Shaitaan Movie Review: Ajay Devgn, R Madhavan’s father vs fiend flick does everything for shock value

If not done already, there is soon going to be a Letterboxd list titled ‘Action/ thriller where Ajay Devgn goes to any length for his daughter’. The latest addition to it (after Drishyam, Drishyam 2, Shivaay, and Bholaa) would be Shaitaan. Directed by Vikas Bahl, this is a supernatural horror-thriller which feels as stuffed as the description of its genre. The name of the game is excess. Shaitaan is intense without intent. It is also impatient. It jumps from one terrifying scene to another because it seems unsatisfied with the “terror” registering with the audience. This is a loud film which goes bonkers because it just can. It sees an eight-year-old and thinks what if we break his head so that he spends most of the film’s runtime recuperating, only to be thrown off the terrace later. Jack Kerouac might say, 'The only people for me are the mad ones,' But not for me. Especially, if they are this mad.

In the movies, whenever a family is seen giggling on the sofa or pushing each other into the pool, you know things aren’t going to go too well for them. Meet the Rishis: Daddy Kabir (Devgn), Mommy Neha (Jyotika), daughter Janhvi (Janki Bodiwala) and son Dhruv (Anngad Raaj). Kabir is a controlling, helicopter parent (he flexes with the knowledge of his children’s mobile passwords) portrayed as an adorable, caring Dad. His daughter is a wide-eyed teen with picky food preferences (no paratha or chai please), son is the stock cuteball who calls one of the parents by their first name and wife is just, there. While on a vacation, they meet a helpful stranger, Vanraaj (R Madhavan), who ultimately makes his way into their farmhouse on the pretext of charging his phone. There is something unsettling about him and soon Janhvi has taken a bit more than the regular older-man fancy into him. When Kabir tries to take Vanraaj out of the house, Janhvi pushes her father back. She is being controlled by Vanraaj, who has done black magic on her. She laughs at his command, cries, dances and tears a packet of tea leaves into her mouth. It’s going to be a long night.

A Hindi remake of the 2023 Gujarati film Vash, Shaitaan at times feels like torture porn. It doesn’t gradually build up the stakes, rather it is unstable, like a live wire. It’s relentlessly evil but just for the sake of it. There is no apparent method to its madness. It also tells more than it shows. Madhavan’s Vanraaj frequently breaks into theatrical soliloquies claiming how he is the devil incarnate and how much pleasure he derives from inflicting pain. It is a bit too much. The cruelties unfolding on the screen horrify you in the beginning but then ultimately leave you numb. The film goes into circles of predictability. Vanraaj asks Janhvi to do something terrible, her parents Kabir and Neha plead and cry and ultimately resort to assaulting him. This is done multiple times till the scenes are sucked dry of any novelty.

Madhavan’s larger-than-life portrayal of Vanraaj also feels inflated. He isn’t the mischievous devil, but more like a cachinnating monster. In a scene that feels inspired by The Dark Knight (2008), Madhavan’s Vanraaj burns the money and jewellery given to him by the parents so that he lets go of their daughter. It’s more jokey, less The Joker. To keep myself from losing interest in what was unfolding on the screen, I started picking on film references. There was The Exorcist (1973), as we see Janhvi soil herself in the living room. The Shining (1980), as she breaks down a wooden door with a hammer. Devgn’s Kabir is an able foil for Vanraaj, but his act of the powerless father is a bit one-note.

The issue is that Shaitaan does a lot for nothing. At times I felt it was a commentary on controlling men, especially during a scene where Vanraaj tells Janhvi that she has been given “too much freedom” by her parents. The only social commentary it probably made was that kids should not eat anything given by a stranger. The only lesson it preaches is that even if you are the devil, you may cry if you mess with the daddy.