Looks like somebody has come forward to bail out K Sera Sera, the well known production company and thus one gets to suddenly see a flood of movies from their stable getting a release in the last 2 months which were otherwise lying in the cans. So after Chal Chala Chal & Kisse Pyar Karoon which released last month, this week saw the release of Ek- The Power of One. A straight remake of the Telugu blockbuster Athadu, it’s a typical masala movie, one which reminds you of the masala entertainers of the 70’s & the 80’s but then that’s also the problem with the movie. You just don’t feel connected to the movie at all.
The movie begins with Nandu (Bobby Deol) and Shekhar (Pradeep Kharab) who join Jackie Shroff’s gang at a very young age. During a particular assignment Jackie Shroff is captured by the police & so Nandu and Shekhar branch off on their own. Years later they’ve grown up to be sharp shooters. Anna Saheb Mhatre ( Sachin Khedekar) is the leader of opposition who wants to be the CM & so he hatches a plan to get himself shot at an election meeting to win public sympathy. Nandu is assigned the task. But before Nandu gets to shoot Anna, somebody else shoots & Anna dies. Now the police is behind him and thus Nandu is on the run.
On a train to Punjab, Nandu meets Pooran who is on his way home after 18 years. When the police who are following Nandu fire at him, Pooran gets killed instead accidentally. Thus Nandu ends up in a village in Hoshiarpur and takes refuge in Pooran’s large Punjabi family. Nandu is mistaken as Pooran by the family and is whole heartedly welcomed. The family consists of a grandfather (Kulbushan Kharbhanda), the eldest bua (Zarina Wahab), his childhood sweetheart (Shriya Saran) etc. The case of Anna Mhatre’s murder is entrusted to a CBI officer (Nana Patekar playing to the gallery) and he ends up landing at Hoshiarpur and meeting Nandu for the investigation.
So does Nandu manage to get away from trouble? Does the family get to know the truth? Who had shot Anna Mhatre? The rest of the film tries to answer all these questions. Athadu was a very slickly made desi version of The Assassins and was quite successful at the box office. In comparison though, Ek comes across as a very pale copy. While in Athadu Mahesh Babu as Nandu conveyed a lot through his eyes, Bobby Deol is wooden throughout. Nana Patekar in an attempt to bring in comic relief is quite irritating. The emotions hardly work and the romance is almost non existent. Shriya Saran does not get any scope. While in Athadu the climax was brilliantly shot (quite similar to The Assassins) here it is at best average. All said and done the movie is a yawn fest- watch it at your own risk.
Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/ek-the-power-of-one-totally-drives-you-powerless/
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