Shaitan

Since the trailers were first out I have been waiting for the film. The song Bali, suits the trailer best. I did miss the first day first show and a few more days and shows consequently, but today I finally got a chance. Shaitan starts with Anurag Kashyap giving a social message. Yes the 'lazy ass ranter', starts the film telling youngsters that alcohol, drugs, cigarettes etc., are bad for them. While if the dialog was start taking drugs, start life, the quote 'well begun is half done' would have been so apt. The scenes from the asylum give us a hint that the movie is on the insane end of brain, like most of Anurag's films are. Then again we have typical scenes, fast introductions, normal 'I hate my parents' people and alcohol and drugs and a lot of drugs. After wild parties, cranky dialogs and a couple of kisses, you reach the scene which has created the hype. The accident scene. And yes, the scene lives up to the hype, it is a great milestone in Hindi cinema. But just a few moment more and you'll have the moment. The moment you'll scream , "What the f***, this is the story of Paanch" and that would sure turn you off, completely! But as the film proceeds you do notice remarkable differences and slowly it attracts your interest. Then the fast paced action, the haunting music, Rajeev Khandelwal's grit and Kalki's neurotic expressions when she is high, makes you want to forgive all the negative aspects of the movie and makes you an instant fan. Remarkable scenes :- When KC asks Amy to open a 'joint account', the accident scene(of course), the crashing of the beer bottle and a TV set, by KC and Dash respectively, on the heads of two guys who were 'teasing' and 'more than teasing' their girls, Khoya Khoya Chand(thats already a rage), the shot where Inspector Arvind Mathur flashes from behind a bed and kills a junkie(though you can't possibly save yourself from machine gun fires with a mattress) and Amy's hallucinations of her mom when she is high in the 'Church'(thats Anurag Kashyap). The weak points of the movie were :- Obviously the script, it could have been better. The director was confused whether he was making a thriller or a black comedy. Too much time wasted on the camera work and special effects. The German girl wasn't really German. The good points were :- The camera work, indeed. Cinematography. The music, especially Bali and Fareeda. The acting – all of the actors have done a very very good job, but special credits to Rajeev Khandelwal and Kalki. In the end, Shaitan is a good film. It is definitely not great! And if you do think otherwise, watch Paanch. You'll know what Bollywood really needs. You'll know who Anurag Kashyap really is!

Ohh.. What a day yesterday, I had few tight sales meetings with the customers and was running between locals, auto and taxis across Mumbai. Also, it was raining heavily and I regretted not carrying an umbrella as I got drenched in rain and reached home by 9.30 pm. Back home , I badly wanted to refresh my mind from the day's events and decided to go for Shaitan, night 10.15 show and it turned out to be a perfect decision to wind myself from work and enjoy the time. Well, Shaitan opens up with Kalki Koechlin as Amy meeting Gulshan Devaiya as KC in a party. KC is a rich industrialist son and have 3 other friends – a struggling actress played by Kirti Kulhari , a sex obsessed computer geek Parsi played by Neil Bhopalam and a restaurant waiter cum drug peddler played by Shiv Pandit. Amy who had a tough childhood and has traits of mental disturbance becomes friends with these four characters and here starts the event of being naughty, being evil, being wrong but right in their own terms Their adventures and mischief's finally lands them in a trouble one fine Mumbai night when they accidentally run their Hummer over two scooter riders while flying high on speed and drugs. They try to forget it when a corrupt cop approaches them and asks them for 25 Lacs bribe to shut the case. These young kids don't want to go to their parents for certain reasons and plans the fake kidnapping of Amy. This brings in the entry of an honest but a very aggressive police officer Rajeev Khandelwal who is given the charge to solve this high profile kidnapping case and rest is what follows is a series of gripping incidents. The direction by debutant Bejoy Nambiar is really good. The way the events are created in the movie matching with real life incidents are the some of the best moments of the movie. There is one shot of gun fight battle between the cop and underworld agents in a chawl amidst the attempted rape of one of the friends and a dead body of a German tourist with "Khoya Khoya Chand" remixed version being played in the background. This scene is so well crafted and the screen play is mind boggling and is one the finest shots in the recent Hindi cinema. The song "Fareeda" which often plays in the background after the second half gives the pace to the movie and keeps you on your seats, if ever you feel too much violence and dark events. The only time the movie makes you feel boring is few sequences when Amy remembers her mother quite often. Rajeev Khandelwal as a tough cop makes his statement that he is such a fine actor and his talent is still unutilized by the industry. All the other actors have also played their role well. I can say that this is an out and out a Director's cut and kudos the debutant Bejoy Nambiar , who had assisted Maniratnam in Guru as he lives up to the expectations from an Anurag Kashyap's production. Go and watch Shaitan because it's dark and bitter but yet gripping and you will like it if you are not only an emotional drama lover and like watching different genre.

Anurag Kashyap .... yes.. that's the name everyone looks before going to watch a movie which has new actors, director, music directors, weird movie title (every body expects the title "Shaitan" to be associated with a horror one). And Anurag did it again by just being a produce. Its like "the MIDAS touch".

First, i was never going to watch this movie, but just gave a shot coz i am a huge fan of Anurag Kashyap. And.. taddaa ! I was not disappointed, even though the director is Bijoy Nambiar.

About Direction - Nambiar has his own style, can say the Guy Ritchie of Bollywood. Super slow motion, more involvement of camera as a character, fast paced flash backs, witty narration and good background music.

About actors - Really believable.. 'that's what is required in a movie'. Most of the lead actors were new ,but were well seasoned campaigners from the TV channels. Rajiv Khandelwal's role was very impact full, so was all the support actors.

About Music - Perfect ! just fitted the movie. It was just a character of the movie. Am really upset and wondering that ... y the songs.. "Khoya khoya chand and Hawa hawai" is not there in the OST? :(

About the Movie - Its the best Bollywood has to offer after "3 Idiots". Its... stylish, has good action, acting, music and its a zero VFX movie. The whole movie is real in its look (the roads, buildings, character, story). We can relate it to our own daily life routine. That's where the movie scores its mark. And above the all.. you can OR just watch this movie in theater... simply superb ! for its action, music, run chase, super slow mo scenes.

Aaah ! Shaitan ......

Newbie director Bejoy Nambiar certainly has got himself an impressive if not a mind-blowing debut. And the young actors have done justice to his quirky script & storytelling technique.

You can recognize new age cinema with its 'hatke' script, youthful actors and edgy storytelling / narration. And when you go see Shaitaan you can see all of it there.

The story opens with brief introductory scenes of the lead characters that give you an insight into what each character's personality is like. The story unfolds to show an unruly group of spoilt brat teenagers who believe in the adage 'if you got it, you gotta flaunt it'.

A NRIs daughter Amy (Kalki Koelchin), with a traumatic past, is new in town. She joins the spoilt teenager group and finally starts to enjoy her life. After a night of partying, drinking, doing drugs & racing their Hummer on the empty roads, these guys happen to mow down two innocent people and subsequently flee the scene.

At this point the story actually starts taking pace. In order to escape judicial custody they make an arrangement with a cop who for a huge sum of money will take care of their case. Since none of them has enough money to pay the cop off, they hatch a plan of staging the kidnapping of Amy and demanding the ransom money.

From here the story starts to spiral towards things that neither of them imagined would happen. What was considered to be a harmless plan turns out to be something that will change their lives forever.

This movie is a classic example of how peer pressures and herd mentality can actually make the sanest of people do things that they wouldn't normally do, only to realize it when it's too late.

There is also a parallel track running of the cop Mathur (Rajeev Khandelwal) who has been given the responsibility of handling the case. Along with his professional life, we get to see glimpses of his personal life & the problems he is facing in his marriage. In fact in the end you realize that it isn't easy being a cop where you have the responsibility of protecting the nation with a measly salary being paid for it.

The story is interspersed with clever narration techniques and flashbacks which make the film edgy.

The end makes you feel sorry for the characters & makes you question practicality vs. idealism.

A decent watch I say.

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"There Will be Blood" actor Daniel Day-Lewis once said, "I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it's no problem for me to believe that I'm somebody else."Indeed every mortal has an aspect of self delusion hidden within themselves which is reflected under the spell of specific situations.Every religion believes in the existence of Shaitan within us and we are just wearing mask for the peace of "cultured" society.The concept of God was thus created to give a positive direction to irrational mortals. Shaitan,the directorial debut of Bijoy Nambier under safe umbrella of Anurag Kashyap who is one of the pioneers of Dark movies in Indian cinema talks about existence of Shaitan in this god fearing society. The story involves five youngster from various backgrounds bonded through friendship.The friend circle comprises of Gulshan Devaiya playing the role of KC, a rich brat and a non-conformist living on the edge of reality.A parsi pervert (resembles Fattu of Paanch) Zubin played by Neil Bhopalam,Tanya (played by Kriti Kulhari) an upcoming film actress and a model, then Amy superbly played by Kalkie Koechlin.Amy is the disturbed daughter of a rich NRI father (Played by Rajit Kapoor)who is yet to accept her mother's death.Strangely her mother was a psychic patient who in her self-destructive mode tried to kill young Amy. Amy in her psychotic dilemma loves her mother and at the same time trying to come out of her mother's death web.The gang comes to full circle with Divyanshu sahu aka Dash (striking debut by Shiv Pandit) who is a drug peddler and a coffee shop waiter.Dash is connected to the whole group with the element of Lucy in the sky with diamonds.The friends gang with Screw rules faces an accident in a moment of ecstasy and thus follows the series of crime one after the other while they go into the self- delusional mode.With a dejavu of Paanch the young spirited minds came to terms with their inner Shaitan (satan). To solve the crime a self righteous cop Mr Mathur (played brilliantly and confidently by Rajeev Khandelwal) had been appointed. The cop is himself going through a turmoil in his personal life and while solving the case he finds a connect with the case and his life at a cognitive platform. As they youngsters and the cops life intertwined there are thousands of questions towards society, morality and inner devil raised in a subtle manner that forms the crux of the brilliant story. Anurag Kashyap is a brilliant film maker who understands cinema and gives break to brilliant new directors. Bijoy Nambier like Kashyap pens a unapologetic amoral characters who are reflection of today's rich youth who have no respect for anyone's life. Without going into any morality Nambier simple tells the story of a devil mind in a unique fashion. It is his execution that elevates the story to another plain and with a brilliant technical team he almost created a neo-realistic masterpiece. There are numerous sequence which deserves accolades specially the "khoya khoya chand" sequence which is one of the best executed sequences in recent times. With slow motion he plays beautifully with time and space while there is a background score of Khoya khoya chand. The scene where the Negros are firing Rajeev Khandelwal and instead shoots the German lady has an unique sexuality attached to it.The effect of hallucinogenic drug leading to the hallucination of Amy with her dead mother is a masterpiece execution specially the bathtub sequence towards the climax is a master stroke as real mixes with hallucination. The usage of geometric shapes within the narrative shows Nambier's eye for detailing and understanding of cinema. Apart from Nambier credit should be given to A Shreekhar Prasad for editing and Madhi for cinematography.The usage of light is captivating and meaningful.Nambier played with light to show the catharsis within Amy towards the end and also tried to portray The cop as anti-devil which is reflected by the scenes where the cop is standing with bright background light compared to the darkness in the same frame. There are plenty of situations where the camera and editing had the potential to compete with any world cinema.Moving to the music and lyrics each of the songs are appropriately placed in the narrative with the wordings taking the story forward. Dialogues of the film are cleverly written. Without going overboard they are kept short,crisp thus having an impact. The sequence between the commissioner and the cop is well written where the commissioner explains the difference between "sach" and "sachai". Nambier should also be applauded for inducing dark humour in the otherwise disturbing story. The flashback within flashback with a cameo done by Rajat Barmecha (of Udaan fame) will bring the house down. Also some witty one liners like "what will you call a moving vibrator? Dil-doh pagal hai" provides moments of laughter for the cine goers. The casting director did a tremendous job as each one of them gave a powerhouse performance. Rajeev Khandelwal stole each scene he was present in. Like a chameleon he went into the character of the Moral upright cop fighting with his own self as he tries to solve the case as well as his personal crisis.Kalki Koechlin as usual gave a superb performance as disturbed Amy coming to terms with her existence. The whole gang which comprises of new comers (Neil Bhopalam,Shiv Pandit,Gulshan Devaiyya,Kriti Kulhari) are all competent actors who have the potential to rock the industry. Veterans like Pawan Malhotra (as the politically incorrect commissioner) and Rajit Kapoor (helpless rich father of Amy) are the pillars of the brilliant ensemble supporting cast. Overall Shaitaan is another milestone in Indian cinema. One wouldn't expect it to be a blockbuster but it will be lapped up by it's target niche audience. More movies of this kinds need to be made in India. Take a bow Anurag Kashyap, Bijoy Nambier and the whole team.