Go watch the Telugu original instead.

Grade: C-

Ek – The Power of One

Indian Release Date: 27/03/09
CBFC Classification:  U/A
Running Length: 2 Hours 40 Minutes

Cast: Bobby Deol, Nana Patekar, Shreya Saran, Jackie Shroff, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Zarina Wahab, Sachin Khedekar
Director: Sangeeth Sivan
Screenplay: Pankaj Trivedi
Cinematography: T Ramji
Music: Pritam Chakraborty

Following ‘Dostana’ there’s been a lot of positive buzz surrounding Bobby Deol but unfortunately ‘Ek – The Power of One’ is not the movie to continue that. The first thing that the movie has against it is its title, which quite frankly sounds more like it belongs to a B grade film. The second thing is Bobby’s hair, which looks like somebody has taken a clothes iron to it.

It is not that the film is so entirely bad, it is stylish in parts and even managed to raise some laughs from the audience during Nana Patekar’s scenes. It is more that the story belongs to a different era, it is the type of film that might have done well during the 1990s.

‘Ek’ is an almost exact scene for scene copy of a Telugu film called ‘Athadu’ starring Mahesh Babu. The funny thing is that the Telugu film had copied a portion of the plot of Salman Khan starrer ‘Tumko Bhool Na Payenge’ and the makers of ‘Ek’ have not bothered to change those parts either despite the fact that they may well be familiar to Hindi audiences.

Nandu (Bobby Deol) is a professional killer, he has been killing since he was a young boy under the guidance of his mentor (Jackie Shroff in a short cameo), he plans and carries out jobs for money. Nandu is hired for an assassination attempt on the life of a minister in order to gain him sympathy and ensure that he receives the CM’s position. However things go horribly wrong when somebody else kills the minister and Nandu is framed.

He escapes by train and begins speaking to Puran, who is returning home after 18 long years. When Puran is accidentally shot by the police, Nandu returns home in his place intending to tell his family and is accidentally mistaken for him. Once there he becomes attached to Puran’s family, especially his grandfather (Khulbushan Kharbandar) and assumes his identity. He also falls in love with Preet (Shriya Saran). Meanwhile Inspector Rane (Nana Patekar) is on his trail, investigating the murder of the minister.
The main problem with ‘Ek – The Power of One’ is that Hindi film heroes no longer behave in the way Telugu film heroes do. While within Telugu cinema it is perfectly fine for heroes to punch through brick walls or break fencing posts with their bare hands while beating up twenty goons at once (in fact all of the above would be somewhat trademark actions for Mahesh Babu), these things tend to seem a little over the top in the Hindi film context, particularly for urban audiences. These days audiences prefer their heroes to be more human and less superhuman.

The second problem is I find it hard to believe that anybody could mistake Bobby Deol for a 26 year old. The actor has had some good films and some bad but has never really found his way. One thing is for sure, he needs to find a new stylist because the ironed hair look is definitely not working for him. He doesn’t have much acting to do as the role calls for a strong silent type who glowers but he acquits himself well in the emotional scenes.

Shriya Saran is beautiful but belongs more to the pouting, over the top heroine variety that may work down south but appears far too fake on the screen here. While Trisha’s coquettishness in the original seemed natural, Shriya seems to concentrate more on batting her eyelashes and heaving her bosoms than on actual acting.

Nana Patekar’s role is a crowd pleaser, getting plenty of laughs from the cinema I was in. While the humor may be somewhat crass he pulls it off well.

While the movie may have worked in another era, in the current context it merely manages to disappoint.

Final Verdict: Like Telugu Masala films? Go watch one in its original language then and give this a miss.

Final Grade: C-

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