Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
‘Ek Chatur Naar’ follows a poor but “clever” single mother Mamta (Divya Khosla Kumar), who blackmails a wealthy govt contractor called Abhishek (Neil Nitin Mukesh), after getting hold of his phone and a compromising video. Unaware of his power and influence, she soon finds herself caught in a dangerous game, as he tries to have her arrested.
Now the makers of ‘Ek Chatur Naar’ want us to believe protagonist Mamta is an incredibly clever woman. But the writers put in minimal effort to prove her wit, instead, it’s a series of lucky co-incidences that help her outwit the influential Abhishek. Case in point: in the first act, she hires someone to steal a phone in a place crawling with CCTV cameras, then creates a spectacle by chasing the thief. It’s less “smart woman outwits rich man” and more “luck saves her again.”
Or here’s a better example: she sends a note (you can consider it a blackmail note) through her son to a woman at a lavish wedding. Where for no real reason, except for cinematic effect, the servers are dressed in cheap masquerade masks. Again, a place filled with cameras. Why would you risk your son like that? Luckily for her, the woman believes the note is from someone else and does nothing to verify the source. Essentially, Mamta is pitted against a bunch of questionably dumb individuals.
The few fun elements exist in the first half of the film, like digs at melodramatic, exaggerated Hindi soap-serial, which Mamta loves to watch with her mother-in-law (Chhaya Kadam), who by the way has a drinking problem. So the family might be drowning in debts, but cannot do without drowning in their daily pegs either, since Mamta loves to join her saas with her own glass.
Mamta’s son Sonu (Abaan Imran Mughal) is forced to spend most of his time cooped up at home, out of school, because they’re all being targeted by violent loan sharks. Why her late husband left the family with huge debts isn’t explained, at least, not until it’s too late to care.
Neil Nitin Mukesh is entertaining as the greedy, corrupt, and politically connected Abhishek, whose main source of income seems to be fudging accounts and misappropriating funds. He’s meant to be a crafty cookie, but the character is dumbed down into a comedic caricature who behaves exactly as Mamta predicts.
The filmmakers should’ve embraced full-blown exaggerated comedy for ‘Ek Chatur Naar’ to draw genuine laughs. But in its current form, it’s neither funny enough nor convincing enough. As a viewer, you go into the film expecting a dark comedy, not a mystery. Yet the writers hold back crucial details only to spring them as last-minute twists, turning the film into a makeshift thriller. The sudden shift feels jarring, especially since those revelations could’ve made the story far more engaging if introduced earlier.
By the 90th minute of ‘Ek Chatur Naar’, I was bored out of my mind and chose to take a nap before resuming streaming. So I did watch this over-dragged 144 minute long movie, and it delivers one or two ‘clever’ twists, but feels extremely contrived than satisfactory. The title song sung by Kailash Kher, an upbeat number with energetic beats, is probably the only really entertaining ingredient of this film.
Rating: 1 star on 5. ‘Ek Chatur Naar’ is on Netflix.
Read Next: Del Toro’s Frankenstein is a Darker, Grander, Gothic Horror Classic
Also Read: ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ Review: 2025’s Best Horror Anime (Audio Version Below)