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Veerana
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Wikipedia article
'Veerana' is a 1988 Indian Hindi-language erotic supernatural horror thriller film, directed by the Ramsay Brothers. The music was composed by Bappi Lahiri and sung by Suman Kalyanpur, Munna Aziz and Sharon Prabhakar.,
Plot
The movie opens with a young boy tied up inside a cage in a large cave, with priests and goons surrounding him. He pleads with them to leave him and asks what they want from him. The priest says that his blood and flesh will give life to Nakita. Just then a witch comes as a lovely young woman and enters the cage. She removes the bat locket from her neck, transforms into a ferocious form and kills the guy. Thakur Mahender Pratap Singh (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) finds out that a witch Nakita (Kamal Roy) is creating havoc in an adjoining forest. One night, his little daughter comes to him and says that villagers have got a dead body outside. He goes and sees the body of an unknown guy, the villagers are surrounding him. When asked they say that a woman roaming in the lonely lanes of the forest has done this. They call her a witch. Sameer Thakur says that witches and devils are just superstitions. But one man says that some years ago when he came to the village from a nearby city, he lost his way and wandered off into the jungle where he saw a young girl. She later turned into a bat and attacked him on the face.
Mahendra Pratap decides to investigate for himself. His younger brother Sameer Pratap (Vijayendra Ghatge) decides to go on a witch hunt. His wife Preeti denies by saying that he should think of his daughter and niece. Just then they go downstairs and Mahendra Pratap says that he trusts his brother and their ancestors have always helped needy people to get justice. He gifts an "OM" to his brother and wishes him good luck while giving his blessings. As Sameer is passing through the forest, while driving his car he meets a beautiful young woman, just as one villager had described. The woman gets a lift in Sameer's car. They arrive at the old mansion which is located behind the lake in the forest. Sameer uses his clever seductive tactics and gets the lady to bathe with him in the bathtub. Then diverting her attention by pretending to be physically intimate with her he snatches the bat locket from her neck. The lady transforms into the hideous witch Nakita that she really is. Sameer renders her weak and helpless by holding a holy Om in front of her. The witch is taken to the outskirts of the village and the locals along with orders of the Thakur hang her to death. A tantric, Baba, manages to steal back her body along with all his followers in the dead of the night, and takes it to the shrine, where he keeps it in a sarcophagus and promises to provide her a new body. The body would be of Thakur Mahendra Pratap's daughter.
Some days pass off happily and peacefully, with the brothers sharing merry hours together and both the children Jasmin and Sahila being lovingly nurtured by Preeti, who is the mother of Sahila and wife of Sameer and loves the brother-in-law's daughter equally. Then, one fine day during the wee morning hours, Chotte Thakur Sahaab is being shown going to Mussoorie to drop his niece, Jasmin, at her boarding school. When they're crossing the lonely stretch of the forest (Veerana), the car overheats and stops. The uncle asks his little girl to wait in the car for him and leaves to fetch some water for the radiator. However, Baba suddenly creeps out from behind a bush, hypnotises the girl, and by cutting a piece of her frock and few strands of her hair makes a doll from it. He then places the glass bottle holding this doll in the witch's sarcophagus. Jasmin gets out of the car in the hypnotised state of mind and walks over to the shrine. Meanwhile, the uncle comes back with the water tin and is shocked not to find the child in the car. He follows her trail and is astonished to find himself going off deep inside the forbidden bush path. On the other side, the girl walks inside the devil's lair and comes to a standstill in front of the witch's tomb. In a shocking moment, the witch reaches out and pulls the kid over inside with her. The uncle tries to save his child but is late in opening the sarcophagus. By that time, the witch's evil spirit already manages to enter the girl's body. Thus, the uncle is rendered helpless as being badly outnumbered by Baba's men and is unable to save his little niece. He is shown to be captured and killed.
Baba then brings Jasmin back to her dad Thakur's mansion. The tantric informs Mahendra's family about the death of his brother due to a violent storm in the forest and informs that Sameer's dead body drifted away in the river and could not be recovered. After taking the child back to her room and putting her to sleep, Bade Thakur Saab leaves 23 servants in charge of the child and goes downstairs to meet the Baba. Baba asks for the Thakur's permission to leave but Thakur requests that he stay back as the caretaker of his daughter, since he has saved his child's life. However, the Chotte Thakur's wife, (Rama Vij), gradually notices something different in Jasmin's behaviour. The changed behaviour of the child entices the aunt to talk to her brother-in-law regarding the weird changes in their girl and tries to convince him to get some witch-doctor to treat Jasmin. However, the witch, who's possessed the child, overhears this and kills her aunt Preeti by hanging her in Jasmin's bedroom by the ceiling fan that very night. Thakur, horrified by this incident, then decides to send his little niece Sahila, the newly orphaned child, to Mumbai to stay with her grandmother so that she can be safe and stay protected from the ominous situations.
After 12 years, the Thakur receives a letter from his niece Sahila. He's very happy on the fact that she ranked first in her inter-mediate examinations. During the time that has passed, Jasmine grows up into a stunningly beautiful young girl who spends most of her time alone locked away inside her bedroom or occasionally wandering into wilderness. She tends to be moody and lost in her own world, making her father worry all the time. Thakur saab informs Baba that his niece has topped her exams and he's planning to call her to Chandan Nagar to spend her summer vacation at the haveli. Baba directs one of his faithful servants Zimbaru who is as huge as a giant to kidnap the niece, Sahila so that she would not reach her ancestral home. On the other side, a man attacks Sahila's car and chases after her. Her second cousin Satish, (Satish Shah) shouts for help. Hemant (Hemant Birje), turns up to rescue the damsel in distress. He manages to send the monster packing and saves Sahila. Back at the village, Jasmin meets a new young man, (Vijay Arora), at the city petrol station who is a mechanics professional and repairs her car faults expertly. She is impressed by him and asks him to come over at the old mansion located behind the bank of the lake that night for a picnic. When the man reaches over there, she welcomes him and they both drink and dine together. Due to over-intoxication, this man forces himself on Jasmin and they both have a hasty one-night stand. After some time around midnight, the man gains consciousness and wakes up. He is scared to see Jasmin's eyes all grey and the girl not moving her eyelids at all. He tries to run away but again falls on the bed. Then the girl wakes up, the witch taking control of her, takes a silver dagger and stabs the man to death. Then Jasmin hastily returns home in the darkness. His body is found by the police next morning but as no one recognises him, the investigations stop over there. Hemant and Sahila get close to each other during the journey and they both reach the Haveli together. Thakur Saab is very happy to see Sahila and when he hears the story of how she was helped out of the tight spot by Hemant, gets impressed by the handsome and burly young boy and readily gives him a big job in the timber factory. He also accepts Hemant as his son and family member.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0260494/plotsummary IMDb]
However, murders continue. One evening, Jasmin takes a lift in a drunk man's car and then, after crossing some distance, the witch's spirit kills the man by tearing through his neck. One night, Sahila decides to sleep with Jasmin in their old bedroom and she suddenly notices something very strange and frightening in her elder sister and informs her uncle and Hemant. Thakur decides to send his daughter Jasmin, for a psychiatric evaluation to his old friend who is a noted psychiatrist. Under hypnosis, Jasmin recounts the incident in her past and she transforms into a completely different person. Her voice changes and she threateningly vows to kill everybody from Thakur's family. Thakur firstly refuses to believe the doctor, but when he hears the recording recorded by the doctor, he believes him when he informs about his daughter being possessed. However, due to their old family relation and bosom friendship, the doctor promises to stay and treat the young girl. The doctor also asks Sahila's friend Hemant to pretend to be close to Jasmin so that the truth comes to light but they both fail in their attempts. However, one night, on seeing weird shadows and smoke coming out of Jasmin's bedroom, the doctor walks inside and sees the witch's grossly frightening face. He tries to warn Thakur but he refuses to believe him. The doctor runs away from the house to save his life but is mocked at by the servant man, Raghu while departing from the mansion. In a huff, the doctor shuns Raghu and leaves from the Haveli as Jasmin looks at him with a strange victorious smile on her face standing in the balcony.
While the doctor is driving his car at a breakneck speed through the old village lanes, he takes a wrong turn in confusion, bangs on a tree and stops right in the middle of the lonely forest. The witch, who is lying in wait for him, suddenly comes out from the dark shadows and while the doctor is barely conscious to look at her with wide shocked eyes, pierces his body and brutally kills him.
The servant Raghu (Gulshan Grover),[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004109/ IMDb] is the next to die. He is killed when out of the witch's fear he decides to sleep in the factory at night instead of going to the haveli. Then Hemant and Sahila while discussing the killings with Satish, take out the topic of Baba. Hemant decides to follow the Baba along with Sahila on a hunch. They both chase him to the Veerana. But they get captured and Sahila discovers that her father Sameer Pratap is alive. Satish Shah, in a twist of events, reaches the Veerana and rescues all of them. Now, Sameer goes straight home to his brother with the children. Thakur Saab is thrilled to see his dear brother hale and hearty. Then Sahila and Hemant relate the story of Baba's plots and Sameer informs his brother of the plan that helped the Baba make the witch's evil spirit possess Jasmin and turn her into a living nightmare.
In the meantime, Baba plans to kill Jasmin on amavasya so that the witch can be reborn and attain immortality. He takes her from the haveli to the devil's lair and prepares her for the sacrificial ritual. But the family manages to reach the scene. Jasmin is saved by making the witch leave her body by destroying the bottle containing her voodoo doll. But, by sheer ill luck, Bade Thakur Saab loses his life to grant his daughter happiness and a long survival. The family briefly grieves and somehow, as now the witch has got her spirit back in her own foul body, they somehow succeed in locking the witch inside sarcophagus with the help of the holy Om and Baba is also killed.
Then the Thakur family and all the villagers take the sarcophagus to the temple of Lord Shiva. The sarcophagus is carried inside the temple and Chhote Thakur unlocks it with Hemant's help. Both daughters are sent out of the temple. The witch comes out of the sarcophagus and to her horror finds herself in front of the holy Lord. She writhes in pain, tries to run away, but loses all her power and falls to the ground. Within some moments, she burns away and gets destroyed by the pure impulse of the Almighty forever. Then the surviving Thakurs and Hemant begin their life anew and live happily ever after.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0260494/ IMDb]
Cast
*Jasmin Dhunna as Jasmin M. Pratap
*Hemant Birje as Hemant, Sahila's boyfriend
*Sahila Chadha as Sahila S. Pratap
*Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Thakur Mahendra Pratap
*Satish Shah as Hitcock
*Vijayendra Ghatge as Sameer Pratap (as Vijendra)
*Gulshan Grover as servant Raghu
*Rama Vij as Preeti S. Pratap, wife of Sameer Pratap
*Rajesh Vivek as Baba, the wicked sorcerer
*Leela Mishra as Sameer's mother-in-law
*Vijay Arora as mechanic and petrol pump worker.
*Narendra Nath as doctor uncle, Psychiatrist
*Tina Ghai as Jasmin's governess
*Rajendra Nath as the Manager of Thakela Guest House
*Bhushan Tiwari as Villager
*Vaishnavi Mahant as Young Jasmine
*Kamal Roy as the Real witch Nakita, main antagonist
*K. K. Raj as Police Inspector, investigating the body of Mechanic and Petrol Pump Owner.
Music
Remake
In 2013, Ramsay brothers announced the remake of Veerana in 3D.
References
[https://frighthq.com/fhqdb/veerana-the-most-popular-bollywood-horror-movie/ Why is Veerana Still Popular?]
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