Ekka movie review: Yuva Rajkumar’s film is old wine in a new bottle and has literally no spark

Ekka movie story: Muthu (Yuva Rajkumar), a simpleton from a village, is forced to leave his relatively peaceful life back home behind, when he stands to lose that very home, which his mother Rathna (Shruthi Krishna) holds very dear. But then, his plan to sort out his problems blows up when a passenger he was ferrying in his cab gets shot at. Muthu’s presence of mind to rush him to a hospital saves the man’s life, who turns out to be one of the 5 gangsters controlling the city – Mastan (Atul Kulkarni). When Muthu then becomes the victim of an attack, which has a tragic outcome, he gets drawn into the depths of Mastan’s world.

Ekka movie review: When Yuva Rajkumar debuted with Yuva, his acting chops had come under fire, so, the first question that popped up after Ekka is if he’s shown improvement in that department. That’s not an easy one to answer, because Ekka isn’t a demanding film in that respect. It also doesn’t capitalize on the actor’s dance or fight skills – the much-hyped Bangle Bangari has the simplest of steps and the fight sequence in a school campus doesn’t let him flex much either. It’s almost as if Yuva was put in a box with very little wiggle room. Hold on, they literally do that to him in the film, but hey, I digress.

The film’s basic premise rested on the tenet that there’s a child and an animal in every human being and that Muthu’s struggle was about maintaining innocence in a world that was beckoning the wild and dangerous side of him. The first half of the film, which was not the most engaging, focuses on the good in Muthu, which doesn’t erode fast enough – it isn’t until the 5-7 minutes before the interval that things pick up a little. There was hope for the film, after all, or so one thought, based solely on that interval block.

But alas, those hopes were severely misplaced. The second half is literally all over the place as Muthu whole-heartedly embraces the big bad wolf in him, unleashing violence galore, but then also turning around and hoping for everything to go back to his good old days. Apparently, if you had some good in you once upon a time, that’s all it takes to trump all the evil done and find salvation. Sigh!

Also read: Ekka’s Yuva Rajkumar: ‘Cannot fill the void left by Puneeth Rajkumar; what I can do is…’ 

Ekka’s ensemble cast includes Sanjana Anand, Sampadaa Hulivana, Poorna Mysore, Archana Kottige, Puneeth Rudranag, Dr Suri, Shruthi Krishna, Atul Kulkarni, Adityaa, and many others, but none of them are given much bandwidth, so there’s nothing much to be said about their performances. The idea that a ‘strong’ female character is one who talks crass, but has no spine otherwise, snivelling like a helpless puppy and putting up with any nonsense hurled at them by the hero continues here too.

Music and cinematography by Charanraj and Satya Hegde, respectively, are what stand out in the larger scheme of things, but they can’t really be called saving graces, when the final product is hotchpotch – ready to crumble to the ground.

Ekka movie verdict: There was a lot of hope riding on Ekka – a relaunch of sorts with a better film for Yuva, for starters. It was also hoped that it would end Sandalwood’s box office drought. Ekka's not the better film Yuva deserved, as for the box office, well, that's up to the audience and if the current trend is anything to go by, the wait continues.