Shaitaan Shines When it’s Jyotika vs. Madhavan

Like most horror films, Shaitaan opens with a family that seems too happy for their own good. When the Rishis — Kabir (Ajay Devgn) and Jyoti (Jyotika) with their children Janvi (Janki Bodiwala) and Dhruv (Anngad Raaj) — stop at a roadside dhaba en route to their farmhouse, they run into a gentleman who introduces himself as Vanraj (R. Madhavan) and buys them tea. Kabir is easily trusting and invites Vanraj to join their table. Jyoti is shown to be slightly wary of dining with a complete stranger. She is the only one who is immediately suspicious about Vanraj’s ostensible kindness and the way he insinuates himself into their lives. 

Thanks to a phenomenal Jyotika, the mother in the family quickly establishes herself as a striking and compelling character in Shaitaan. For the Hindi adaptation of the Gujarati film Vash (2023), the writers cleverly bring together in Jyoti’s character two established feminine tropes to create a character who is both dynamic and complex. Jyoti is, on one hand, the quintessential protective mother, ever alert when it comes to looking out for her family. She’s the one who notices Vanraj lurking near their car and talking to Janvi when no one else is around. On the other hand, she also embodies the suspicious, nagging wife, which is usually a negative trope and used to evoke sympathy for the mild-mannered, henpecked husband. However, next to a patriarch like Kabir, the trope loses its negativity and instead offers a contrast that heightens the audience’s awareness to the eerie situation in which this family finds itself. Jyoti is the first person to realise Vanraj has followed them to their farmhouse under the pretext of charging his phone. Kabir, still polite, offers Vanraj a seat, but Jyoti is quick to demand to her husband, “I need that man out of the house”, even though Vanraj is, for all intents and purposes, an innocent stranger. 

Until the script inevitably pushes Jyoti to the sidelines, Jyotika shines in this role that shows the mother as the more perceptive and proactive parent, embodying a defiant strength that is a much-needed contrast to how Janvi, the other female character in the film, is robbed of agency. Even when Jyoti is asked to make tea for their unwelcome guest, she is stiff and curt with Vanraj, a far cry from the perfect hostess. Her unease with Vanraj makes her something of a mirror for the audience’s reactions as Shaitaan unfolds, validating our feelings when Vanraj drops the act to show his diabolical side. 

Devgn’s Kabir is obviously the hero, but his ineffable goodness makes him reluctant to escalate the situation. While he remains passive in the film’s early parts, Jyoti does not hesitate to make her apprehensions known. She is the first one to realise that Vanraj is using black magic to control Janvi. Kabir’s reaction is to be dumbfounded, helpless as Vanraj assumes complete authority over the household. Jyoti, in contrast, makes a last-ditch effort to get outside help by managing to use a cell phone that Vanraj didn’t know about to call the cops. When police officers arrive to investigate the phone call, we get one of Shaitaan’s most tense moments. In a later scene — by this time, multiple attempts to get rid of Vanraj have failed and Janvi has been forced to harm herself and attack her family — Jyoti launches herself at Vanraj with unadulterated wrath, fighting him with her bare hands. It’s a terrific moment, crackling with the power of Jyoti’s rage and the action sequence feels chaotic and cathartic. Vanraj may be the towering presence, but Jyoti holds her own against him for several minutes before Kabir jumps into the fray to take on Vanraj himself. 

Jyoti is eventually reduced to being the wide-eyed, scared mother in the second half, possibly to let Kabir earn the spotlight. It’s disappointing to see that despite the sharp characterisation in Shaitaan’s first half, the climactic battle does not involve Jyoti at all. Instead, we see her tearfully driving her injured son to the hospital and she’s then forgotten until the absolute end, when we are shown that she remains unharmed. Shaitaan ends with a scene that — SPOILER ALERT — reveals that Vanraj is Kabir’s prisoner and the father is now Vanraj’s torturer. It’s tempting to imagine how much more interesting this conclusion could have been if Shaitaan had ended with Vanraj under Jyoti’s thumb.