The Witch바카라�s Tale: Women In Indian Horror Films

Chutni Mahato lived to tell her tale바카라�branded a witch in her in-laws바카라� village in Jharkhand바카라�s Seraikela-Kharsawan district, stripped and paraded naked and forced to drink urine. Once a woman is branded a witch바카라�a superstition rife in many states in India바카라�her chance of survival is very low; lynching of women over suspicion of witchcraft is widely prevalent in many parts. But Mahato managed to escape. That was 1995. She is now an activist battling such social evils. In 2019, Mahato won the Padma Shri바카라�India바카라�s fourth-highest civilian honour바카라�for helping nearly 150 women, all victims of witch-hunting and persecution.

A few years before she was honoured, a film purportedly inspired by her life was released. But Kaala Sach: The Black Truth turned out to be the typical Bollywood horror fare바카라�instead of depicting her empowerment, the film is full of scenes of sexual violence, its dialogues replete with expletives and innuendos. Mahato does not know about the film but says they can바카라�t do justice to the struggle faced by women branded witches and hunted down by an unforgiving society. 바카라�They (films) show witches with bulging eyes, with feet turned backward and matted hair. She is in search of men to seduce and children whose blood she can drink,바카라� Mahato tells Outlook over the phone. 바카라�In real life, though, 바카라�witches바카라� are not demons but women just like you and me,바카라� she adds.

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For decades, Hindi horror films stuck to a hackneyed characterisation of women바카라�sexist and misogynistic. Be it as the 바카라�ghost바카라� or a living character, women have only pandered to the voyeuristic desires of the male audience. And one of the most common and often misrepresented sub-genres within the horror universe in India has been the daayan film and the rape-revenge genre where a pious or pure woman becomes impure due to the wrongs done to her by men and turns into an all-powerful, bloodthirsty demon. Popular films like Chudail (1991), Khoon Ki Pyaasi, (1996) and Khoon Ki Pyaasi Daayan (1998)바카라�with their exploitative storylines and focus on women바카라�s bodies as objects of lust바카라�nevertheless laid the groundwork for later films like Raagini MMS (2011), Ek Thi Dayan (2013), Pari (2018) and Bulbbul (2020) which strived to subvert the trope of the witch to depict powerful, feminist women and themes of violence against women. While many films followed the 바카라�sexploitation바카라� sub-genre, some of them, in their own right, paved the way for more layered women characters in horror films.

Another aspect that outlined the narrative of women in Indian horror films is an expression of internalised cultural beliefs, mythology and pop culture.

Horror film buff and author Aditi Sen, however, has an interesting take on the Hindi films of the 바카라�80s, when the Ramsay brothers바카라� sex-horror films had acquired cult status. Sen, a history professor at Queen바카라�s University and a researcher on South Asian horror cinema, argues that while the films were definitely exploitative and objectifying women for eyeballs, they were also giving glimpses of women with more agency and independence. 바카라�In Purana Mandir (1984), for instance, a group of men and women go to an abandoned place for a weekend of casual sex with their partners. That바카라�s unthinkable in a mainstream Hindi film of the time, for women to have that kind of freedom,바카라� says Sen.

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In 2002, the film Raaz was one of the biggest runaway hits of the year. Though the film did not have the traditional witch, it developed a different kind of woman fiend바카라�the lonely woman spirit who is just looking for love. It was a more boisterous, sexualised reincarnation of the 바카라�lonely, lovelorn woman ghost바카라� of the sixties who wore a white saree and sought men who reminded her of her estranged lover. Sen, who has written a chapter on the film in the 2020 book Bollywood Horrors, says Raaz was a turning point. 바카라�It reinforced beliefs about women being tasked with the job of 바카라�fixing바카라� men and accepting their follies, but also opened a starting point for more films that showed women not just as accessories but movers of the plot.바카라�

Another aspect, Sen says, that outlined the narrative of women in Indian horror films is an expression of the country바카라�s internalised cultural beliefs, mythology and pop culture. In Raaz, for instance, Bipasha Basu바카라�the wife바카라�is the Devi while the ghost바카라�the other woman바카라�is a wronged woman or chudail. The 바카라�Devi바카라� can only obliterate the evil spirit by giving her a proper funeral. In later depictions of the daayan or chudail, filmmakers have used the daayan as a twisted allegory for the divine. 바카라�It is because filmmakers (and all men) know the power of Shakti and that no man can actually stand up to it. None of the films, of course, have shown a near accurate representation of witches, even though in India, witches are as old as gods,바카라� says Anubhuti Dalal, 42, who lives in Delhi and claims to be a tantrika. 바카라�I am what they sometimes call a dakini. I belong to the Aghori clan of tantriks,바카라� she says. A practitioner of tantra, an ancient sect of Hinduism that predates the age of 바카라�organised religion바카라�, as Dalal puts it, she and other dakinis like her worship the Dasha Maha Vidya바카라�a pantheon of 10 feminine energies, each representing a form of the supreme goddess. In ancient texts, the dakini is defined as a 바카라�fiendish바카라� spirit who worships Kali.

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In India, Dalal explains, the reason why women are repeatedly depicted as horrible, monstrous entities in the form of a chudail or daayan can be traced to the fear and patriarchy of Brahmins. Accepting the power of the woman as a divine healer meant accepting the power of her wrath. 바카라�When it comes to the battle between Mahakaal and Mahakali, the goddess will always win. Brahmins and all men know that. Perhaps that is why they have always picked up their pitchforks and torches to behead and burn the 바카라�witch바카라�. Because deep down they know they can바카라�t kill the witch just as they can바카라�t kill the goddess,바카라� she says. A slew of recent Bollywood filmmakers seem to have picked up on that trend.

In 2018, Amar Kaushik바카라�s film Stree stumped audiences with its feminist horror-comedy approach to the witch. The film retold an old folk story about a witch who roamed the streets hunting young men with not-so-subtle subversions in gender roles. The witch in Stree, for instance, sought consent from her male victims before seducing them. In 2020, debut filmmaker Anvita Dutt바카라�s horror film Bulbbul won two Filmfare OTT awards and accolades for retelling the story of the vigilante daayan who employs her own brand of justice system to punish those who hurt her, and the drivers of patriarchy. In both films, the witch in the end becomes a metaphor for power.

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Film writer Amborish Roychowdhury feels that while sexual violence has been an ill-used trope in Bollywood horror films in the past, it continues to be a popular theme in horror films as it is a living reality for most women. 바카라�Horror is one of the most expressive genres of film. I think filmmakers today are realising the potential of the platform to tell powerful stories about women and violence is a big part of many women바카라�s lives,바카라� he says. 바카라�Here lies the credit and intent of the filmmakers바카라�are they using it as a bit to draw in audiences or are they using it to make audiences uncomfortable and ask questions about the society they live in?바카라�

Away from the world of films, Aloka Kujur lives in the land of so-called witches. 바카라�In Jharkhand, daayan pratha is still a relevant practice and every year, hundreds of women are persecuted and even killed in the name of being a witch,바카라� Kujur, who works for the rights of such women under the Adivasi Jan Adhikar Manch, tells Outlook. In Jharkhand, most of these cases are related to property disputes. 바카라�Women who have property and are single or elderly are often the target of such tactics, often by relatives and neighbours who want to usurp her property.바카라� Kujur, however, says that films like Bulbbul that romanticise the daayan are equally bad as the B-grade films. She explains that in states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, tales of the witch are much more believable as they are deeply woven into the social fabric. 바카라�These films reinforce the idea of daayan and chudail.바카라�