Shaitan: Hindi film’s salaam to Quentin Tarantino

So the film is brilliantly shot, the sound design is awesome. And at times you feel like you’re watching a Quentin Tarantino movie. The scene with Rajiv Khandelwal and Nikhil Chinapa fighting it out with the Nigerian bad guys is case in point; it’s a perfect mish-mash taken straight out of a Pulp Fiction or Inglourious basterds. But then as a viewer you can’t help but wonder what of the plot?

The tale seems rather familiar; cocaine-addicted Indian brats going on a killing spree, then trying to save their skins by coming up with maddening schemes which keep going wrong; the aggressive cop Rajiv Khandewal who’s determined to get to the heart of the mystery surrounding the disappearing act of four of the teens whose powerful parents have raised hell to get them back.

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A simple enough story with a whole load of violent scenes executed to perfection in slo-mo and you keep wondering which character is going to screw up next. But the disjunctive narrative and weak characters make it a rather half baked experience.

[caption id=“attachment_24174” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Kalki Koechlin in Shaitan. Publicity still from movie. Image courtesy Viacom”]  [/caption]

There’s Kalki Koechlin who plays the role of a disturbed Amy quite flawlessly. A teenage girl who suffers from severe childhood trauma caused by her schizophrenic mother’s attempts to murder her, Kalki’s narrative has its own series of very strong psychotic crises in the film. Clearly she hasn’t forgotten the dead mother.

Her story has a strong visual place in the film; the use of psychoanalytic imagery such as the mother drowning the child makes for a different experience for the regular Bollywood viewer. But this is a tool that seems to be often used in the Kashyap brand of films. Remember DevD. Very often Kalki’s narrative, because of its visual quality, is such that it overpowers the rest of the film.

The viewer needs to comprehend her crisis fully and that never seems to happen. On one hand we have the stories of the crazy teenagers trying to escape at all costs from the police and then there’s Rajiv Khandewal, the aggressive cop who’s hunting for them as well as going through a divorce. The three tales never seem to blend in with each other.

Weaker secondary characters such as KC and Tania make it a drab experience. Tania played by Kirti Kulhari, as the typical screaming woman is not enjoyable. The potential that her character seems to have is forgotten in the course of the film. She’s reduced to a hyperventilating woman once the trouble starts. She’s also shown dating KC played by Gulshan Devaiya who’s happy to make out with someone else and her justification seems to be that she sees herself in him. How? Why? It appears to be just another cool line used with no real substance. Again KC seems to be one overtly angry character; he seems to kills with great ease. A little unrealistic but then he’s a cocaine addict so I guess that’s where all the anger is coming from.

Rajiv Khandelwal’s performance as the cold-hearted cop is brilliant. The one scene that deserves particular mention is when he gives an autorickshaw driver a deserved kick for refusing to go to Vasai. That predictably provokes much clapping in the hall. Khandelwal’s narrative is the second most important one in the film. Again much credit goes to the strong visual content used and of course the ease with which he fits into the role of a cold, angry-with-the-world-yet-will-continue-to-do-his-job, cop.

Overall the film scores on the following grounds; amazing visuals blended with hip, electric music provided by Prashant Pillai, Amar Mohile, Ranjit Barot, and Anupam Roy. But what makes it weaker is the overall confusion with its three plots, which don’t seem to talk to each other at times. I’d suggest you go watch this one simply because the director Bejoy Nambiar has dared to show us a film with stunning sequences. On the other hand if you’re a Tarantino fan, chances are you won’t be enthralled too much.