Film: Shaitaan
Director: Vikas Behl
Star Cast: Ajay Devgn as Kabir
Madhavan as Vanraj Kashyap
Janki Bodiwala as Jhanvi
Jyotika as Jyoti
Anngad Raaj as Dhruv
Stars 3.5/5
The film is a timeless battle between good and evil with a family embroiled in a fight to finish with raw emotions and gut instincts guiding the journey of this beleaguered family. Now yopu can watch it on NETFLIX
The opening montage of the film cut on the title track ‘Shaitaan’ is slick and powerful as it sets the tone for what’s to come.
The film opens to introduce a happy, successful family of four, father, mother, college going daughter and younger son.
Ajay as the father and head of the family is a Chartered Accountant by profession, and the glue that unites the family.
In comes Madhvan AKA, Vanraj, in a supposed chanced encounter while the family is going to their remote farm-house in the hills to spend their weekend.
Most of the rest of the film is then shot within the farm-house and what transpires there.
The narrative revolves around Vanraj as the ‘Shaitaan’, who needs to sacrifice Kabir’s daughter to gain ultimate power to rule world and uses ‘vashikaran’ on the daughter aka Jhanvi.
But, he needs the parents’ permission to take her away, and what entails is a bloody, brutal campaign of the family against this evil.
A chain of events that follow, in this hostage drama, are not for the faint hearted and are raucous and unsettling. The viciousness and torture that entails have many jump-start moments.
The chills and flinching that come with Shaitaan are actually, genuinely, organically horrifying.
The story telling though goes a little over the top towards the end and looks more like a rushed up job to tie loose ends rather than a thought after logical one.
The climax is predictable and even if you want to look past its flimsiness, the excruciatingly stretched sacrifice sequence doesn’t let you.
Though the last sequence, is an anti-climax, the revelation is something that no one could have predicted.
Shaitaan is likely to work for its shock value and many sequences or events may not be something that many have seen before.
The screen play is equally strong, as while you watch the film unfold, your mind keeps racing to find solutions to one problem after next, and what can be done to avoid it.
A big shout-out to Devgn and Madhavan who are so convincing in their roles that you feel like reaching out to one, and despise the other.
The dialogs are short and are complemented with raw emotions.
The background score is solid, and builds the mood of sheer horror and instils fear for the protagonists.
All in all, a good film to watch on the big screen.
