Yatra fame Mahi V Raghav has now come up with a crime web series named Shaitan. Starring Rishi, Shelly, Ravi Kale, Deviyani, and Jaffer Sadiq in crucial roles, the web series is now streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: Set in Madanapalle, the show revolves around gross injustice, Naxalites, and their fight with the Police department. Savitri (Shelly) is a single mother of three children Baali (Rishi), Jayaprada (Deviyani), and Gumthi (Jaffer Sadiq). Savitri chooses to sleep with a corrupted policeman to feed her children, and hence society brands her as a prostitute. Situations make Baali a criminal, and he forces him to join the Naxals group. Also, Baali’s family decides to go to any extent for their survival. How Baali evolves as a Naxalite affects his family, forms a crucial crux of the film.
Performances: Set in Madanapalle, the show revolves around gross injustice, Naxalites, and their fight with the Police department.
Savitri (Shelly) is a single mother of three children Baali (Rishi), Jayaprada (Deviyani), and Gumthi (Jaffer Sadiq). Shaitan very well does justice to its tagline, “You call it a crime, they call it survival.” What made the character Baali evolve into a criminal has been neatly presented.
Rishi, as Baali, did a stupendous job. The young Kannada actor fits the bill perfectly as a criminal, and he amuses one and all with his remarkable performance.
Ravi Kale gets a meaty role, and the actor aced it to perfection. Others like Shelly, Deviyani, Jaffer Sadiq, and Kamakshi Bhaskarla did justice to their roles.
Technicalities: The writing department did a fine job in exploring elements like fake encounters, gross injustice faced by a few individuals in society, and how a few treat women as mere objects of desire are convincingly shown. A few dialogues are hard-hitting.
Except for a scene, there is hardly anything that talks about their agenda. As the show is centered on them, ideally, there should have been more scenes that portray their purpose and goals.
Baali character joins the Naxals, but we never witness his journey as a Naxalite. Within no time, he attempts to kill a big fish, and soon he lands in jail. It would have been better had the makers depicted his growth. The show becomes highly predictable after a point in time, and we can guess many scenes in advance.
Sriram Madduri’s background score is thumping. Credit to the cinematographer Shanmugha Sundaram for capturing the visuals in an outstanding manner. The editing is sharp as the series run at a faster pace, with each episode having an average runtime of 25 minutes.
Analysis: Mahi V Raghav has executed the series on a convincing note but would have tried to present it in a unique way.
Creator cum director, Mahi V Raghav, did a passable job with Shaitan. The way the show is set in a crime world looks realistic. Also, many scenes feel repetitive, and there is very little regarding what Naxalism is all about. The series would have been even more impactful had the makers stressed the mentioned key elements and toned down the expletives.
There have been many films that have come in the Naxal backdrop, but unfortunately, the makers are highlighting only the feud between the Police and the Naxals. Very little are we shown about the Naxal’s ideology and what their principles actually are. Shaitan too falls in the same category.
To summarize, Shaitan is a hard-hitting crime drama that works here and there. The series is along the lines of Mirzapur, which makes a section of the audience ignore it. On the whole, Shaitan will end up being an okay watch for those who love crime sagas.
Verdict: Violent crime saga!
Rating: 2.5/5
