‘Shaitaan’ Review: R Madhavan Sports His Most Terrifying Avatar Yet

'Shaitaan', starring Ajay Devgn, hit theatres on 8 March.

R Madhavan, Ajay Devgn, and Jyothika in the poster for Shaitaan.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

Are jump scares and thrills enough to make a good horror movie? Maybe they are. Or maybe they were a couple of decades ago. Now, with the sheer number of horror and thriller movies and shows we have at our disposal, maybe we're also looking for some novelty. 

Ajay Devgn in a still from Shaitaan.

Shaitaan doesn't deliver on novelty but it does its best to keep you hooked with the scares. The only issue is that the film's plot soon begins to rapidly unravel and then there's no stopping it. 

Ajay Devgn plays Kabir, the quintessential family man (the Drishyam kind not the Family Man kind) who is on his way to his farmhouse with his family that consists of his wife and his two kids, Janvi (Janaki Bodiwala) and Dhruv. 

On their way, they meet a seemingly kind stranger Vanraj (R Madhavan) who offers a sweet to Janvi. Here the words 'stranger danger' should've started flashing across the screen. The family soon realises, to their horror, that the sweet has put Janvi under Vanraj's hypnotic control. 

Janaki Bodiwala and Jyothika in a still from Shaitaan.

If the film's aim is to be unsettling, it achieves that well, primarily owing to Madhavan and Bodiwala's brilliant performances. Madhavan is a character who is terrifying from the get-go and Bodiwala performs a range of emotions with practised ease. 

Ajay Devgn and Jyothika in a still from Shaitaan.

Devgn has played similar roles before so it's no surprise that he carries his weight in the film. One of the highlights of the film however is Jyothika as Janvi's mother. From playing the distraught mother to one bursting with righteous rage, Jyothika's performance is both haunting and powerful. 

The most unsettling aspect of Shaitaan is its setting – a grown man is in complete control of a young woman and uses this control to humiliate her. The way the story plays out borders on exploitation. The treatment is as unsettling as the scenes. Horror as a genre does open up the space for limits to be pushed but that is perhaps an argument reserved for a better film. 

R Madhavan in a still from Shaitaan.

A fight sequence towards the end also features characters who starkly resemble the way Bollywood often portrays trans women. It perpetuates the harmful stereotype of trans people being violent (and evil considering this film's good vs evil dichotomy). 

There's also no rhyme or reason for it except insensitive storytelling. 

Before the interval, the film is still running smoothly; it's still engaging. But the ending sequence is frankly silly. You often feel yourself wondering why the parents won't just do the obvious thing to save their daughter. The answer is right in front of you but for some reason, the two people willing to risk it all for their daughter are oblivious to it. Perhaps it's all in the service of the hero – to give him the chance to act as the saviour in a massive showdown.

R Madhavan in a still from Shaitaan.

I was left waiting for the film to throw a smart twist or turn at me. The ghost (pun unintended) of Drishyam hovers in the corner. "I am what a brilliant thriller looks like," it whispers over and over again. 

A still from Shaitaan.

The real hero in Shaitaan is the camerawork. The typical horror shots are all present – the villain standing in the foreground of a thundering sky, the close-ups leading to a reveal. One particular instance of Janvi and Dhruv playing on the swings was one of my favourite scenes because of the way it was shot. 

The background music would normally have felt hammy but somehow works here for the most part. Maybe I was too swept up by the camerawork to care. I'll admit that's a possibility so take this particular opinion with a grain of salt. 

Shaitaan is a film that could've gone right in so many ways but it keeps taking the wrong turn every single time.