Khoya Khoya Chand Shaitan

Shaitan

Shaitan is not about ghosts but about the inner shaitan (demon) of humans. The movie tries to examine the fact that when the inner demon in one comes out, then the person is taken over by aggression and becomes violent. And the movie presents this by examining the psyche of today’s youngsters.

Set in Mumbai, the movie narrates the story of five youngsters who believe in living a carefree life. Amy (Kalki Koechlin) returns to India with her father and stepmother and befriends a bunch of youngsters. The gang includes KC (Gulshan Devaiya), drug peddler Dash (Shiv Pandit), model-cum-aspiring actor Tanya (Kirti Kulhari) and Zubin (Neil Bhoopalam). One day while on a drive, their car hits a scooter killing two people. Scared of being caught, they flee the accident spot. However, a cop tracks them and blackmails them for a huge ransom. In order to gather the required money, they plan a fake kidnap of Amy so that they can demand ransom from her NRI father. But things do not go the way they want when suspended inspector Arvin (Rajeev Khandelwal) takes charge of finding Amy’s kidnappers.

Debutant director Bijoy Nambiar has been successful in hitting the pulse of the audience by presenting a story of a new taste in a rather interesting way. But the first half of the movie fails him for there are plenty of moments that seem exaggerated just to increase the length of the movie. However, the second half picks up pace and is packed with thrill which is bound to increase the audience’s interest.

Khandelwal gives a brilliant performance as this aggressive cop, who is also fighting his own inner demon. Koechlin, who depicts the characteristics of a distressed daughter, is convincing. Devaiya is natural and impressive. Pandit performs his part well but does not have much screen space. Kulhari and Bhoopalam are good in their respective roles.

Cinematographer R Madhi has been able to capture high-speed shots beautifully in his frames. The background score is good, however, the song Khoya Khoya Chand as background score during a shoot-and-run sequence does not seem relevant and significant.

Shaitan is a thrilling narration of a contemporary tale. Watch it for a new taste.