T-Series and Merry Go Round Studios’ Ek Chatur Naar (UA) is a comedy thriller.
Mamta (Divya Khosla) manages to get hold of the cell phone of Abhishek Verma (Neil Nitin Mukesh). She uses it to blackmail him and extort money from him. And for this, she uses all means, fair and unfair.
Mamta lives with her mother (Chhaya Kadam) and little son. Her husband (Rajneesh Duggal) had committed suicide when he was unable to repay the loan he had taken from Thakur (Yashpal Sharma). Now, Thakur is after Mamta for the money he had lent to her husband. On her part, Mamta is trying to extort money from Abhishek. But why Abhishek? Is there a connection between Abhishek and her late husband?
The story by Himanshu Tripathi, with additional story by Deepak Nirman and Siddharth Goel, is well-written but it lacks novelty. It has its share of thrills and light moments. The screenplay, penned by Jay Pravinchandra Master and Umesh Shukla, and additional screenplay by Deepak Nirman and Siddharth Goel, is fast-paced and engaging. It has so many twists and turns that it keeps the audience involved in the guessing game of what’s next. Of course, on the minus side, the drama is over the top and appears very simplistic. The light scenes are entertaining but the comedy never turns out to be a laugh-riot. Dialogues (Deepak Nirman and Siddharth Goel) are interesting.
Divya Khosla does a good job as Mamta. She gets into the skin of the character and entertains with her acting. Neil Nitin Mukesh is okay as Abhishek Verma. Chhaya Kadam excels as Mamta’s mother. Zakir Hussain is very impressive in the role of politician Qureshi. Sushant Singh leaves a fine impression as police inspector Triloki. Heli Daruwala makes her presence amply felt as Teena. Rose Sardana has her moments as Abhishek’s wife, Anjali. Geeta Agrawal Sharma is natural as Abhishek’s mother. Yashpal Sharma is okay as Thakur. Rahul Mitra lends decent support as Deendayal Thakur. Rajneesh Duggal is good in a special appearance as Mamta’s husband. Sandeep Yadav (as Qureshi’s PA, Dubey), Saurabh Kumar (as Abdul), Abaan Imran Mugal (as Mamta’s son, Sonu), Anil Rastogi (as Mamta’s neighbour), Danesh Gandhi (as Sushil), Raghuraj (as Maqsood), Amit Rai (as Bablu), Rajat Bhatt (as Bunty), Taruna Singh (as Lata), Drishti Thakur (as Nagin), Rajesh Passi (as Aghori Baba), and the others provide able support.
Umesh Shukla’s direction is good. He has made a fast-paced thriller with a nice dose of comedy. Of the songs, the title track (composed by Vayu ad Sharan Rawat, and written by Vayu) is tuneful. The Gulabi saawariya number (music by Abhijeet Srivastava, lyrics by Shayra Apoorva) is alright. Song picturisations (by Rahul Shetty, Shazia Shamji and Piyush Bhagat, and Rahul Thombre) are okay. Amar Mohile’s background music is effective. Sameer Arya’s cinematography is nice. Sunil Rodrigues’ action and stunt scenes are alright. Sidhant Malhotra’s production designing, and Sebin Thomas’ art direction are of a fine standard. Mayur Hardas’ editing is sharp.
On the whole, Ek Chatur Naar is a fair entertainer, but lack of big names in the cast, and very limited promotion will tell badly on its business.
Released on 12-9-’25 at Inox (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PVR Inox Pictures. Publicity & opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.
