Ek Chatur Naar Review: This New Thriller Thinks You’re a Fool, and You’ll Pay the Price in Wasted Time

Ek Chatur Naar Review: Every so often, a film emerges that forces you to ponder the profound questions of its existence: Why was it made? For whom was it made? And after creating it, did the makers honestly ask themselves if it was worth anyone’s time? One can only assume they did, and then cynically concluded, “Well, it’s made now. Let’s fire up the marketing engine, spin the PR wheel, and sell it. We’re clever.” In this cynical calculation, however, they make one fatal error: they forget that the audience is, and always will be, cleverer.

This new Bollywood thriller is a film so impressed with its own supposed cleverness that it treats its audience like complete fools. And that, right there, is its catastrophic undoing.

The Story: A Plot as Thin as the Paper It Was Written On

The film centers on Mamta, a woman crushed by the weight of poverty. Living with her mother-in-law and child, she juggles multiple low-wage jobs, from a mall security guard to a part-time waitress, just to make ends meet. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she stumbles upon a lost smartphone belonging to a mysterious man. This phone is a Pandora’s box of secrets, and Mamta sees her golden ticket out of misery.

She decides to blackmail the owner, convinced she is executing a flawlessly “clever” plan. Or so she thinks. As for what happens next? Honestly, if this film ever lands on an OTT platform, and you find yourself on a rainy day with literally nothing else to do—no books to read, no music to hear, no paint to watch dry—then you might find out. But you’ve been warned.

The Verdict: Is This Film Worth Watching?

In a word: no. This film is an absolute masterclass in wasting your precious time. The narrative is cobbled together with twists and turns so painfully childish and predictable that they feel like they were conceived during a grade-school recess. There’s a clear attempt to build something smart and edgy, but the execution is so clumsy that it collapses into a mess of unintentional comedy and sheer boredom.

Prepare yourself for a relentless assault of overacting from nearly every cast member, an experience so grating it might just make you nostalgic for the melodramatic films of a bygone era. Even those films, however, had the decency to offer genuinely surprising twists. To call the predictable reveals in this movie “twists” would be an insult to the word itself. In fact, the film’s very existence feels like an insult to the classic, genuinely clever song “Ek Chatur Naar.” You are left baffled, not by the plot, but by the fundamental question of why this project was ever greenlit. This isn’t cinema; it’s a two-hour headache masquerading as a thriller.

The Performances: One Lone Survivor in a Sea of Mediocrity

• Divya Khosla: To her credit, Divya Khosla attempts to step out of her comfort zone and tackle a different kind of role. Unfortunately, the attempt spectacularly backfires. The character feels entirely alien to her, resulting in a performance riddled with overacting and awkwardness. It’s a classic case of a talented individual being completely and utterly miscast.
• Neil Nitin Mukesh: In this cinematic wasteland, Neil Nitin Mukesh is the sole survivor. He is the only actor who seems to have understood the assignment, delivering a performance that is nuanced, believable, and far better than the film deserves. He is, without a doubt, the only reason to even consider watching a single scene.
• Supporting Cast: It is genuinely painful to see actors of the caliber of Chhaya Kadam, who has been rightly celebrated at prestigious film festivals, and the ever-dependable Sushant Singh so utterly wasted in poorly written, one-dimensional roles. Roles like these do a grave disservice to their immense talent.

Writing and Direction: The Root of the Problem

The blame for this cinematic catastrophe lies squarely at the feet of writer Himanshu Tripathi and director Umesh Shukla. The fundamental question is: was this story actually written, or just hastily assembled from discarded thriller clichés? The screenplay is lifeless, and the direction is rudderless, leading to a film that is not only unengaging but also profoundly irritating.

Furthermore, in today’s landscape, simply making a “female-centric” film is not enough. The character has to have depth, the story has to have substance, and the film has to be compelling. Audiences will not and should not watch a film simply because it has a woman in the lead; they demand and deserve quality.

The only act of genuine cleverness associated with this film is making the wise decision to skip it altogether.