Movie Review: Ek Thi Daayan

Director: Kannan Iyer

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Huma Qureshi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kalki Koechlin and Vishesh Tiwari

Films like Ek Thi Daayan are the hardest to critique. They have a wealth of potential. Their off-kilter subject and treatment piques your curiosity to the maximum. They even deliver a large part of what they promise. But right at the end, when a film and its narrative are at their most crucial juncture, it all fails you. It turns into pure hogwash. You’d rather watch Navjot Singh Sidhu talk endlessly for eight hours than sit through this theatre of absurdity. Films like these are the apex examples of sheer disappointment.

You watch the first half of Ek Thi Daayan and marvel at the outstanding detail of its story. A horror film stays away from all the formulae of its genre and manufactures pure dread by antagonising innocence. You wonder at the way the curiosity and naivety of a child is turned into pure horror. You clutch the end of your arm rest in dismay because a woman who looks pretty homely and harmless behaves as if she is a devil reincarnate. Words can’t describe the overdrive of emotions achieved in first half of this film. Vishesh Tiwari playing the young Bobo captures all your fears and plays them out in the open. So every time he shrieks at the daayan turning into a lizard, you fear you might have some evil geckos at home, which you may have previously perceived as harmless. Would you want to go home to them? The movie plays wonderful mind games with the viewer. And it adds a sense of horror to such elementary activities like taking the lift

In large part it’s the cast of Ek Thi Daayan who sell you the horror. Performances by Konkona Sen Sharma, Huma Qureshi and Kalki Koechlin are top of the charts. They are the suspects for being the daayan and essentially it is the combination of their performances and make-up that send plenty a chills down the spine. Emraan is adept in his portrayal of the part suave, part delirious magician Bobo. And cinematographer Saurabh Goswami is a wonderful colleague to these actors. He captures the myriad surreal moments with great expertise. Capturing actors and detailed production in the mirrors is always a triumph of visual mastery.

Mind you, all that flattery ends as you near the film’s climax. Though Ek Thi Daayan retains the same visual appeal and character quirk in the second half, it also attains a rather distasteful and clichéd horror design. The absolute convenience with which writers Vishal Bhardwaj and Mukul Sharma convolute their story elements to make exaggerated developments is irritating. (Spoiler alert) Emraan Hashmi suddenly spawns super powers and his altercation with the daayan is best described as werewolves versus vampires. What happened to wonderfully unique concepts like “har building ka apna hell hota hai” (every building as its own hell) that made the film’s first half? Director Kannan Iyer sure loses the plot at the end.

But the extremely juvenile end of Ek Thi Daayan doesn’t do enough damage to spoil the memorable impressions of its build up. Watch this film for its ingenuity and flair. You won’t feel as safe around house lizards and women with long plaits. You’ll mock your own vivid imagination just the way the end of this film mocks its potential.

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Movie Review: Ek Thi Daayan