All of us must have heard Actors and Directors saying "Humari Film Zaara’Hatke’ Hai’ during their film promotions several times. Most of the times yes the movie turns out to be so Hatke that you feel that all of them working on the movie are a bunch of total nutcase who have tried and tested every Bollywood Formula in their movie. However Shaitan is what I truly call a’Hatke’ film. Right from the treatment of the subject, to Direction, Cinematography, Acting, Background Music everything is Oh-so Hatke.
When the Promos of Shaitan came out it had the’DEV D’ feel to it and I personally didn’t quite much enjoy DEV D, so I decided to give this movie a miss. But then the’Friday Pangs’ that most of us’Movie Buffs’ experience didn’t let me just sit at home.
Shaitan revolves around 5 friends, Kalki Koelichin who has had a troubled childhood and is not on good terms with her Step Mom, Gulshan Devaiya who is a Rich Spoilt Brat who doesn’t give a sh*t about anyone, Kirti Kulkarni an aneroxic small time model who’s also a Bollywood Actress Wannabe, Shiv Pandit a guy from lower middle class and works as an waiter in a coffee shop and Neil Bhoopalan who is a Parsi Bawa with goofy sense of humour.
All these friends have a gala time drinking, doping, doing Vella Giri in short until one road accident that changes their lives completely. Here’s where enters Rajeev Khandelwal who is a cop investigating stuff who is also having a personal crisis in his Marital life.
Shaitan does what most of the movie’s have failed to do in recent past that is to "entertain along with a gripping story’. The intial 30-45 mins is spent in showing the 5 friends having whole lot of fun, till then the movie is like any other college movie but mind you not like one of those’Wannabe’ college movie in which actors mouth "Yo Bro’ "Cool Babes" in every other sentence.(Luv Ka The End is one best example for such campus’Wannabe’ movies). The real twist comes after the accident takes place and that’s when things get even more exciting.
Shaitan scores high on Direction, Bejoy Nambiar has done a brilliant job in not only taking things forward in the movie smoothly but he makes sure he doesn’t loose his track anywhere. Whereas acting is concerned, all the 5 main leads along with the supporting cast are tailor maid for their respective roles. You don’t see anyone over-acting unnecessarily. Special Mention for Kalki Koelichin she’s got such good screen presence and the best thing is that she can act. She’s definitely one actor to look forward to. The music of the movie is also one of it’s high point and the songs don’t stagnate the flow of the movie infact it helps in the narrative. I personally loved the Hawa Hawai track and also the theme song which plays during the credits.
The only Problem I had with Shaitan was the last half hour which could have been edited a bit.
Shaitan is definitely not a movie targetting Family Audience it’s meant only for people who respect good cinema and I think most of the youngsters would love it. Kudos to Anurag Kashyap for helping such talented new Directors in the industry. Hope he continues to do so in the future also.