Movie review: Ek Thi Daayan, another spinechilling creation

New Delhi: When two big film makers Ektaa Kapoor and Vishal Bhardwaj collaborate, the audience expects something provocative. They ring an ominous alarm and quietly wake up the audience unimpressed by run of the mill horror flicks.Ektaa, already hailed for a few horror flicks namely Krishna Cottage, Kuch to Hai, Ragini MMS, took no time to invest in yet another spine chilling creation while Bhardwaj's excellence in portraying a theatrical drama and his wonderful background melody has its touch in the flick.The tale of ‘Ek Thi Daayan' reminds the bedtime story narrated by our ancestors to make us snooze during our childhood days. The flick has its dread elements providing us spine-chilling thrills but at occasions is incapable to define the meaning behind those moving curtains.The debuting director Kannan Iyer introduces us to Bobo (Emraan Hashmi), a magician in Mumbai who is ubiquitously haunted from his past and is confident of its return to demolish him from the roots.His teenage days (played by curly haired Vishesh) aren't ordinary. He is interested in magic and makes it his skill and sooner his fascination. His lonely father brings in a step mother Diana (Konkana Sen Sharma) for him. Carrying a devilish smile and a 'choti', she is associated with a witch- ‘Daayan' by the kid. She guts his family and leaves by promising she'll be back to take the rest. Standing up to her promise she is back in the form of Lisa Dutt (Kalki Koechlin). Will she be successful this time in her weird intentions? That's how the story deals further.Director Iyer undeniably makes us move through its brain storming thrilling sequence in its paranormal narration. He captures the romance between the happy, yet besieged with phantom, couple-Emraan Hashmi and Huma Qureshi pleasantly in the first half of the flick. The problem here lies in the rest 70 minutes which drags you to stay until the climax unveils.There is always a question why Indian cinema, despite a concrete plot, is doomed to mundane monotony. The wedding bells tied for Emraan and Huma alongwith the so called wedding song ‘Toote Udd Gaye' played seems unnecessary while there are numerous puzzles which remain unresolved.Kudos to the camera work who alongwith its movements shifts viewers' focus to the ghostly air and accentuates the intriguing evil.But later the other tools that the director utilizes do not leave the desired effect. We can't say it's a half-baked phenomenon but the typecast end wounds the whole purpose of the supernatural activities building up through the whole plot.The first half belongs to Konkona Sen Sharma who effortlessly plays a beautiful Daayan. On the whole, she is above all in terms of screen performances.Emraan Hashmi, the favourite of the Bhatts, is so well engrossed through his earlier horror genre flicks that he doesn't require any extra bit of endeavour to portray the fear and feeling of avenge.Kalki Koechlin, the second witch in the flick, is impressive, though her character seems semi-crafted.Huma Qureshi is an actress of known caliber. We have seen her in Gangs of Wasseypur and Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, and she gives another convincing performance.Special mention has to be given to younger Bobo played by Vishesh who is excellent in his act.Penned by Gulzar and tuned by Vishal Bhardwaj, the songs namely kaali kaali, yaaram and lautungi sound good to the ears and compliment the situations.I'll go with two and a half stars for ‘Ek Thi Daayan' which despite of its undeniably unfavourable dramatic end, spares us from the cheap thrills and ends up with the premise of the frightening witch.