Khooni Murda (1989)
Cast: Kiran Kumar, Deepak Parashar,  Puneet Issar, Javed Khan, Sri Pradha, Huma Khan, Mayur, Jagdeep
Director:  Mohan Bhakri
Nutshell: A jilted serial killer stalks couples, is condemned but returns to slice and dice those who wronged him.
Review by Omar Khan

 

Khooni Murda begins with young student Rekha being tracked and stalked by a hidden admirer who leaves red roses as his signature. She thinks it's Ranjeet (Kiran Kumar), who professes his undying love for her at college, but she can't stand the sight of him and pays him no attention.

Yet he stalks her, day and night.

One night, she is undressing at home and screams when she feels that someone is watching her. A rose is found on the windowsill, unnerving the young beauty.

Ranjeet is wandering around when he has a vision of Rekha making out with a paramour in a car. Enraged, he attacks and kills the couple inside. Random couples come under attack in a Giallo-style manner as Ranjeet prowls around, tormented by his lady love and his inability to win her.

The law eventually catches up with him, and he is incarcerated in an asylum, from which he escapes in a furious rage. He is particularly incensed because it was Rekha who tricked him into being caught by the police. Now he is loose and out for blood, while Rekha and her friends celebrate his capture by singing "Chaska Chaska" disco songs on an outing!

Ranjeet gatecrashes the jungle disco party and makes his presence felt, threatening to take Rekha away with him. Her college friends respond and, after a tussle, Ranjeet is torched and killed.

The students—and there are no fewer than a dozen of them—realise that they could all be facing a murder charge, especially as the man they killed was mentally ill. They decide to dump his corpse in the jungle, among some scattered old car parts lying around and rusting away.

The students vow to keep the entire incident a secret so that they don't have to face justice.

It's not long before strange things start to happen.

Rekha finds another rose in her room. She goes to spend the night with her friend Anuradha, who is alone. Some randy boyfriends arrive and Anuradha is up for some fun.

Her post-coital slumber is rudely interrupted by an unseen force that causes her to levitate. Then a hideous, charred-sausage-faced creature materialises and zaps her with death rays emanating from his eyes and mouth.

She dies a horrible death in front of a bewildered and terrified boyfriend who has absolutely no idea what he has just witnessed or what caused it.

The death toll rises and the group of medical students is whittled down in rapid time. Bizarre deaths clearly inspired by A Nightmare on Elm Street follow, with the razor-clawed spirit of Ranjeet slicing and dicing his victims with impunity.

Deepak Parashar's police inspector is stumped. Being a modern man who scoffs at superstition, he refuses to entertain the notion that Ranjeet has returned from the dead to unleash this wave of terror.

There is death in the bathtub, death by being dragged into a TV, death by exploding kitchen utensils, death by hanging, death by being sucked into a mattress, death by levitating bed and death by a snake emerging from a telephone mouthpiece.

All quite spectacular, but presented in a wonderfully lowbrow, low-tech manner in vintage B-grade Bollywood style.

Bhakri keeps the tempo moving fairly rapidly and, mercifully, the songs are largely held at bay, which helps enormously. There is, however, an extended sequence with Jagdeep singing alongside his lady love that is tedious in the extreme.

Finally, the students turn to a Tantrik to solve their problems. He discovers their dark secret but still proceeds to do his best to vanquish the evil spirit.

Will Ranjeet decimate the entire group of medical students who collectively killed him and gain his revenge, or will they be able to ward him off with help from the Tantrik?

The film builds to a thrilling climax with a duel between Ranjeet's Khooni Murda and the students, aided by the Tantrik.

Khooni Murda is a fair effort by Mohan Bhakri, who strives to create something in the style of Wes Craven's masterpiece and succeeds to an extent, producing what might best be described as a Temu Bollywoodised version of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Considering the budget and the obvious limitations in technical and special-effects resources, Bhakri does rather well in achieving a mildly enjoyable horror romp, complete with a fair Melting Man-style monster equipped with death rays and razor claws for hands.

Khooni Murda is a decent effort and a worthy addition to the Bollywood horror stakes alongside the films of the Ramsay Brothers.