Cast
Directed by Kannan Iyer
Emraan Hashmi as Bobo, the Baffler
Konkona Sen as Diana
Huma Qureshi as Tamara
Kalki Koechlin as Lisa Dutt
Music by Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyrics by Gulzar
Background Score by Clinton Cerejo
A movie which takes Bollywood or rather tries to take Bollywood into a yet unexplored territory. Not a pure horror movie, not completely a thriller and not totally fantasy but a bit of all. A movie which I find rather hard to decide upon, whether it is good or bad. The director and the cast put in a 100% no doubt and that is one thing for sure that you take back as you exit the theater.
Characters:
The two characters whose names I am not aware about are the two kids who play the role of the younger Emraan Hashmi and his sister are brilliant and extremely cute. A major portion of the first half is carried off by these two characters. Pawan Malhotra plays a superb widower who is both tired of staying alone and of taking care of his kids.
As for the remaining cast, I will try to express my opinion on them without divulging any key information.
Emraan Hashmi plays the talented Bobo, the magician and carries out his role with conviction and talent, both of which we have all gotten used to expecting from him. He expresses fear, confusion, anger and concern in the most believable manner that could have been in such a movie.
Konkona Sen plays Diana, a name remarkably close to the word used in the title of the movie and looks true to the character that she plays. Her eyes are the key performers in this movie! Huma Quereshi plays Tamara, Emraan's love interest and comes across as an extremely promising actress. Even though she does not get a very meaty role, she lives up to the expectations of her character. Kalki plays Lisa Dutt from Canada and once again proves to be a reliable actress.
Music:
Songs do not play a major role at all in the movie and its good to see that Kanna Iyer does not make the characteres lipsync to the songs unrealistically. Having said that, the songs are just average and apart from Yaaram nothing stands out.Gulzar writes equally average lyrics for this one.
The background score however, is a whole different story. As is the case with all horror movies, without the right background music, half the fun would be lost. Clinton Cerejo composes brilliant background tracks which have a very international feel to them.
Experience:
If there is one adjective that I repeatedly associate with this movie in my mind, it is "Interesting". As you watch the movie, as a hindi cinema person, you may feel you are being taken into a genre which has never been seen before. The effort is definitely genuine but when you come out of the movie, you may be confused as I was - "Was this a good movie or a bad movie? I did get a few real jhatkaas but were they enough? But then, was giving meaningless scares and thrills really the point of this movie? I think not". Kannan Iyer definitely has potential of being a good storyteller.
Been-O-pinion:
I rate it 2.5 out of 5. It might have been a 3.5 too, but I would blame the script for not being able to get that extra point. The movie could've been a completely new experience and a thrilling one too...but in the end...this Daayan fails to leave a haunting impression in your minds - an objective that should have been kept above everything else!
