This movie is better than the South Korean original. But that's not saying a lot. I honestly have no idea why anyone would want to remake that movie. At. All.
This movie is a remake of I Saw the Devil. A South Korean "thriller." It's actually better to describe that movie as gore porn. I saw it ONLY because I was excited about Ek Villain. I love Ritesh Deshmukh and the idea of seeing him in a villain's role was enticing. To say I hated I Saw the Devil is an understatement. It was disgusting and the evil in it had no point. At all. In fact, it was so bad I put off seeing Ek Villain until the woman who runs my local Indian Bazaar assured me it was a really good movie and didn't involve any violent rapes, dismemberment or cannibalism. She was right. It didn't include any of that, but it still was an absolutely horrid story.
What amazes me is that someone in India saw I Saw the Devil and thought - that's a great movie. We should remake it. I can't imagine anyone thinking that. Anywhere. It had no plot. It was disgusting. There was no point to it. There was no story to retell. Only thinly veiled opportunities to rip off women's clothes before dismembering them. Yet, someone in India thought - let's remake it - so they did. With a star studded cast.
What was good about Ek Villain was the acting. It was superb. Ritesh and Siddhartha are amazing in their respective roles The directing was excellent too. The plot was helped along by providing a back story for the "hero" who is more of an anti-hero. This helped us understand his motivation for not killing the villain when he has the chance!
This movie is basically a cat and mouse game. The hero gets the serial killer, beats him up, lets him go, allows him to assault and batter another woman intervening before the killer can kill his victim. The villain, having been caught in the act is then beaten up again and let go again. That's the whole plot of this movie. Knowing WHY the hero is playing this game and allowing other people to be injured by the villain helps provide motivation for the cat and mouse game even if it doesn't excuse the collateral damage and unnecessary suffering this "game" causes. At least in the Indian version, we know why this is happening. In the South Korean version it's just insane. The only reason the serial killer is allowed to survive to stalk other women in the South Korean version is because the director needed more screen time for the serial killer to rape women before brutally killing them and dismembering them. The Indian version is better because the hero has motivation for playing the cat and mouse game. It is also better because the women who are assaulted by the serial killer are not be raped and dismembered as a result of the "hero's" insane reluctance to kill the killer.
The other change that was nice was that the friend of the villain who clues him in to who is chasing him, is merely a violent philanderer in Ek Villain. For that change, I am eternally grateful because I seriously never want to see a cannibal hacking off the limbs of a live naked woman to eat her flesh raw - ever again. (Did I mention the original South Korean movie is basically gore porn without a plot? Yeah ....)
One of the things I didn't really like about the Indian remake was that they gave the serial killer a back story. They gave him a reason WHY he was killing women. They made him sympathetic. Which is fine. Him having motivation is comforting. But the South Korean killer has no motivation beyond just liking to do it. He's a violent psychopath. He's really terrifying. Ritesh's character is sympathetic and not nearly as scary. Of course, the full horror of what the original South Korean character is like is not something that would have gotten past the Indian censors (again - the original was a gore porn movie that presents gore porn for the sake of gore porn).
Finally - I did like the ending in Ek Villain. It was nice that the serial killer's son is introduced earlier and that our "hero" interacts with him and develops a relationship with him before ultimately killing his father so that he can "adopt" and raise the kid after he's orphaned. The sadistic ending in the South Korean movie is not worth mentioning.
So - should you see this movie? ummmmmm, I can't recommend it. It may have liked it more if I hadn't seen the South Korean original. This movie triggered up the images of the original because it does copy the plot so closely - just without the gore porn and with characters that actually have a reason to do what they are doing. All the Indian's I know really like the movie. I didn't. About all I can say is that it was better than the original - but it's still not a story worth retelling.
What amazes me is that someone in India saw I Saw the Devil and thought - that's a great movie. We should remake it. I can't imagine anyone thinking that. Anywhere. It had no plot. It was disgusting. There was no point to it. There was no story to retell. Only thinly veiled opportunities to rip off women's clothes before dismembering them. Yet, someone in India thought - let's remake it - so they did. With a star studded cast.
What was good about Ek Villain was the acting. It was superb. Ritesh and Siddhartha are amazing in their respective roles The directing was excellent too. The plot was helped along by providing a back story for the "hero" who is more of an anti-hero. This helped us understand his motivation for not killing the villain when he has the chance!
This movie is basically a cat and mouse game. The hero gets the serial killer, beats him up, lets him go, allows him to assault and batter another woman intervening before the killer can kill his victim. The villain, having been caught in the act is then beaten up again and let go again. That's the whole plot of this movie. Knowing WHY the hero is playing this game and allowing other people to be injured by the villain helps provide motivation for the cat and mouse game even if it doesn't excuse the collateral damage and unnecessary suffering this "game" causes. At least in the Indian version, we know why this is happening. In the South Korean version it's just insane. The only reason the serial killer is allowed to survive to stalk other women in the South Korean version is because the director needed more screen time for the serial killer to rape women before brutally killing them and dismembering them. The Indian version is better because the hero has motivation for playing the cat and mouse game. It is also better because the women who are assaulted by the serial killer are not be raped and dismembered as a result of the "hero's" insane reluctance to kill the killer.
The other change that was nice was that the friend of the villain who clues him in to who is chasing him, is merely a violent philanderer in Ek Villain. For that change, I am eternally grateful because I seriously never want to see a cannibal hacking off the limbs of a live naked woman to eat her flesh raw - ever again. (Did I mention the original South Korean movie is basically gore porn without a plot? Yeah ....)
One of the things I didn't really like about the Indian remake was that they gave the serial killer a back story. They gave him a reason WHY he was killing women. They made him sympathetic. Which is fine. Him having motivation is comforting. But the South Korean killer has no motivation beyond just liking to do it. He's a violent psychopath. He's really terrifying. Ritesh's character is sympathetic and not nearly as scary. Of course, the full horror of what the original South Korean character is like is not something that would have gotten past the Indian censors (again - the original was a gore porn movie that presents gore porn for the sake of gore porn).
Finally - I did like the ending in Ek Villain. It was nice that the serial killer's son is introduced earlier and that our "hero" interacts with him and develops a relationship with him before ultimately killing his father so that he can "adopt" and raise the kid after he's orphaned. The sadistic ending in the South Korean movie is not worth mentioning.
So - should you see this movie? ummmmmm, I can't recommend it. It may have liked it more if I hadn't seen the South Korean original. This movie triggered up the images of the original because it does copy the plot so closely - just without the gore porn and with characters that actually have a reason to do what they are doing. All the Indian's I know really like the movie. I didn't. About all I can say is that it was better than the original - but it's still not a story worth retelling.
