Ek Thi Daayan

When compared to some of the recent horror films made in bollywood, Ek Thi Daayan from director Kannan Iyer is indeed a better one. But the movie fails to conclude in a better way and couldn’t really make it a fresh one in terms of treatment in the second half and ends up in a situation where we may feel that they should have tried to improve the script.

The story here revolves around a magician Bobo who is haunted by dreams about his sister Misha who died in childhood under mysterious circumstances. The tragic childhood of Bobo where his family is ruined by a witch, how that ugly past revisits Bobo’s life and how Bobo manages to escape from all these happenings is what Ek Thi Daayan all about.

Well, the story starts interestingly with backdrop of magic and the practical dialogs and rendering of scenes will definitely keep you curious about the movie which was co written by Vishal Bharadwaj. The first half happenings, especially the childhood of Bobo supported by excellent on screen performances by the two little stars takes the movie into that level where there is a unique kind of excitement. But after a few minutes in the second half, movie falls into those typical Bollywood style which we are quite familiar. Emraan kind of repeats his raaz avatar towards the climax and the movie ends on a dull knot.

On screen, Emraan Hashmi is comfortable in his role and the character doesn’t challenge him to do something new. Huma Qureshi is impressive as Bobo’s wife Tamara and luckily she gets to perform something towards the climax. For me the best performer was Konkona Sen Sharma who portrayed the creepy character of Diana quite superbly. Kalki did her part nicely. The kids Vishesh Tiwari and Sara (Deivathirumakal fame) have done a fabulous job to keep one of the pivotal portions of the movie exciting.

In the making, Kannan has made the right impact in the first half and looses the grip in the second half. He is definitely a promising talent and with some other genre of cinema we may see him scoring success. The script as I said went down towards the ending. If they had better ideas to treat the second half, the film would have done much better. A lot of mysteries added in the second half seems to have less clarity and that raises a lot of whys and hows in our mind. Cinematography is good and the music of Vishal Bharadwaj is also a pleasing one. Edits are cool and the art section is also good. Visual effects were good in parts.

Overall, Ek Thi Daayan needs a bit more polishing. If you are a diehard fan of horror films this Daayan will make you curious at moments. I am giving it a 2.5/5 and thumbs up for the performance of the kids and the engaging first half.