Shaitaan (2024)-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

 

Plot: Kabir and Jyoti do whatever it takes to free their daughter Janhvi when she is hypnotized by a stranger.

Love for family can be a strong emotion. But can it be strong enough to break through all the evil in the world?

In Bollywood movies and in Disney ones, true love is often found in family members. Reality may be different, but movies can offer a fantasy of what families can be like.

If you want to see strong family bonds in movies, check out horror movies.

In that, a family, no matter how much they may bicker in the first half, must come together and defeat the evil that had befallen the family.

Shaitaan is yet another example of how far family members can go for each other.

Based on the 2023 Gujrati thriller Vash, the movie once again sees the actress Janki Bodiwala play the daughter who becomes a captive in the Hindi remake as well.

In Vash she played Aarya. In Shaitaan, she plays Jahnvi. Clearly, the role of a girl being hypnotized and subjected to black magic can only be played by an adept actress and Janki Bodiwala does play her role with aplomb yet again.

The movie will draw you in within a few minutes and of course there is Ajay Devgn and R.Madhavan to do the heavy lifting. But Jyothika, who plays the mother, is equally as effective. In fact, in one of the scenes, you may just want to stand up and cheer her on.

Shaitaan feels like a story that hits too close. It can happen to anybody, even you. The supernatural touch just adds to the chilling story.

However, the ending doesn't sit right. It is the perfect end to the story but the whole scene appears to be ridiculous even though it shouldn't have felt like it.

SHAITAAN Plot

The movie opens with a man roaming about a forest. We don't see much at the moment.

Enter the Rishi family who are off on vacation to their farmhouse. There are multiple pranks being played on each other, one that almost causes a car crash. There are apparently no limits to pranking in this family.

They stop at a restaurant and are having lunch but Jahnvi, the daughter, isn't too keen on eating a dripping with butter paratha. She could have easily ordered something else considering her brother ordered burgers. That means that this roadside restaurant does have other items too that she could have ordered.

Anyway, she refuses to eat it even as her mother tells her to. Afterwards Kabir and Jyoti decide to have tea as their son Dhruv tries to eat his two burgers.

Kabir goes back and forth at the counter because there is some token required but he doesn't have change.

A stranger that Kabir had been listening to in the washroom, comes over and pays for their tea. The stranger introduces himself as Vanaraj and pretends to be offended that Kabir was eavesdropping on his conversation with his daughter who was telling him to not have tea on an empty stomach.

Kabir offers him food and invites him to sit with them. Vanaraj notices that Jahnvi isn't eating her meal. She tells him she doesn't like it and that she also doesn't like the smell of tea.

Vanaraj smirks and then when her family is distracted, offers one laddoo to her. Dhruv and her fight over it before she pops it into her mouth.

Considering she was making a big fuss about dieting, she sure was keen to eat sweets.

The moment she puts it into her mouth, she gets troubled and looks at Vanaraj warily.

As he is making conversation with the parents, he casually asks Jahnvi to eat the paratha. She complies immediately.  Her parents barely pay attention and are just content she is eating.

After finishing her plate, Jahnvi is perplexed about what she did and wants to leave.

They get in the car but just as Kabir and Dhruv buy something at a stall, Jahnvi is panicking but smiles when Vanaraj knocks on her window. He offers her biscuits and tells her to eat the whole packet when she reaches the farmhouse.

And just like he had instructed, that's the first thing Jahnvi does when the car parks in front of the farmhouse. She opens up the packet and gobbles it all up.

Following that there is a scene to cement the love between the family members. They all jump into the pool and splash water around. Yay! Family time!

Jyoti is the first one to leave since her phone got wet and so she places it in a box of rice. Apparently the rice trick works because later on the phone works well.

While she is drying off her hair while standing on the balcony. She spots Vanaraj by the gates. Confused, she goes down and finds him already inside. Jahnvi has let him in.

Kabir and Dhvruv also come in and are confused as to why the stranger they met at a restaurant is now in their home.

Vanaraj, all smiles and charm, says that his phone ran out of battery and he wants to charge it. Since he paid twenty bucks for their tea, Kabir lets him stay and even gives him a phone to call his daughter. He then tells Jyoti to serve him tea.

There's something about this movie and tea. It was either made by a tea lover or a tea hater. It's hard to tell which.

Vanaraj gets Jahnvi to tell him about her boyfriend and her upcoming trip to Ladakh. He also commands her to change her wet clothes and she listens to him more than her parents.

At this point, her parents still don't suspect a thing.

Vanaraj gets Jahnvi to say that she will come with him but Dhruv distracts him with the ball and his incessant request to get Jahnvi to play with him.

Vanaraj tells Jahnvi to play so much with Dhruv that he will never want to play with her again.

The parents hear screaming and go peek in the garden to see Dhruv on the swing and Jahnvi standing behind him and swinging the swing faster and higher.

Nothing happens to her but Dhruv does get dizzy. Jahnvi doesn't understand what is happening to her and the confusion on her face is pitiable.

At the dinner table, Dhruv is being pampered while Jahnvi is still not herself. Vanaraj comes in and states that both his children have no manners.

Kabir tells him to mind his own business but Vanaraj still pushes him. He laughs and tells him that he can make his daughter do anything. He tells Jahnvi to call up her boyfriend, cancel the trip and break up with him.

Jahnvi does exactly that.

Kabir and Jyoti can't believe their daughter is doing everything a stranger is telling him to. Kabir picks up Vanaraj's jacket and tells him to get lost.

Vanaraj instructs Jahnvi to make sure that doesn't happen.

And so Jahnvi does exactly that. She prevents Kabir from throwing Vanaraj out and even goes as far as to slap him. He is stunned and Jahnvi helplessly apologizes.

The parents are shocked to see Jahnvi obeying Vanaraj's every command.

Their guest, makes himself comfortable and tells them that he has Jahnvi under his spell and can make her do anything. He only wants her to come with him and for that he needs their permission.

Kabir and Jyoti refuse.

Vanaraj warns them he will make their lives miserable. He gets Jahnvi to cut the phone and Internet lines, as well as break all cellphones.

The family is shocked when they see Jahnvi doing exactly that.

Vanaraj mocks the family by making Jahnvi eat tea leaves and slapping herself.

He even makes her dance for one hour and when Jyoti gives her water, he commands her to spit it out.

The parents watch helplessly and even try to get Vanaraj to release their daughter but of course he doesn't.

Sick of Dhruv making a noise, Vanaraj commands Jahnvi to bash his head.

Without missing a beat, she smacks her brother's head against the staircase post.

The parents are shocked when they see Dhruv bleeding. They take him upstairs and leave Vanaraj alone.

Some time later, the police come over, stating that they received a call from Jyoti's phone.

Since Vanaraj and the others had already seen the police, they were prepared.

Dhruv was sent upstairs. Jahnvi is commanded to sit atop a gas cylinder with a matchstick ready.

The police ask Jyoti to get her phone. Vanaraj is clearly unhappy that there is still a working phone in the house.

Jyoti gets her phone from the rice box. The police ask how Vanaraj got a bruise on his cheek and he lies about his friend Kabir being mad at him for forgetting his birthday.

Jyoti makes up a story of Dhruv playing with his phone. The police want to see Dhruv and the poor kid tries to drag himself downstairs as Kabir jokes about the police coming to arrest him.

The police relent and leave, thinking it was all a prank.

Jahnvi is pulled away from the gas cylinder while Jyoti has to break her phone.

Kabir tries getting Vanaraj to leave by offering him money. Vanaraj pretends to agree. You know he is lying because the movie still isn't close to ending.

He takes their valuables and then sets them on fire to make a point that he doesn't care about materialistic things and want so much power that he is known as Lord Vanaraj.

He wants enough power to not have to invest in sweets to hypnotize people. He reasons that people do not need free will and that he wants to control them all.

He laughs maniacally while the parents watch with disdain.

Vanaraj, for all the supposed power he has, wants to sleep and tells Jahnvi to watch over him and stab anyone who comes near him.

Kabir attempts to leave the room and goes downstairs.

Jahnvi tries to hold herself back and Kabir tries to get her to let him go. Conflicted, Jahnvi pees on herself. Or maybe she really had to go.

Kabir retreats and tells Jyoti to go change her.

Vanaraj wakes up and shames Jahnvi for peeing like a little kid.

Jyoti pleads with him to let her take her daughter upstairs and get her cleaned. He insists she changes her there.

Jyoti is disgusted with his behavior but changes her daughter. Vanaraj makes a distasteful comment and Jyoti loses it. She lunges at Vanraj.

Upstairs, Kabir is telling his almost unconscious son that he needs his help since he is tech savvy. He then proceeds to get out through the window.

Downstairs, Jyoti is really going at Vanaraj and it is a satisfying moment.

At this point you hate R. Madhavan's character and cheering Jyothika's character. That's how good the actors have done at their job.

As Kabir is climbing down the pipe, he too spots his wife beating Vanaraj up but takes a few moments before he goes to play tag team.

Later we find out that he had crept down to add a tracker in Vanaraj's phone.

He too gets into fisticuffs before Vanaraj gets Jahnvi to help him. She goes to help him only for her parents to tie her up. But Vanaraj has other tricks up his sleeve. He tells Jahnvi to keep laughing until she dies.

The parents immediately cease the fight. Vanaraj tells them that should they kill him, his last order will stay on and Jahnvi will kill herself with laughter.

Eventually Vanaraj too gets sick of her laughing and tells her to go kill Dhruv since her parents refuse to let her go with him.

Dhruv is watching what is going on and is too slow while closing the door. Jahnvi lunges at him and the parents have to pull her back.

They drag her into a store room where she tells them she can't help herself and begs them for help. In the next instant, she locks them inside and goes after Dhruv.

But he isn't in his room anymore and Vanaraj spoils the hide and seek game by telling Jahnvi that Dhruv never came downstairs.

She goes up the terrace and that is where Dhruv is. Dramatically, it is raining as well. Dhruv tries to save himself but Jahnvi is too aggressive and breaks through the door.

Kabir manages to escape the store room and follows his kids up the ladder but Jahanvi throws him down.

He rushes downstairs, anticipating what is going to happen and passes a pleased Vanaraj.

But he reaches too late. Jahnvi pushes Dhruv off the terrace. Kabir barely touches his son as he hits the ground.

He is one tough kid though because after hitting his head and falling off the roof, he is still conscious. He is tougher than most heroes. Good for him.

Realizing they almost lost their kid, the parents give permission to take Jahnvi.

Vanaraj is super happy.

SHAITAAN Ending Explained

While Kabir is placing Dhruv in the car, he asks his father to bring his sister back. Kabir does exactly that and so Jyoti is tasked with driving Dhruv to the hospital.

Kabir tracks Vanaraj to the forest.

It is revealed that Vanaraj has hypnotized more than a 100 young women. In fact, one of them was instructed to keep swinging and the poor woman is unable to walk anymore. She nevertheless, crawls to him when he beckons.

Vanaraj removes his contacts and dresses in his evil tantrik garb. He laughs maniacally and reveals voodoo dolls. There is a fire in the pit and he tells the girls, including Jahnvi, that they must make their way towards the pit every time he throws a black doll and when he throws a red one they must all jump in.

Kabir is horrified to see so many captives. Vanaraj spots him and Kabir is attacked by Vanaraj's supporters. He still manages to make it in time before the red doll is thrown in. Since he still has a knife sticking out of his hand from the previous fight, he slices Vanaraj's tongue.

Vanaraj is shocked and tries to talk but fails to get the girls to do his bidding.

But the girls may have been instructed to hurt anyone who hurt him because they all pounce on Kabir who uses an earlier edited recording.

In a flashback we learn that Kabir wanted his son's software to edit a recording they had taken of Vanraj when he had said that he wanted his daughter to be let go and live a normal and happy life.

The girls are trained to follow Vanaraj's voice and so immediately find their mind control vanish.

They all return to normal, including Jahnvi.

Hours later, Kabir is at the hospital and Dhruv is on the other bed, all bandaged up with Jyoti sitting beside him.

The police officer thanks Kabir for returning all the girls and helping the department solve the missing persons cases.

We see all the girls being returned to their family, even the swing girl who still can't walk properly and is not given any support to do so.

Kabir expresses remorse that Vanaraj was never caught and may still be up to his tricks. The police assures him that he will be caught soon.

A year later, Kabir grabs a dead rat and heads down to a cellar in the forest.

We see Vanraj all chained up. His hair and beard have grown. He is fed rats and mocked with banana for which he desperately yearns.

Kabir tells him that Vanaraj thought he was powerful but he was no match for a parent's love for their children.

And now for Vanaraj, Kabir would be a shaitaan.

He leaves while Vanaraj is left in the dark and desperately calling out for Kabir.

The movie ends.

Shaitaan leaves a lasting impression and while the last scene may not be up to the mark where direction is concerned, it was still an apt end to the story.

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