Movie Review: Ek Thi Daayan

What would your reaction be when a movie starts off with a disclaimer saying ‘it does not intend to stereotype women as witches’ and the whole crowd goes “ha ha ha ha ha”

The story about witches and witchcraft is not new to Bollywood. Movies in past have explored this genre so much that it’s a done to death concept (did I use the word ‘death’?)

So after a flurry of Vikram Bhatt horror flops 1920, Raaz and so on, here comes Ek Thi Daayan a super natural thriller directed by Kannan Iyer and written by Vishal Bharadwaj who explores the world of daayans and pishaches.

Emran Hashmi plays a famous magician named Bobo ( by the way what kind of a person names his son Bobo for christ sake!) who is also referred to as ‘Bobo the Baffler’ by his fans. All’s well and good until he starts hallucinating ‘chipkalees’ and ‘dead bodies’.

He undergoes hypnosis and discovers that in his childhood, he was terrorized by a woman named Diana, played by Konkona Sen Sharma(creepy as hell!).

Young Bobo (superbly acted by Vishesh Tiwari), is convinced that the women who has become his widowed fathers recent love interest is actually a witch trying to kill him or his sister.

Genuinely scary and intriguing, this portion of the film is an extended flashback sequence that plays out well and manages to keep you on the edge of the seat. The intrigue along with some jump-out-of-your-seat moments build up the story nicely till the interval. And then all ‘hell’ breaks loose (I mean that in a very bad way).

Post interval the movie goes down-hill when it starts going down the commercial lane.

So there is a Shaadi dance number where Bobo, his wife, the psychiatrist, the father from the church all dance to a tune “Totey Ud gaye”! And if you think that’s ridiculous wait until you watch the hilarious climax which involves a fist fight between daayans and pishaches. The post interval part murders the entire concept.

The film hams it up badly here but relies on its actors to rise above their roles. And in all fairness they do deliver. Emraan Hashmi as the magician is good and Huma Qureshi does well too. Kalki Koechlin has nothing much to do here.

But it’s the ever-dependable Konkana Sen Sharma who gives a chilling performance. It’s a difficult task for any actress to say lines like “Bobo, me arahi hun..!” and still look scary. With her big black eyes and little nuances in her ‘daaiyan mannerism’ she is truly intriguing. She’s so good in her role that if I was a little kid watching this film, I would run away from any women whose name is Diana.

Conclusion: Starts off like an A-grade horror flick and ends like a C-grade one it’s worth a try if you are very eager to dive into it.