This summer, my brother in law’s children visited our place for fifteen days. Out of many activities my husband and I planned for the kids, one was to watch a movie with them every weekend. For this purpose, we would create a cinema in our home by turning the lights off, playing the movie on our 52 inches LED TV, making popcorn and watching movies downloaded from DVD Point right across A One Snacks 2 in DHA Phase-II Ext.
One weekend, the children wanted to watch a horror movie and since they would only watch Bollywood, after some Googling, we selected “Ek thi Daayan” starring Emraan Hashmi and Konkona Sen Sharma
Plot
The movie starts with Bobo (played by Emraan Hashmi) performing a magic show in which he is disturbed by a vision which leads to an accident in the show. The story revolves around these visions and throughout the course of the movie, we discover the cause of these visions and the story behind them. This plot sets the pace of the entire movie which except for the end is really good at keeping the viewers hooked through suspense, if not terror
Characters
Emraan Hashmi, as the main lead, is pretty good as the scared orphan whose past still haunts him. However, I think Konkona steals the show as no other actress could have performed the role of the daayan as good as Konkona. With her traditional Bengali features and dusky complexion, she is not only mysterious and scary but her apt timing and expressions add a fearful dimension to the movie. The two young children, Vishesh Tiwari and Sara Arjun as the young Bobo and his sister have also given very convincing performances keeping the fabric of the story intact and intriguing.
Similary, the performance of Kalki Koechlin as Lisa Dutt and Huma Qureshi as Tamara complement the movie. The writer had properly developed all the characters and the actors have totally done justice to the writer’s vision with their performances.
Execution
When it comes to horror movies, most of the time the special effects in Bollywood movies are hilarious rather than scary. But in this movie, the direction as well as the special effects are superb. The darkness, which is present throughout the movie, aptly sets the mood for the darkness in the protagonist’s life and the contrast is clearly visible at the end of the movie when the protagonist finds a solution (I will not reveal more in case of spoilers)
Songs
The only worth mentioning song in this movie is yaaram which is not something you will put on repeat but it has something which makes it good to listen especially the lyrics that concentrate on finding love in the routine of daily life. The songs are not important for this movie either as this is a movie that relies on story to carry it forward rather than music.
PG Rating
There are a few scenes between Konkona and Bobo’s dad (played by Pawan Malhotra) which may be a little inappropriate for young children but it is nothing the forward button on the remote cannot control
Conclusion
Overall, Ek thi daayan is an excellent choice if you are a fan of horror and supernatural flicks. In addition, this is thoroughly a movie which will be loved by the kids. My brother in law’s children enjoyed it immensely.
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