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Thursday, April 25, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD SHAITAN
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***1/2
If there were any doubts about 2011 being the year of reckoning for Indian
cinema, Shaitan with its mounting mood of ricocheting restlessness
puts all doubts to rest. The skillful interweaving of strong storytelling and
powerful performances is underpinned by a wild sense of humour that shows up at
the oddest of places to remind us that cinema is not about following all the
punctuation rules of storytelling. It`s about knowing when and where to rev up
the drama to just that right pitch to carry us into a tripped-out world of
hedonism and redemption.
This stunning tale of five misguided youngsters (no relation to Anurag Kashyap`s
Paanch as reported) from the uppercrust displays a flair for
unleashing an energy that leaves us breathless with anticipation. It`s tough to
keep up with the film`s unbridled zest for momentum. From the opening montage
showing poignant scenes from Kalki`s childhood with her troubled mother to the
dying moments when the five protagonists are rendered either dead or damned or
both, this work of pop-art just sweeps you into its furious folds of angst and
anxiety.
First-time director Bejoy Nambiar doesn`t waste time in introducing the
characters. We know them almost instantaneously.
A huge USP in many recent films set in the madness of the urban jungle is the
raw energy of the outdoor locations. Shaitan assails you with the
tension and the anxiety of people on the run. The camera is never inattentive.
The street scenes and the sound-design are absolutely brilliant.
With devilish dexterity, we are taken into the homes, minds and fetishes of the
five youngsters. In the first 25 minutes, Nambiar constructs a cool case study
for the young quintet`s self-destruction. Then he watches the trendy fund-flush
world of designer labels and other costly indulgences come apart at the seams.
Some of the scenes are deliberately designed to exude the terror of
over-indulgence. Fortunately, most of the pay-off happens almost of its own
volition.
Shaitan is a morality tale with a gut-wrenching twist. It dares to
venture into the psychedelic world of the affluent urban young and then rips the
veil of ecstasy apart to reveal the emptiness that defines every life lived on
the edge of extravagance. Miraculously, Shaitan is a morality-tale
that doesn`t moralise. It creates a world of self-destructive pleasure pursuits
but doesn`t sit judgement on that world.
Nambiar gets terrific support from his cinematographer (R. Madhi) and editor (Sreekar
Prasad) in creating a world that is cinematic and dramatic and yet real enough.
Comparing Nambiar`s style of storytelling to Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie or
Nambiar`s mentor Mani Ratnam or Anurag Kashyap would be as self-defeating as
comparing Shaitan to the other recent films on the young and the
doomed.
Nambiar creates his own world where the quirky and collapsible are constantly
jostling for attention. The narrative is loose-limbed, yet never flabby or
self-indulgent. The film exudes the unbridled energy of a rock song but doesn`t
forget to include a melodic underbelly in its compositional range. The madly
idealistic cop`s (Rajeev Khandelwal) disintegrating marriage to a woman (Sheetal
Menon) who just won`t talk remarkably creates a space for itself in the stifling
bustle of this film`s main action.
A special word for debutants Shiv Pandit, Gulshan Devaiya, and semi-newcomers
Neil Bhoopalam, Kalki Koechlin (her malice-in-blunderland act is haunting) and
Raj Kumar Yadav -- the Ragini MMS hero in top form here as corrupt
cop. Also Pavan Malhotra as a senior police officer.
As for Rajiv Khandelwal as a twisted cynical successor to Amitabh Bachchan`
angry cop from Zanjeer, this is a skilled actor with ample
star-potential.
Shaitan is a work of many virtues about the myriad vices that plague
the life of the young and the rich. It doesn`t preach. It doesn`t use Hindi
abuse words for effect. And the camera chooses to focus on sagging moral values
rather than heaving breasts.
The music blends into the volatile theme. There is a quaint remix of the Dev
Anand-Mohd Rafi-S.D. Burman classic Khoya Khoya Chand as an ironical
homage to the independence that the past generation fought for, and got.
Shaitan looks at the sub-zero level of moral values among a section
of the urban young with a whimsical zest for a new kind of cinematic voice that
is far removed from films about cops and desperados that we`ve come to know over
the years. This is a defining moment in Indian cinema.
Actress Kalki Koechlin has turned lyricist with a new video, titled "Noise", in which she recites a poem written by her to "highlight the value of silence" in our lives. She says she lives in a noisy neighbourhood and sometimes feels like going to the mountains.Read More
We need to keep dialogue around feminism going: Kalki KoechlinActress Kalki Koechlin feels it is great to have a conversation about equality in the industry, and says it is important to keep the discussion going. Read More
`If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much
space‘ the mantra that defines the youth of today . But what happens when the
edge gives away.
Shaitan is the story of 5 youngsters set in the urbanscape of Mumbai. Amy, Dash,
KC , Zubin and Tanya. Young, intelligent, good looking and ‘uber cool’. With
no hang ups and no boundaries, excitement is what they seek till a ‘moment’
changes everything. An accident and their actions to cover up lead them through
a series of incidents across the roads, streets and bylanes of Mumbai and into
the dark side the lurks within all of us – The Shaitan.
Inspector Mathur entrusted with the unenviable task of chasing the youngsters
down exposes the underbelly of the Police system and crime while grappling with
his inner Shaitan. The confluence of the two sides brings across the ultimate
explosion of action drama and thrill on Indian screens that is best described as
real and raw.
