‘Shaitan’ web series review: Director Mahi V Raghav’s partly engaging survival drama leans heavily on violence and sexual content – The Hindu

Mahi V Raghav, the showrunner of the latest Telugu comedy-drama collection Save the Tigers, explores the opposite finish of the spectrum with Shaitan, the brand new Telugu internet collection he has written and directed. The collection streaming on Disney+ Hotstar begins with ample set off warnings. Viewers are suggested to observe it in isolation and use headphones, given the usage of profane language, violence and sexual content material. This one shouldn’t be out to please household audiences and goals to be within the house of Hindi collection akin to Sacred Video games, Paatal Lok and Mirzapur. 

Shaitan harks again to the interval between the mid-Nineteen Nineties and mid-2000s to relate the story of a household caught on the crossroads of police brutality, the Naxal motion and the politics of the State. As all the time, it’s those that battle to make ends meet who bear the brunt of the socio-political environment. Savitri (Shelly) is a single mom who makes peace with being exploited by a police officer. All she desires is to feed her three youngsters. If she has fallen within the eyes of society’s standpoint of morality, she hardly ever lets it have an effect on her.

The narrative focuses on the plight of her youngsters who battle demons of various varieties and finally select violence. The story is narrated from the standpoint of Baali (Rishi) who’s cornered in a police encounter after he threatens the house minister of the State. His face reveals no worry, for he has been hardened by residing life on the sting.

Baali reminisces how he tried his greatest to eke out a residing by working arduous however was pressured to make use of violence to outlive. His youthful brother, the short-statured Gumthi (Jaffer Sadiq), grows as much as be a cold-blooded assassin prepared to do something for his siblings; and their demure sister Jayaprada (Devyani) desires to steer a peaceable life however future has different plans. These tropes utilized by Shaitan are acquainted. What offers the characters and the conditions a comparatively new spin is the interval rural Telangana setting in Madanapalle.

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Mahi Raghav fleshes out characters such that whereas we do perceive their plight and are curious to know their journey, they continue to be grey-shaded and don’t evoke sympathy. The opposite characters we’re launched to over the 9 episodes — together with the cops and Naxal leaders — are additionally morally ambiguous and opportunists. The subplot involving Baali and police officer Nagi Reddy (Ravi Kale) is essentially the most fascinating one of many lot. 

Heads get chopped, cuss phrases are thrown round liberally and ladies are assaulted at common intervals; after some extent, it will get tiresome. Rishi is efficient as a person who’s pushed to the brink and having determined to strike again, is aware of no worry. Jaffer Sadiq who made an impression together with his depraved act in Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Vikram will get additional scope to embrace the violent aspect and he’s convincing. Shelly is placing because the quiet insurgent who can get imply to outlive. The one who regularly makes her presence felt is Devyani. Ravi Kale, Kamakshi and others are aptly forged. 

The 9 episodes span 25 to half-hour every and the payoffs start from the fifth episode. The Naxals-police-politics internet will get thicker. Had the main target been on fleshing out among the subplots higher as an alternative of the overdose of intercourse and violence, Shaitan might have hoped to make a greater influence. The characters and subplots had potential however Shaitan doesn’t faucet into them sufficient. 

(Streaming on Disney+ Hotstar)

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