Shaitaan

Rajshree Thakur's "Shaitaan" arrives with genuine ambition—a home-invasion thriller wrapped in supernatural dread that wants to explore how quickly trust can shatter within a family. Ajay Devgn brings his characteristic intensity to Kabir, a man whose rational mind becomes useless when confronted with the irrational, and there's real pathos in watching him struggle to protect his family from an enemy he cannot comprehend. Madhavan's Vanraj is disturbingly charming, embodying that particular horror of the familiar turned monstrous. The farmhouse setting transforms beautifully from sanctuary to prison, and in its best moments, the film captures that primal fear of isolation—when help is unreachable and the threat wears a human face.

Yet the film falters precisely where it matters most: the emotional core. Janhvi's possession and transformation should break our hearts, should make us feel the parents' helplessness as viscerally as they do, but instead it becomes mechanical. The screenplay relies too heavily on jump scares and plot mechanics rather than psychological penetration—we understand Vanraj's philosophy intellectually but never feel its seductive danger. The climax, for all its spectacle, reduces a rich premise about freedom and control to a straightforward good-versus-evil showdown. Madhavan's talent is wasted on a character who needed complexity beneath the charm, and the child actors, though earnest, aren't given scenes that let them breathe.

"Shaitaan" is competent