It’s incredible how a film that starts off so well can turn into such a load of trite tales. Ek Thi Daayan, whose rather overrated cast gave me reservations before I walked into the cinema, haunts the audience in its first half. We’re spooked out by some intelligent art direction, which keeps us nervous with its promise of scares. The director uses the effective technique of taking us back to our childhoods, and the fears the more imaginative of us would constantly nurse as children. And so, we can relate to a child who is obsessed with the occult, who imagines that, at the bottom of his apartment building, there is a hell into which children are lured. Better still, we’re not sure how much of what we see is the child’s imagination, and how much of it is reality. However, the film is not able to sustain this delicate balance of set pieces and innovative turns.
The child, played with skill by Vishesh Tiwari, grows up into Bobo (Emraan Hashmi), a stage magician with the popularity usually reserved for Bollywood stars. Right, so you do have P C Sorcar and the like, but Bobo beats them all. I mean, he’s got fans flying in from Canada to see him. Okay, then, we’ll swallow that. But things go downhill when he begins to hallucinate, and starts having intense conversations with his girlfriend Tamara (Huma Qureshi), with whom he has until now only sung Punjabi love songs.
As his psychologist gives him hypnotherapy, we are taken into his past, which comprises the best part of the film. However, when we return to the adults, the film stretches our patience. An interesting idea of the daayan as child-minder, descends into predictability when the daayan turns seductress. The usual devices – loud sounds, creaks and whinges – which alarmed us in the early part of the film seem repetitive as it progresses. How many times in one film can you get nervous when you see the same ominous sign? The surprises settle into a pattern, and begin to annoy us.
Though Konkona Sen Sharma does a rather good job of handling her daayan role, the other heroines disappoint. Kalki Koechlin’s role appears redundant, and one wonders whether the film could not have been tauter, and more frightening, if she hadn’t been in it. Huma Qureshi, who has done a decent job thus far in Bollywood, turns in a very average performance in this film. Emraan Hashmi uses his experience in the horror genre to good effect, sounding convinced – though not convincing – when he goes on about daayans and pishashes.
Pegging the film down further is an overabundance of songs, at least three of which we could have done without. The climax is so hackneyed that we end up laughing through it.
The Verdict: Ek Thi Daayan is a very good watch for some time, but the plot falters midway.