Jio Studios, Devgn Films and Panorama Studios’ Shaitaan (UA) is a horror-cum-family drama. Kabir (Ajay Devgan), wife Jyoti (Jyotika) and their two children — Janhvi (Janki Bodiwala) and Dhruv (Angad Raaj) — go to their holiday home. On the way, they meet Vanraj (R. Madhvan) who gives Janhvi a sweetmeat item to eat, after which he orders Janhvi around subtly — and the shocking part is that she obeys him as though she is his slave. Soon, he reaches their holiday home and once again starts ordering around Janhvi, even telling her to slap her father. To their dismay, Kabir and Jyoti realise that Janhvi is possessed by Vanraj. Soon, he makes his stand clear — he is there to take away Janhvi from them. He is into black magic and his hold over Janhvi is unshakeable. The helpless parents don’t know how to help their daughter and they seem to be resigned to their fate as she blindly follows instructions given by Vanraj. In the process, she causes her own family members bodily harm. What happens thereafter? Does Kabir agree to let Vanraj take away Janhvi or does he save her from his clutches and his evil spell?
The film is a remake of Gujarati film Vash. The original story is by Krishnadev Yagnik which is quite nice. One has not seen a film on black magic on the Hindi screen since long and, therefore, this story affords freshness. Aamil Keeyan Khan’s adapted screenplay is not very impressive. Of course, the intrigue value of the drama is interesting. But there are some defects in the screenplay. For one, the drama fails to send chills down the viewer’s spine in spite of it being about black magic on a young girl. Secondly, although the girl is being mentally tortured by Vanraj in front of her parents who are weeping and pleading with him to spare their daughter, the drama fails to move the audience emotionally. Thirdly, the father gets into action mode very late in the day; of course, that’s the course the drama takes but the problem is that the father’s character is played by Ajay Devgan who has the image of an action hero who can single-handedly fight an army of villains. It is these shortcomings of the screenplay, which never let the drama become a bone-chilling one. Even the climax does not have the exhilarating effect it should’ve had. That’s partly because it is a bit too technical (recording the voice of Vanraj, and then editing the same). Also, due to the climax being technical, the heroism of Ajay Devgan’s character takes a back seat. The dialogues, written by Aamil Keeyan Khan, are average.
Ajay Devgan does very well in the role of Kabir, father of Janhvi. But his helplessness for a good part of the film will irritate a section of his fans who would rather see him being powerful enough to eliminate the villain without delay. R. Madhavan does a fair job as Vanraj but the director has shown him more as a quirky villain rather than a terrifying one. It is because of this that despite a fairly good performance by him, Madhavan’s character fails to send chills down the viewers’ spine, which is what would’ve had great impact. The quirkiness does not go well with the character because one is talking about black magic! Jyotika lends decent support as Kabir’s wife, Jyoti Rishi. Janki Bodiwala shines in the role of Janhvi. She plays the possessed girl, completely hypnotised by Vanraj, with elan. Angad Raaj is confident as Dhruv. Ashish Gokhale and Vikash Kawa are ordinary as the police officers. Madhurima Ghosh does a fair job as the police officer in the hospital. Others lend reasonable support.
Vikas Bahl’s direction is not as sharp as it ought to have been. His biggest mistake is that he has not been able to make a film which can terrify the viewers or give them a fright of their lives. Not just that, his narration doesn’t even incite the audience so against Vanraj that they would want to wring his neck or kill him. In other words, his narration makes the viewers passive spectators rather than give them the feeling of being active participants. Also, the film seems to have been shot (in synch sound) in a tearing hurry as not much attention has been paid to the mistakes in the Hindi grammar and language of some dialogues mouthed by R. Madhavan, and that is jarring to the ears. Amit Trivedi’s music is so-so while his background music is fairly good. Kumaar’s lyrics are okay. Vijay A. Ganguly’s choreography is functional. Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti’s cinematography is excellent. Vikram Mor and R.P. Yadav’s action scenes are thrilling but they ought to have been more impactful. Garima Mathur’s production designing, and Gurmel Singh’s art direction are nice. Sandeep Francis’ editing should’ve been sharper.
On the whole, Shaitaan is an ordinary fare which will do business better than its limited merits as it (business) will be more on the strength of its genre and star cast.
Released on 8-3-’24 at Inox (daily 12 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Panorama Studios. Publicity: good. Opening: quite nice (aided by Mahashivratri holiday). …….Also released all over. Opening was fair at many places. Collections in the morning shows were on the lower side and they improved as the day progressed.