The movie relies on something that most of the traditional bollywood horror movies don't rely on, that is originality. But let me warn you, the originality is mostly in the first half of the movie. The first half is superb. It builds the story effectively making the viewers to want the second half to begin immediately.Its an achievement as the main lead of the movie,Emraan Hashmi is not present in majority of the scenes. Inspite of this the movie holds your attention in the first half. The second half begins strongly but has its ups and downs. The song yaaram is beautifully shot. The movie has some good scary scenes but it relies mostly on the psychological horror path. The twist and turns in the second half are there to be guessed easily. The climax somewhat is a bit clichéd. But the movie never bores you for a moment. The script is superbly written by Mukul Sharma and Vishal Bhardwaj. The debutante director hits the right mark with his first outing, and is a director to watch out for. For the performances, Emraan plays his part well without really over reacting like normally actors do in Hindi horror movies. Konkana is wonderful as usual. The surprise performer of the movie is the child artist playing the young Emraan. Overall, Ek thi daayan tries an unseen approach to Indian horror, and it succeeds. Ohh yes it succeeds.