to it. But they wanted privacy. Arijit understood their insecurities and asked his entire team, except a selected few, to leave the room. The shot was quickly okayed without any hassle.

The much expected movie’s cast had an amazing time shooting the film. They have shot at the spookiest place, a mansion built in the British era. Out Of Time is about a group of youngsters who plan a holiday and decide to spend the night at an old abandoned mansion, but they gets involved in a major mess.

Former VJ Sophie’s sexy remake Raat Akeli Hai!

Actress and former VJ, Sophie Choudry along with Music director, singer and multi instrumentalist Raghav Sachar have come up with their version of the classic song Raat Akeli Hai with Saregama India Limited. What’s different about their version, however, is that they have created all the sounds including the percussion with their own voice!

That’s not all, seeing as Sophie is considered a style icon; Raghav thought they should play with sounds inspired by fashion and transcribe them into music! Everything from the heels of a sexy stiletto, the snapping of a bra strap, to the zipping up of leather boots, has been used while creating sounds for this song!

Sophie told, “I’ve performed the song in this past week’s Jhalak and received great feedback. Its been so much fun creating music from sounds that I hear in my day to day life while getting ready & we all know that Raghav is an incredible musician! Raat Akeli Hai is one of my personal favorite classic numbers and a really tough song to sing but whoever has heard it has loved it and vocally. I think Raghav has made me do a great job! We have had a lot of fun making the song, singing it and for me even dancing to it on the reality stage…”

Speaking about the song Raghav tells, “Raat Akeli Hai is a song that I have loved since my childhood. It has always had sensuality in it, even in the original. Sensuality and Sophie go hand in hand – she is beautiful and a fab singer. It was very interesting to have “fashion” as the basis of the video. I had the edit in my head before we started shooting which helped me direct it precisely to the point. We created an English section so that I could sing since it’s originally a female song. The lyrics and the section are very apt and flow well with the arrangement which is full of various live instruments. It’s great to have everything live and acoustic in today’s day and age.”

Preity used to tell me that we would get married in the same mandap, says Rani Mukerji!

Rani Mukerji and Preity Zinta shares a great friendship off screen too is known to all. The two actresses who were considered as the reigning queens of Bollywood chose to do lesser movies as time passed by. With Rani became choosy as far as movies are concerned and settled into a matrimonial bliss with Aditya Chopra, Preity had to face personal and professional trouble. Today, Preity finds herself fighting a tough battle alone with no support from her B-town friends.

When Rani was asked about Preity, the Chopra bahu too chose the diplomatic route. “Right now Preity’s case is under investigation. It’s a personal thing that she has taken up against a person whom she has known for a long time. And when a case is under police and legal investigation, it won’t be right on my part to comment on it,” told Rani.

Rani, however went down the memory lane and shared an interesting story from their hey days. “I and Preity have shared a good rapport having worked together in four films. We also did Piya Piya song together. In fact, Preity used to tell me that we would get married in the same mandap. However, I beat her to that. I hope she gets married soon too. I am waiting for that,” told Rani.

Is Shraddha Kapoor the baddie in ‘Ek Villain’?

In the past, we had shown you a picture of Shraddha Kapoor in the Villain hoodie, confusing one and all who the real villain is in the forthcoming movie Ek Villain. And today, a video from the film’s set has been leaked which sees the lead actress wearing a black hoodie and showing mannerisms very similar to Sidharth and Riteish confusing us further.

Not very long ago, Shraddha during an interview spoke about her character telling, “Aisha is the name of my character. She is full of life, happy girl who is always ready to help people. She wants everyone to laugh and be happy.”

But the promos and now the leaked video tells us a totally different tale. Sidharth Malhotra told, “We have tried to confuse people and keep them guessing who the hero is and who is the villain? It’s a new trend, where a hero can also become a villain and have negative characteristics”.

So now, we will have to keep guessing till the movie releases all over on June 27.

Katrina Kaif’s starry tantrums in Greece!

Katrina Kaif is one Bollywood actress who has to be in the news no matter what. The Dhoom girl, who is known for her attitude and temperamental woes, has now added yet another feather to her cap – starry tantrums.

Lately, on the set of Bang Bang, which is presently being shot in Greece, seemingly Katrina made it very difficult for the makers. It seems that, it was a regular photoshoot which was to happen and a local photographer was called in. But Ms Kaif wanted to be shot by her favorite photographer and no one else. Now, since the photo shoot was a small one, the makers did not want to spend a bomb on it. But Kats wasn’t ready to listen. So they at last gave into the actress’s demand.

Unluckily, the pictures clicked by Kats photographer turned out to be bad and were not used, since the weather turned against them. But, the photographer charged them three days pay for nothing but the photoshoot video footage alone.

Akshay Kumar is crazy off camera, says Sumeet Raghavan!

With a new TV show ‘Bade Door Se Aaye Hain’ on the anvil and a new movie Holiday in theatres, Sumeet Raghavan cannot stop beaming with delight.

The actor, who became a household name with ‘Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai’ is back in TV after a break of over two years. He tells the new show is unique. “It’s the first of its kind. We have seen Jadoo and ET and we have seen Superman who help the poor and the weak. This show, on the other hand, is a comedy about an alien – something that has never happened in India earlier.”

‘Bade Door Se Aaye Hain,’ like most TV shows, is about a family … but quite a different one. “It is about a family of five from outer space. They have superpowers – they can stretch, run fast etc. But they are so far ahead of humans and so evolved that they have forgotten emotions. So you will see my younger brother telling me that something on the left side of his chest is pumping hard when a beautiful girl passes by; or my wife thinking her eyes are leaking when she is crying,” said Sumeet, whose favorite alien movie is the Oscar winning Independence Day directed by Rolan Emmerich.

Sumeet is pleased to be joining hands with his ‘Sarabhai’ producers Hats Off once again. “They had called me a couple of times after ‘Sarabhai’ but things could not work out due to various reasons. This show has a wonderful concept and is completely up my alley. The fact that Aatish Kapadia (director of the ‘Sarabhai’ series) is working on the show adds to the confidence,” he says. “Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai added a lot of credibility to my career as an actor. The love that was received is incredible. We had no inkling that the show would ever become so big. I was recently checking online and came across a website which rated it among 25 best TV shows ever across the world. That’s humbling,” he further added.

Unlike ‘SVS’ though, ‘Bade Door Se Aaye Hain,’ will have a “message that is delivered in a nice format,” he reveals.

Alongside his new TV show, Sumeet is also thrilled about his newest movie, Holiday. “When Vipul (Shah) had called me regarding the film, I was sitting idle and agreed to do the film. It was a great experience working with Akshay. That man is amazing. In front of the camera, he is a no-nonsense hardworking actor but the minute he is off the camera, he is crazy. He is a major prankster and plays games at sets.”

Sajid Khan discloses why he broke up with Jacqueline Fernandez!

All right! So now we know Sajid Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez were a couple for real and all those gossips you heard about them sometime back were actually true. The filmmaker in a frank talk with a popular magazine opened up about his break-up with Jacqueline Fernandez.

When rumors about the couple parting ways did the rounds, it was told that Sajid’s too much involvement in Jacquie’s career was the key reason. However the director now tells us what had really happened.

“While we broke up in May 2013, in reality right from December 2012, it started becoming sour. So you are already preparing your mind in those five months. Also, when you don’t have a woman in your life, you don’t have someone constantly nagging you, so you end up working better and are more focused. I went for a holiday with her for five days in the middle of making Himmatwala and felt so bad when the film didn’t do well. For Humshakals, I have not taken a single holiday.” said Sajid.

Not cool Sajid, to blame the film’s failure on Jacqueline.

In the meantime, when Jacqueline was asked to comment on her ex beau’s Humshakals, she kept it short, sweet and very classy. She told, “The film looks really fun and I’m planning to go watch it.”

Anushka finally joins Priyanka, Farhan, Ranveer on cruise for 'Dil Dhadakne Do'!

So all this while Anushka Sharma was missing from the pictures posted by the Dil Dhadakne Do team. But now, we at last get to see the pretty damsel looking all fresh and lovely as she gets her happy self snapped along with her team.

Rumors were that Ms Sharma was spending some quality time with her alleged cricketer boyfriend Virat Kohli, who had flown all the way to Barcelona in Spain just to be with his ladylove. The duos were spotted by a fan on the second floor of the hotel they had put up in. And while Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Riteish Sidhwani were updating their fans about there location by posting pictures on various social networking sites, Anushka was missing from all those selfies.

But, the latest picture posted by Priyanka Chopra finally sees Anushka Sharma all smiles as she posed for the click. But this time around, Ranveer Singh was missing in the frame. Nevertheless, PC posted the pic on Twitter telling, “Best crew ever… Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Riteish Sidhwani, Sunset partyyy…deck 7 it is!!”

In the meantime, on the movie front, this is the last week wherein DDD will be shooting on a cruise, post which they will move to shooting on the land.

Dil Dhadakne Do sees Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra play the lead, while Farhan Akhtar, Anil Kumar and Anushka Sharma play the supporting characters. The movie is directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Excel Entertainment.

Bipasha Basu reveals reason for disappearance from Humshakals promotions!

Team Humshakals is on a promotional spree and if you are wondering where is Bipasha Basu, then well, the sexy Bong chose to stay away from the film’s promotional events. And if you are speculating why, then well, the actress reveals her reason behind her absence.

Taking to Twitter, Bipasha Basu finally breaks her silence. She told, “This is to put an end to all the discussions around my absence for Humshakals promotions. I take full responsibility of getting into a film only on the basis of trust. But after dubbing for my character in the movie, as I had professionally committed to do so, I’m extremely disturbed by the end result of the same.”

“In these circumstances I didn’t know how to promote a movie with all sincerity and that’s why I thought it was better to stay away. I am confident that the film will be true to its genre and will be a full entertainer because of the people involved. I wish fox star studios who I have had my biggest hit with Raaz 3 and vashu ji who is a fantastic producer all the best. Wish all my co stars Saif, Riteish, Tamannah, Esha and the technicians best of luck. Sometimes, certain journeys cannot be completed and this is one of them – no one to be blamed, combination of things that made me disrupt my journey,” Bipasha further added.

Directed by Sajid Khan, the film which stars Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor, Tamannaah Bhatia, Esha Gupta and Bispash Basu, will be releasing in theaters this Friday.

Meanwhile, Bipasha is presently working on ‘Creature 3D’ which marks the debut of TV actor Karan Singh Grover.

Wedding is so artificial and comes with so many dos and don’ts, says Imtiaz Ali!

Director Imtiaz Ali who has given us numerous hit movies including ‘Jab We Met’, ‘Love Aaj Kal’, ‘Rockstar’, ‘Cocktail’, and ‘Highway’, while in an interview freshly, made some no-so-pleasing remarks about his wedding and mistakes he made in his filmy career.

He was told that he looked different post divorce from his ex-wife Preety, to which he answered, “Yes, I am. I had become very formal in my approach to everybody. Wedding is so artificial; it comes with so many dos and don’ts that not only make you claustrophobic but also mediocre. It reduces you to a ch***a version of yourself, you play roles to meet someone else’s expectations. Today, I say things as they are. I’m not hypocritical. I am as open-minded as when I was in school and college.”

Talking about Nargis Fakhri in Rockstar, the talented filmmaker told, “Ranbir was wonderful, but Rockstar was a defective movie. There were many jumps in the story and things which no longer make sense to me. And I faced so much criticism for casting Nargis Fakhri. No, the film may not have worked for her, but working with another heroine who knew Hindi better would have fostered mediocrity. The challenge to work with Nargis raised the film’s intensity. “