Bollywood has a variety of movies. Sangeet Sivan's 'Ek-The Power of One', belongs to the olden days unlike the other two movies 'Videsh' and 'Aa Dekhen Zara' simultaneously released this week. In fact, this is the Hindi remake of a Telugu film 'Athadu' that hit the box office in South India as Sivan cast south India's two leading stars Mahesh Babu as the criminal and Prakash Raj as the cop, in it. Being an old fashioned one, the movie is likely to be popular among the masses instead of the class.
According to its story, Nandu played by Bobby Deol is an orphan who is hired by opposition leader Anna Mhatre to shoot him (mind it not to kill him), while he is addressing an election rally. However, even before Nandu is able to lock his target, another shot is fired, killing Anna Mhatre. So, Nandu had to escape by leaping onto a running train. Incidentally, Nandu meets Puran played by Akshay Kapoor on the train. Puran from Punjab tells Nandu that he is going to join his family after a very long time. As the fate has it, a police officer spots Nandu and aims at him, which accidentally hits Puran, who dies on the spot.
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By the time the police reaches, they find Nandu missing! Though Nandu comes to Puran's house to break the news of his tragic demise, he is mistaken for Puran. Nandu now starts living with the family and experiences the love and affection of Puran's family. Nandu bonds with the grandfather played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda and the eldest bua played by Zareena Wahab. Significantly, he also falls in love with pretty Shriya Saran playing the character of Preeti – a goan-ki-gori waiting to sing rain songs in a village that has cloudbursts on individual requests. In the meantime, Nandu has to fight with a village zamindar who has an evil eye on family's grandfather's ancestral land. However, CBI, Inspector Rane played by Nana Patekar reaches Puran's house where he meets Nandu.
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Though the movie is full of several flaws both in the romantic as well as dramatic departments, yet its action scenes by Peter Hein make us forget them. Nana Patekar's skilled acting dominates over Bobby Deol's, diminishing the status of the latter. The director fails to convince the audience about the heroic actions of Bobby Deol and so also in depicting the romance between Bobby and Shriya. In fact, the heroine hardly has much to do but look pretty and make faces at Bobby. Ramji's cinematography is good. Dialogues are mixed; good at times and not so good elsewhere.
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Priti Bhutani playing Puran's sister looks good too. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is theatrical as usual. We saw him in the recently released 'Aloo Chat'. Raghubir Yadav does well in the role of a politician. Jackie Shroff, Chunkey Pandey and Zareena Wahab haven't been utilized. Needless to comment more as both Bobby and Sivan are working together in Bobby's home production tentatively titled 'Cheers', a father-son story with Bobby and his dad Dharmendra. It's a story about how a father and son are thrown into a road journey; and begin to bond. It's a lighthearted, emotional film.
