Ek Villain Returns

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Ek Villain Returns
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mohit Suri
Story by	Mohit Suri Aseem Arora
Dialogue by	Aseem Arora
Produced by	Shobha Kapoor Ekta Kapoor Bhushan Kumar Krishan Kumar
Starring	John Abraham Arjun Kapoor Disha Patani Tara Sutaria
Cinematography	Vikas Sivaraman
Edited by	Devendera Murdeshwar
Music by	Score:: Raju Singh Songs: Ankit Tiwari Tanishk Bagchi Kaushik-Guddu
Production companies	T-Series Balaji Motion Pictures
Distributed by	AA Films
Release date	29 July 2022 (2022-07-29)
Running time	129 minutes[1]
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹62−80 crore[2][3]
Box office	est.₹45.53 crore[4]

Ek Villain Returns is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language psychological action thriller film^[5] written and directed by Mohit Suri, and a spiritual successor to his 2014 film Ek Villain.^[6] The film is produced by Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar under the banners Balaji Motion Pictures and T-Series.^[7] It stars John Abraham, Arjun Kapoor, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria in the lead roles.^[8][9] The film was released theatrically on 29 July 2022 and opened to mixed reviews from critics.^[10][11]

Plot

A masked intruder barges into an apartment complex and kill a famous singer named Aarvi Malhotra. After the investigation, the cops deduce that Aarvi's ex-lover Gautham Mehra, is the serial killer.

Through flashbacks we learn that Gautham is a spoiled rich brat, who is berated by his industrialist father Mehra as Gautham had created a commotion on his girlfriend wedding. Gautham's commotion is made into a rock song by Aarvi. Gautham meets Aarvi at Music Festival and pretends to be in love with her, in order to take revenge against her for using the video clip of the commotion to get fame. Though suspicious, Aarvi befriends Gautham when he helps her to replace her rival at the fest. Later on both of them fall for each other. Aarvi reveals about her father Balkrishnan Shastri, a popular singer, who had an extramartial affair with her mother, but he didn't accept both of them as he has another family. She tells Gautham that her main goal is to make her father accept her as his daughter by becoming a famous singer. However, Aarvi's childhood photos are leaked by Gautham, where Balkrishnan Shastri denies her about being his daughter to the media. Aarvi learns about Gautham's act and ploy, which leaves her heartbroken.

Meanwhile In present a special force, headed by Inspector Hummad, locates Gautham and tries to catch him, but he evades and ACP V. K. Ganesan suspects that Aarvi is not murdered by Gautham. Later, the cops interrogate a suspect named Bhairav Purohit as Aarvi's phone number was found in Bhairav's phone, but he denies the crime. They release Bhairav, due to unsatisfactory evidence . Ganesan finds a pattern that the serial killer only targets young girls, who had only one-sided lovers, and also learns that the killer has killed 18 girls in past 6 months. The killer sends a boy whose girlfriend was a victim of his killings to a news channel and asks him to blame Gautham as the killer. Gautham chases after the boy, but he is killed by the same killer, who is revealed to be Bhairav. A fight ensues between Bhairav and Gautham. Bhairav leaves the train and escapes in a cab. Ganesan checks the CCTV but is unable to find anything.

Through flashbacks we get to know that Bhairav is a cab-driver, who also works as a part-time worker as a zookeeper along with his friend Keshav, where he meets Rasika Mapuskar, a salesgirl at a clothing shop and they become friends.He falls for her deeply and plans to marry her.One day, Rasika injures a group of rogues with Bhairav's cab, who were eve-teasing her thus revealing to Bhairav her dark side. During a vacation, Bhairav decides to propose to Rasika, but learns that she is already in an intimate relationship with her boss Atul, which leaves Bhairav heartbroken. Rasika later meets Bhairav where she instigates him to kill those girls, who are having one-sided love for their boyfriends. Bhairav's kills his first victim to prove his loyalty to Rasika. After this incident, Bhairav is mentally tormented and begins to kill many girls, along with Rasika.

After 3 months of breakup with Aarvi, Gautham regains his rich life back, goes through a phase of self destruction and redemption realising his love for Aarvi when he gets injured and she takes care of him. Gautham pleads for a chance from Aarvi, promising to change himself, but leaves with a heavy heart where she storms off in Bhairav's cab. Bhairav misunderstands that Aarvi has duped Gautham, where he, along with Rasika, attacks the complex at night (the beginning scene), as Bhairav kills Aarvi.

Gautham gets hold of Bhairav's zoo address. Gautham reaches the zoo where it is revealed that Aarvi is alive and that Bhairav has locked her in the zoo. Bhairav reveals to Gautham that Aarvi is alive meanwhile the cops reach the place and arrest Bhairav and Gautham. Bhairav falsely testifies using Keshav's son that Keshav was the serial killer who has been brutally stabbed to death earlier. Bhairav is released as a free man. He and Rasika heads to the zoo and kills all the guards posted at the zoo, where they try to kill Aarvi, but Gautham arrives and engages a combat with Bhairav. Gautham then reveals that Rasika is actually dead and that Bhairav is actually hallucinating Rasika.

Bhairav then recollects what actually happened in the past,back to their Vacation where Rasika confessed about her affair ,telling him that his boss would seen leave his wife and marry her,after listening to this bhairav becomes numb and heartbroken. He begs her to accept his feelings, where he unintentionally kills Rasika. Coming back to his sense, Bhairav keeps her body in the freezer where he started to hallucinate Rasika and begins to kill every girl for her sake.

Gautham tells to Bhairav that he deduced about his hallucination when Bhairav started to talk to an imaginary person (Rasika). Gautham also tells Bhairav that his love for Rasika turned into hatred, whereas his love for Aarvi always remain love, even if she doesn't accept him. Realizing his mistake, Bhairav opens the tiger's cage and is later killed by the tiger, whereas Gautham leaves with Aarvi, who reunites with him. Later, Aaravi sings at the concert with the support of Gautham and her fans.

In the post-credit scene, Rakesh Mahadkar (who survived the accident and has became a paraplegic) meets Bhairav (who is actually alive, having lost his one eye due to the tiger attack) where he recites the hymn from the prequel: Fikhra math kijeye, Aaj ke baad aapko shikayat ka mauka nahi milega (transl: Don't worry, from now on you won't get any scope to complain).

Cast

• John Abraham as Bhairav Purohit
• Arjun Kapoor as Gautam Mehra
• Disha Patani as Rasika Mapuskar^[12]
• Tara Sutaria as Aaravi Malhotra
• J. D. Chakravarthy as ACP V. K. Ganesan ^[13]
• Karishma Sharma as Siya, Gautam's ex-girlfriend
• Kaizaad Kotwal as Siya's Father
• Elena Roxana Maria Fernandes as Qiran
• Shaad Randhawa as CBI officer Aditya Singh Rathore
• Bharat Dabholkar as 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 as Rakesh Mahadkar (archived footage from the film Ek Villain) and in a cameo appearance at end credit^[14]
• 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 and had a fallout with director Mohit Suri.^[15][16]

Filming

Principal photography began on 1 March 2021.^[17][18] Abraham finished shooting in October 2021.^[19] The entire film was wrapped up on 24 March 2022.^[20][21]

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.^[22] The second single named "Dil" was released on 8 July 2022.^[23] The third single titled "Shaamat" was released on 16 July 2022 with Tara Sutaria making her singing debut.^[24] The fourth single titled "Naa Tere Bin" was released on 22 July 2022.^[25]

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.^[4]

As of 4 August 2022^[update], the film grossed ₹37.19 crore (US$4.7 million) in India and ₹6.34 crore (US$790,000) overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of ₹45.53 crore (US$5.7 million).^[4]

Critical response

Ek Villain Returns received mixed reviews from critics.^[11] 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".^[26] 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".^[27] 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".^[28] 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".^[29] 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".^[30] 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".^[31]

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".^[32] 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".^[33] 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".^[34] 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".^[35] 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".^[36]

References

External links

• Ek Villain Returns at IMDb