Movie Review –Ek Thi Daayan

Film : Ek Thi Daayan
 
Rating: 3.5/5

Cast : Emraan Hashmi, Huma Qureshi, Kalki Koechlin and Konkana Sen.

Music : Vishal Bharadwaj

Direction : Kannan Iyer

Story :

The story of Ek Thi Daayan revolves around folk tales about witches and their witch craft. Emraan Hashmi plays the role of Bobo, best magician in India. Just when he plans to settle down, he is confronted with his old past. He uses hypnosis to find out details of his past where he finds out that a witch who he had killed promised to take him. After so many years he feels that his past has come back to haunt him and cause harm to his family. How he protects them and how he kills the daayan is the remaining par of the story.

Performances :

Ek Thi Daayan stars Emraan Hashmi, Huma Qureshi, Kalki Koechlin and Konkana Sen. Emraan Hashmi who has carried off dark roles easily in his previous films, plays the role of a magician with the same ease. He plays the role of a top magician Bobo. He gives a very mature performance in this film and carries the whole film on his shoulders really well. All the female leads plays their part to perfection. But Konkana as a veteran does the best job out of them. Huma and Kalki fail to do better than Konkana. The best part was played by Vishesh Tiwari who played child version of Emraan Hashmi. The innocence that he bring to role adds a bigger advantage. Sara Arjun who plays Emraan’s sister is very cute.

Technical aspect :

Kannan Iyer brings a gem with the story with ‘Ek Thi Daayan’. The story is based on a short story by Mukul Sharma. Mukul Sharma was assisted by Vishal Bharadwaj on the story and the screenplay. The movie concentrated on the minutest of details. The screenplay of the movie is good but only in parts. The movie lacks a befitting end to this supernatural thriller.  Cinematography is very important for a horror movie. Saurabh Goswami does a wonderful job in it. The movie manages to evoke more spine chilling sequences than expected. Both background music and songs are enjoyable in this movie. Vishal Bharadwaj music and Gulzar’s lyrics are a perfect combination, they manage to create most beautiful songs.

Analysis :

Kannan Iyer has definitely bought back element ‘Daayan’ that has existed in hindi horror movies. With a fresh script, melodious tunes and an awesome performances put up by the cast of Ek Thi Daayan makes this movie very watchable. The film has shrills, thrills, Emraan’s lip lock and of course Daayans, everything that you are expecting from this movie. But the thing that spoils everything is the screenplay and how the movie ends. The first half of the movie is very engaging. It’s mostly the flashback of emraan and is so beautifully directed that the second half doesn’t seem to be directed by Kannan. The ending is so bad that you find it funny (It shows the actors are involved in fist fight ). It follows a long list of hindi horror movies whose endings fall flat to the build up it generates in the first half. Nevertheless, must watch movie for the first half performances and picturisation.

Bottomline : Ek Thi Daayan is full of Chills, Thrills But Ending Spills