One-Line Review: Shaitaan is rich with excellent performances, but is that enough to save a movie?
Shaitaan Youtube Trailer
Cast: Madhavan, Ajay Devgn, Janki Nodiwala, Jyotika, etc.
Release Date: March 08, 2024
Director: Vikas Bahl
Introduction
A stranger comes uninvited into a family with malicious intentions. As his presence creates havoc within the family on a horrific night, the parents should find a way to save the family.
“Nothing More Scary Here Than The Fluffy Film Itself”
~ NDTV
Our rating for Shaitaan is 5/10.
Summary
Kabir is a chartered accountant who takes his family to a remote hilly area to spend the weekend. His family comprises of his wife and two kids. While on their way to the farmhouse, they stop at a roadside dhaba to have food. Kabir meets Vanraj at the dhaba where he too is invited to join the family for lunch.
Vanraj offers Kabir’s daughter, Jhanvi a laddoo. On eating it, she becomes a puppet who obeys Vanraj’s orders due to ‘Vasheekaran’ or black magic. Vanraj follows the family to their farmhouse and enters their home making an excuse to charge his phone. Though not feeling comfortable with Vanraj’s presence in their place, Kabir reluctantly agrees to help him, expecting Vanraj to leave soon.
But Vanraj has other plans and starts creating horror among the parents by showcasing his control over their daughter. He demands Kabir and his wife Jyoti to donate their daughter to him wholeheartedly and blackmail them. The rest of the story is about how Vanraj uses his ill acts to emotionally disrupt Kabir’s family and how Kabir tries to save his daughter from Vanraj’s clutches.
Review
Shaitaan was pretty much straightforward with its content, moving towards all kinds of predictable incidents. From the trailer itself, the makers let us know what to expect from the movie. The biggest flaw with Shaitaan is that, even if the plot looks predictable, it still fails to meet your expectations.
Let it be Madhavan as Vanraj, Ajay as Kabir, Jyothika as Jyoti, or Janki Jodiwala as Jhanvi, performances are excellent in Shaitaan. Unfortunately, performances alone couldn’t share a weak script.
When Madhavan enters as Vanraj, it becomes the first high point in the movie. His presence itself was enough to lift a drowsy start of Shaitaan. Though Madhavan is as evil as he can be as Vanraj or the ‘Shaitaan’ in the movie, he too falls short of delivering something more that was essentially missing in the script. Vanraj’s acts were cruel, but not enough. Kabir’s struggles were convincing, but not enough. The conflicts discussed in Shaitaan were serious, but not enough. Shaitaan had every element in the right places, but that was not enough.
A neat, gripping narrative with a flawless screenplay and making was essential to make the whole experience go above the ‘predictable’ bar. Though we feel, due to the impeccable performances we were able to witness onscreen, especially of Madhavan and Janki, a good lot of lousiness was exempted while watching this movie.
Conclusion
Shaitaan is an avoidable horror thriller that fails to make you feel the expected chills and thrills.
