Mahi V Raghav's Shaitan generated immense interest among movie lovers. The web series, a horror genre has been promoted by Mahi V Raghav in a creative manner. The webseries is streaming on Diseny+Hostar from 15 June 2023 and let us find out whether Shaitan scared viewers or not.
Shaitan's story is all about revenge drama which assumes political colors. Bali (Rishi) returns from jail and from that time, his life takes a drastic turn and he is seen threatening even the Home Minister. To find out why Bali dared the Home Minister and what is his relation with his mother Savitri (Shelly), brother Gumti (Jaffer), sister Jaya (Devayani Sharma), and what connection he has with police officer Nagi Reddy (Ravi Kale), Kalavathi (Kamakshi Bhaskarla), form the rest of the story.
Rishi slipped into the role of Bali. He showed variations in his expressions and emotions in different scenes and situations. Devayani Sharma is surprises with her performance and image makeover for her role Jayaprada.
It looks completely different from the role of the lawyer she played in Save The Tigers. Jaffer performed his role quite well and he is a perfect match for the role. Others like Shelly, Ravi Kale, and Kamakshi Bhaskarala got limited scope to shower acting talent.
The Shaitan story readied by Mahi V Raghav is a complete contrast to the comedy crapper he came up with earlier in the form of Save The Tigers. In Shaitan, he showed how a child becomes a criminal in a hard-hitting and realistic manner. The webseries comes with 9 episodes and Mahi V Raghav concentrated on highlighting and glorifying violence in a brutal way.
He showed violence in a gory manner and even the dialogues crossed the limits with the extensive usage of cuss words. He even showed the atrocities on women in a similar fashion. As the webseries offers him all the freedom, Mahi V Raghav decided to erase the boundaries he used to have in filmmaking on the big screen.
However, few scenes and dialogues touch all. Be it the mother unable to explain or justify her situation to her children, But the emotions are overtaken and diluted by the cuss words. Had he toned down the cuss words, those scenes would have made a better impact. While the narration revolved and centered around the main characters, the intensity is more but it got deviated in a few episodes with unnecessary scenes. There are a few illogical scenes. Though few may like the hard-hitting scenes and sequences, family viewers will be put off by this narration.
Shanmukha Sundaram's cinematography captured the scenes in a realistic manner elevating the raw and rustic feel of the narration. BGM of Sriram Madduri elevated the scenes. Editing could have been better as there are few dargs in some episodes. Production values are decent.
Altogether, Shaitan justifies the title with the story. Mahi V Raghav came up with a routine story but instead of concentrating on the emotional quotient, concentrated on going bold with extensive usage of cuss words and crossing all borders while depicting violence. Screenplay and direction is in sync with his story. A little bit of toning down of violence and cuss words would have helped the narration. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 2.5 Rating for Shaitan.