SHAITAN - the Devil within

'Shaitan' which means devil, is a hindi word. This movie is no horror jonor entity, rather reveals the worst of the not so best people showing the circumstances leading them to act this way.

The Script
A strong storyline, though not very innovative, still strong as the writer is pretty much clear in his idea of what he wants to show. The chaos in the life of the characters is visible on screen in such clear distinction that one can infer the clarity of concept in the mind of the maker. A mentally, more emotionally challenged girl, not a conventional mad person, but a psycho haunted by the memories of her mother's death, comes from Los Angeles to Mumbai and meets a group of boorish yet bold, spoilt yet humane gang of brats. Their trust on each other takes a toll on their lives when a corrupt police officer asks them for a humongous bribe to hide an accident case in which two people were killed. Then begins the horrible roller coaster ride, hiding and running and blaming, ultimately leaving two of them dead.

The Performance 
Novice they may be called, but each and every actor had their own aura of black charm bounding you to feel hatred and sometimes sympathy towards them. The five friends together did the weirdest, the most barbaric of the things in such a manner which makes you appreciate the beauty of the ugliness of their deeds :D Young and reckless as they are, they remain so even after the blunder they made, seems very real without any kinda 'hridaya parivartan' non-sense because it never happens. The paradox roles of Rajkumar Rao, the loathsome, creepy creature, shows the malign side of the police force whereas the honest, brave officer played confidently by Rajeev Khandelwal, have been cherry on the cake.

 The Execution
For me, this was the most vital ingredient which made this movie into what we saw on screen. Script, which was somewhere or the other a better repetition , it was the director Bejoy Nambiar's work which had put the whole thing so brilliantly.

The film did above average on the box office but what I crave is the space for making more such pictures. Under the Anurag Kashyap banner, and a few more talented artists we occasionally see four or five times an year some real wisdom in Bollywood. Not only our stars are to be blamed but us as well because we don't feel the need for intelligent entertainment.

Hey! It was a 2011 release. Why are you reviewing it almost four years later?
Being unable for whatsoever reasons to watch this movie back then I decided to watch it in this Diwali break. As far as the review is concerned, it would have been an injustice hadn't I be writing this.