Themes
01
Validation/Respect/Class
Devil is the story of a boy who has grown up in a lower middle class family with extremely ambitious ambitions and zest for success. He is a product of his times and having always felt that he and his family deserve a lot better than what they had been given in life, Yashwant wants to live a life of external success and validation. At the same time somewhere deep in him he craves for respect, admiration from his father which he never had. His father never agreed to his life or moral choices and though Yashwant in his youth was too cocky to care about it, as he has grown older he craves it deep inside and his choices somewhere even if extreme are a reflection of that. He wants himself to rise from the lower middle class he has lived in all his life and he is entrenched in the point of view that being morally right is just not the way to achieve that.
02
Morality
Like the famous line in Mani Ratnam's Nayakan, the characters in Devil also wonder about their moral choices long after they have made it. In the era of political correctness, extreme rights and extreme wrongs the film deals in the subjective understanding of morals and the often privilege connected with those who believe in absolute morality.
03
Family
The film also explores the ties, the subconscious flaws in relationships and childhoods which ultimately shape the people in how they end up. On the surface though the film seems to be filled with male testosterone some of the key twists, decisions and setups come from the powerful female character who often pull the strings silently to protect their loved ones and their own families.