A nonetheless from the movie. Ajay Devgn within the trailer. (courtesy: YouTube)
In a hackneyed good versus evil assemble that’s as contrived as it’s convoluted, Shaitaan centres on a cheerful household of 4 that finds itself up towards a diabolical modern-day sorcerer who works his black magic on a younger lady and makes her do his satanic bidding. The satan is out to place the concern of God in you. However there may be nothing extra scary right here than the fluffy movie itself.
Swinging between the cacophonous and the batshit loopy, Shaitaan, remake of a latest Gujarati movie, is targetted at lead actor Ajay Devgn’s fan base, which loves to observe him play the powerful man who proves equal to any process, be it as an invisible police officer combating lawbreakers or a father compelled to show indomitable defender of a household threatened by a depraved world.
The concern think about Vikas Bahl’s Shaitaan is supposed to be unsettlingly excessive. It’s aimed to have you ever squirming in your seats. However the execution of the scenes which might be ostensibly designed to terrify are typically terribly pedestrian and undermined irretrievably by done-to-death, near-risible strategies.
Coming off the resounding debacle of Ganapath, Bahl tries his hand at a style he has by no means had a shot at earlier than – supernatural horror blended with psychological twists. Components of the train go muster as a result of the important thing actors led by Devgn (who can be one of many producers of the movie) get into the swing of issues with out holding again. The script breeds extra. No one and nothing is spared.
The weird goings-on are delivered in an unapologetically over-the-top method. That leaves no room no matter for any diploma of subtlety to seep in by the movie’s crater-like holes.
The truth that Bahl is working with a tried-and-tested script – Vash, a 2023 movie written and directed by Krishnadev Yagnik – is useful in establishing the conflict between a household on a weekend trip in a farmhouse within the hills and an odd entrapment masterminded by an evil intruder who overstays his welcome.
The flummoxed mother and father, Kabir and Jyoti, performed by Devgn and Jyothika respectively, are at their wit’s finish when Jahnvi (Hindi cinema debutante Janki Bodiwala, reprising the function she performed in Vash) falls prey to an amiable however mysterious man who the couple let into the home when he seeks permission to cost his cell phone. He not solely refuses to go away, however he additionally takes full management of Jahnvi along with his unmatched powers of hypnosis.
For the lead actor, Shaitaan is narrative terrain that is not as unfamiliar as it would seem. Within the Drishyam movies, remakes of Malayalam thrillers starring Mohanlal, he’s a father decided to avoid wasting his household someway.
Right here, he slips into the garb of one other dad confronted with a scenario by which he has to drag out the stops to guard his daughter from grave hazard. What’s it with daughters in movies about such my-daddy-strongest figures that makes them sitting geese for the wolves-in-men’s-clothing lurking on the market?
Produced by Jio Studios, Ajay Devgn Movies and Panorama Studios (which can be a part of the Hindi variations of Drishyam and its sequel), Shaitaan generates rigidity and suspense for some time after R.Madhavan’s character, the visitor who refuses to budge, reveals his true colors and begins to wreak havoc on the household by the medium of Janhvi. The actor hams with no care on the earth. He has no selection. He’s in spite of everything saddled with a personality who does unspeakable issues to everybody he confronts.
As soon as all of the playing cards are laid on the desk, the movie falls right into a high-pitched but insipid rigmarole that strives very laborious to scare us stiff however succeeds solely sporadically to attain that objective. However regardless of not being wholly satisfying, the sensation that the movie leaves one with is that it’s doing sufficient to click on with people who dig twilight zone thrillers of this selection and aren’t given to asking questions.
In case you aren’t the gullible kind, the 132-minute Shaitaan can be very laborious to abdomen. What the venal Vanraj does is completely straightforward to grasp, however why he does what he does is not. The tone of the movie fluctuates wildly however the performances are persistently trapped in a zone of mediocrity.
Jyothika is the one one within the forged who is ready to rise a bit above the sheer absurdity of the proceedings. The 2 male characters and the actors taking part in them do not stand an opportunity. The protagonist and the antagonist have a go at one another and drag the movie right into a claptrap that has no redeeming options.
The climax of Shaitaan is the pits. If it doesn’t look like as abysmal as it’s, it is just as a result of what goes earlier than prepares us for the worst. If you’re prepared to face up to a script (it’s written by Aamil Keeyan Khan, who additionally authored the screenplays of Runway 34 and Drishyam 2) that’s devoid of real creativeness as a result of the movie options your favorite actors, <i>Shaitaan</i> is likely to be definitely worth the worth of a ticket. If you’re not, keep away.
Solid:
Ajay Devgn, Madhavan, Janki Bodiwala, Jyothika
Director:
Vikas Bahl
