28th March, 2009:

Movie Review: Ek – The Power of One
Film Critic: Goher Iqbal Punn

Producer: K Sera Sera
Director: Sangeeth Sivan
Cast: Bobby Deol, Nana Patekar, Shreya Saran, Chunky Pandey, Jackie Shroff and Kulbhushan Kharbanda

Ek – The Power of One has been in news for one or more reasons. Recently, the clash on the title emerged between K Sera Sera and Ram Gopal Verma. Anyway, the film now hits the screens today. An action packed film, Ek – The Power of One is produced by K Sera Sera and Dharam Films. Directed by Sangeeth Sivan, the movie brings Bobby Deol back after a hiatus on the silver screen. It also stars Nana Patekar, Shreya Saran, Chunky Pandey, Jackie Shroff and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

The film is not novel in any manner. It talks about the same age old theme where the criminal starts getting himself reformed when finds love and affection from the family and the dear ones. Besides, it slightly borrows some concepts from the yesteryears’ movie, ‘Dushman’ starring Rajesh Khanna and Meena Kumari as the leading protagonists. But in actual, it’s a remake of the Telgu blockbuster, ‘Athadu’. So what can you expect from this film when it borrows everything from other movies? Nothing, for sure…!

Targeted at the hoi polloi audience, the film has been boxed up with every ingredient to attract everyone who comes to watch it. The front-benchers might enjoy but what about the vast audiences who use the brain? They should sit and relax at home and watch television instead. The makers have tried to inject every masala to entice the viewers – from a big family (to generate emotions), a childhood friend (to put romance in the narrative), a cop who cracks jokes (to churn out humour) to a double crosser friend. In addition to all this, the flick is packed with plenty and plenty of action (guess, the filmmaker is of the view that putting abundant of action sequences in a film makes a successful fair. Why does he think of the formula, which is as old as the hills? Is he living in the past eras of 70s, 80s and 90s when the films packaged with loads of action used to be hits such as Sunny Deol’s?)

Leave the notion that it carries age-old formula and the concept is not new, but one should admit that the film nonetheless holds your interest at few points like the last reels.

An orphan Nandu (Bobby Deol) is hired by the opposition leader Anna Mhatre (Sachin Khedekar) because Anna wants Nandu to assassinate him while he is addressing to a rally for his election campaign. Nandu is all set to do the task but before he does so, a shot from somewhere is fired on Anna Mhatre and he gets killed. Nandu is shocked as to who did this? He manages to escape from the situation by leaping onto a running train. While on the train, he bumps into Puran (Akshay Kapoor) who is a simple boy from Punjab. Puran is returning to his homeland after a long hiatus and he is so excited. The police, however, have not given up their trail on Nandu and when the train halts at the next station, Nandu discovers this. One of the policemen spots Nandu and fires on him but unfortunately and accidentally it hits to Puran , who dies on the spot. By the time police enter into the compartment, Nandu manages to escape from the train. Now Nandu goes to Puran’s home to let them know about his death. But the moment, Nandu enters the house, he is mistaken for Puran. He now begins to live with the family as a member. There he starts experiencing many things like love, care and a lot of emotions, which he goes through. He is drenched with so much love from all the people of the family. He develops a sweet rapport with the grandfather (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and the eldest bua (Zareena Wahab). Soon, he starts feeling love inside him for the gorgeous Preet (Shriya Saran). Amidst all, the murder case of Anna Mhatre gets heated up and the special officer from the CBI inspector Rane (Nana Patekar) is assigned the responsibility to solve this case. Rane is known for his own style of functioning and his investigation takes him to Punjab to Puran’s house where he comes across Nandu. What happens next is the culmination of the story.

Director of this film Sangeeth Sivan is who has comedies to his credit such as ‘Kyaa Kool Hain Hum’ and ‘Apna Sapna Money Money’. Now he tries his hand at a fully action packed film. He puts the viewers to the past eras of 70s and 80s when we used to watch heroes jumping and diving onto the moving trains and leaping from one building to the other. In those days, these actions used to entice a lot and surely raise the blood level in veins. But in today’s time, it all looks weird and one even starts laughing instead of putting full attention into the flow of the movie. In ‘Ek – The Power of One’, same happens and even you get to see Bobby fighting with the gang of villains single-handedly and he even does not get hurt for once. What a brave man, the hero of this film is?

Action is good but not extra-ordinary. Peter Hein is the person behind it. Editing is average. The romantic portion looks poor. Bobby and Shreya’s romance looks mundane on the screen. No life at all in their love. The emotional scenes amongst the family members do not work big time. Ramji’s cinematography is just about okay. Dialogues do not generate values since the films of this genre demand gripping dialogues. Music does not glide on the ears.

Bobby Deol looks apt in his role of a action hero and enacts the character with aplomb. Nana Patekar’s acting appears good but not to those standards, for which he is best know amongst the moviegoers. Shriya Saran is average. Kulbhushan Kharbanda essays the role with ease. Jackie Shroff and Chunky Pandey seem wasted since they do not find any scope. Zareena Wahab does not do well. The rest of the cast emerges average.

On the whole, ‘Ek – The Power of One’ carries the age-old formula packaged with new style but that too poorly. Business looks simply disastrous.

Rating: 1/5

We want you to let us have your thoughts on this review. Did you like this movie and what about Bobby and Nana’s acting?

- This film critic is a popular and experienced Bollywood and Indian TV Analyst and laced with a good rapport with both of these fraternities and the people associated with these entertainment worlds. He also shares a good rapport with the celebs of these swanky industries. You may contact him at the e-mails: goheriqbal@yahoo.co.uk, goher.punn@yahoo.com and goher.punn@gmail.com

Courtesy: Radio Sargam