Undescribable Perfection

Excellent but underrated film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Anurag Kashyap is one filmmaker who often makes films which are ahead of their times, expletive yet with substance Shaitan(2011) is one of the most intense films to come on screen. The basic plot may remind you of KHILADI(1992), KHEL KHEL MEIn(1975) but the way the story unfolds you realise there is much more to the film.The film does take some time to geer in but the twist in the tale is well handled and thereon the film keeps you on the edge. The change of events and the manner in which things go about is superb. One flaw perhaps is the forced marriage on the rocks of Rajeev Khandelwal which adds nothing to the film, Also certain elements are a bit exaggerated at times. There are several thrilling scenes in the film and one is not able to guess what is in store next, take for e.g. the murders and the sudden change of events.Direction by Bejoy Nambiar is awesome Music is good too, especially the remixed version of Khoya Khoya Chand which is picturised superbly though it would be better if the film was songless. Camera-work is uniqueAmongst the starcast Mostly consisting of newcomers, TV veejays and some talented actors most deliver a brilliant performance Kalki as always does a good job though now she is typecast in such roles yet she is phenomenal towards the climax especially. Gulshan Devaiya seen in Dumb MARO Dumb in a small role is excellent, Shiv Pandit is superb Neil Bhoopalam who was last seen in No One Killed Jessica is fabulous Kirti Kulhari looks great and acts well Vj Nikhil Chinnapa does a superb job, Rajeev Khandelwal again proves his talent after AAMIR and SOUNDTRACK. He is astounding Rajkumar Yadav is fantastic, Rajat Bharmecha last seen in UDAAN is sort of wasted in a cameo role but does well Imran Rasheed is adequate Pawan Malhotra, Rajit Kapur give brilliant performances as usual Ruksaar gives a decent performance in a small role

First things first..Bejoy Nambiar does really good as the first time director of this dark and gritty fare. The cinematography, background music and chase scenes are done brilliantly. We have seen Mumbai's raw , unadulterated face exposed in several movies but that does not make it boring to watch, especially when done right.The cast , most of whom are first timers do a pretty decent job..some more than others. The introduction scenes explains the basics without spoon feeding the audience. Some scenes are cringe worthy and too stark but it warns the audience that this won't be a sugar coated anything movie.Even the storyline is interesting But..yes there is a but here.Had shaitan been released a couple of years back, there would not have been that many movies for a comparison. However ,as standards for Indian movies get higher, bolder and even deliciously original expectations increase. Shaitan has the right tone but the characterization falls flat..and takes the plot down with it..When the characters got introduced there seemed to be a pattern emerging..KC was the rich kid with an unexplained violent streak, Dash was the initiator who gave a damn about anyone, Neil was the timid one with secret desires , amy the crazy one with ideas and tania the follower..Once the movie progresses all characters go haywire...Dash sets the plan but cannot convince anyone of anything...Amy goes crazy purely on her own devices...and KC who is supposed to be mean and violent grows a conscience and becomes scared..the rest just bolt. Since the friendship doesn't go beyond merrymaking , the falling out holds no merit...The only character which remains true to its form ( mainly because it was one dimensional) is the cop's. The other characters in the movie are not too bad..I haven't watched Paanch but looking at some scenes on youtube, KK Menon's character seems scary , wild and completely unpredictable...That's not the case here..The Shakespearean darkness of plot..the sense of pure evil is actually missing in here...Instead there are 5 kids who are ordinary in extraordinary circumstances..maybe I am missing something...A little more shaitani and we would almost be there...

SHAITAN,apt title for this movie.If it had been named anything else I am sure it would not have been appropriate.Movie is basically centered around rich spoiled brats of India.Their parents have tons of money and these jackanapes are reaping on the sinful benefits of it.They are wild and careless about life but one thing that keep them united is their strong bond of friendship or it appears to be holding them together. Things are going great till they run over 2 innocent people while driving rash in a road race.This is where the movie starts to reveal the evilness of characters.These buddies come up with a perfect plan to cover up and hell starts to break loose when a corrupt cop is chasing them.Their egos clash and you know for sure that there is trouble in paradise.Most of the actors do justice to the screen time provided to them.Rajeev Khandelwal is brilliant as the cop whose personal life is tainted but he continues to work wonders at his work.Kalki seem to made for character Amy, she does a commendable job. Rest all casting is fine.Background score provides soul to the movie and adds to it spirit."Pintya" stands out and add to the essence of chase sequence.The gun fight scene in alley looks like heavily inspired from Tarantino but sure is interesting.This movie provide an entirely different aspect of human nature which is not very often depicted in Bollywood.Basically is shows us there is a dark side of every individual; its just one needs that moment to let this cat out of bag.

Apart from the marketing, which portrayed the film like a hip, fun, new-age, youth oriented Indian film, there's so much that I found wrong with this movie that I wouldn't know where to begin.First of all, the marketing was kind of misleading, as the film spends far more time on youth- demonization that one would expect. However, that too would have been acceptable if the film had a clear point to it, or perhaps one single strong storyline as its backbone. However, it's muddled with unnecessary subplots that have no relevance to the main story, and seem to be thrown in 'just because', and the film goes through more changes in tone than Nokia phones have over the last decade.If I were to somehow find and isolate what could be called the main 'plot' of the film, it's about a bunch of youths who get involved in a car-accident that leads to the death of.... well it's not clear who dies or how many people die, but they're driving a scooter when they're run over by the car that the kids are in, and then they try and cover the whole thing up, but a corrupt cop asks for a gargantuan sum of money to keep quiet about it.You see, that in itself forms a coherent story, yet the film opens with some hint at a sub-plot about one of the kids' insane mother, a sub-plot that's touched upon only briefly and almost at random throughout the rest of the film, and then spends a good 30-40 minutes showing nothing but the extravagant and edgy lifestyle that these kids live, something that shouldn't have taken longer to show than the length of an average music video. And that's pretty much what the movie felt like until the accident about 40 minutes in, a music video. Flashy images set against music, and NOTHING else.Of course that isn't the only sub-plot that brings this movie down. Somewhere along the way, we're introduced to a cop, who from I can assume, was supposed to come across as the edgy, living on the borders of the law type badass law enforcer, but came across as mentally unstable in a sort of uneasy way. The first thing we see him do is push a guy from a floor's height, and then beat up a guy HE happens to be bribing. And then the film starts to focus on his love life but barely touches the surface of it. And I don't mean his love life is mentioned, entire SCENES are devoted to the relationship between him and his wife to absolutely no consequence.The film gets very preachy at times, straying away from the story to show police corruption, time consuming divorce formalities and even a short scene about rikshaw drivers refusing fare, all of which seemed to belong in a different movie altogether.Oh and for the sake of having a shootout, the cop is sent to investigate the disappearance of a German tourist named Claudia Jones (which doesn't sound German in the slightest), a woman who is meant to be blonde, as stated in the PREVIOUS SCENE, but is played by an Indian girl with dark hair. Oh and the cop also stops machine gun fire with a MATTRESS.But I'm getting off topic here. The sub-plots keep creeping up here and there but are never fully explored as they have little or nothing to do with the actual plot, which takes far too long to get set into place, and even as the film's events begin to unfold, there are some absolutely appalling changes in tone that almost seem random, if it weren't for the fact that I got the indication that the camera angles and scenes had been thought out beforehand, and then the 'story' was added in later. And the characters ended up seeming more like one- dimensional characters than anything else. It seemed like the writer/director threw in every cinematic idea he has ever had into one film.The only positives I felt this film had were 1) Neil Bhopalam (Zubin), the only actor who seemed to have any sort of grounding, while all the others were either devoid of the slightest hint of emotion or shouting and crying like the sky was falling. He was at the same time entertaining and engaging, but the script didn't do his talent justice. And 2) The cameo appearance by Rajat Barmecha of Udaan. Not because it was an especially great performance, or necessary at all for that matter, but because it reminded me that films like Udaan still exist, so all hope for youth-oriented Indian cinema isn't lost just yet.All in all, I felt it was a film that promised a lot, but in the process of trying to deliver too much at once, failed to deliver any thing at all. All style and no substance, Shaitan is one of the most disconnected films I've seen in recent memory, and will be remembered as nothing more than a severe disjoint between content and execution.A film being well directed is pointless if it's a bunch of well directed nothing.