0.5 Stars (out of 4)

Buy the DVD at Amazon

I guess it’s not fair to expect much from a movie whose title means “One – The Power of One.” Yet I was still hugely disappointed by Ek – The Power of One.

Bobby Deol plays Nandu, an assassin whose black leather jacket, black sunglasses and dagger pendant make him look like the World’s Most Obvious Assassin. He’s hired to non-fatally shoot a politician who wants to garner sympathy votes. However, another assassin shoots first, killing the politician. When Nandu then sees his getaway driver’s car explode, he realizes he’s been set up. He uses his Super Movie Assassin Powers to evade the police, leaping off a building, onto a crane, and then onto a train.

On the train, Nandu meets the moronic Puran, who interprets Nandu’s silent indifference as an invitation to tell his life story. Puran is accidentally killed by a police officer aiming at Nandu, and, out of a sense of remorse unique to reformed movie assassins, Nandu seeks out Puran’s family to give them the bad news.

Of course, Puran’s equally moronic family assumes that Nandu is Puran, returned home after running away 18 years earlier. The family interprets Nandu’s silent indifference as confirmation that he is Puran, despite having to remind him of the identity of each family member, as if running away gave him amnesia.

Ek proceeds to abuse all kinds of bad movie cliches — the cop who doesn’t play by the rules, the bumbling gang of thugs, the guy who’s supposed to be dead but isn’t really dead. Since the movie is set in Punjab, there are the requisite scenes of a village fair, women dancing in the fields, and the main character driving a tractor.

There’s nothing to commend this film, except for the fact that it looks like someone spent good money to make it — though not on the script, obviously. Ek – The Power of One is stupid and predictable and a complete waste of time.