A hackneyed execution is the main curse of a sound premise
India is a country which is famous for its unity in diversity. There are many beliefs, traditions, and also some evil practices that have been ruling many parts of the country. Despite several technological advances the sex discrimination, female foeticide, and female infanticide continue their hold making a mockery of all the development that is taking place. Kaali Khuhi revels in one such despicable practices throwing in a bit of horror element in this Netflix original film which is streaming now.
Story-line
Darshan (Satyadeep Misra) with his wife Priya (Sanjeeda Shaikh) and 10-year-old daughter Shivangi (Riva Arora) decides to go to the village to see his mother (Leela Samson) who has fallen sick.
The village is under the curse for the evil practice where the infant girls are thrown into a black well in the village immediately after their birth.
This evil practice proves fatal for the family of Darshan and his neighbor Satya Maasi (Shabana Azmi) who has to put up a brave fight against the evil with Shivangi playing the protagonist in the crusade for a brighter dawn not only for her family but for the whole village.
Performances
Total story revolves around the little girl Shivangi played confidently by Riva Arora and she has done a wonderful job by displaying an array of emotions through her innocent face.
Shabana is in her usual self in a guilt ridden role and she is always a prodigy in any kind of character and Maasi in Kaali Khuhi is not an exception to exhibit her multifaceted talent arc.
Satyadeep Misra who is earlier seen in Masaba Masaba portrays a different character which got lot of substance and he is the perfect choice for the role as he has sleep walked through the character Darshan with flair.
Sanjeeda Shaikh who got back to back releases in a week following Taish is in her elements and Leela Samson too proves her mettle in a tricky character.
The other child artistes, Hetvi Bhanushali as Sakshi and Rose Rathod as Chandini have come out with superb performances as they play key roles in this film’s progress.
Behind the scenes
The technical brilliance witnessed through some of the arresting picturesque frames, the rain clad locales shot from top angles incremented by some great lighting effects by cinematographer Sejal Shah and surrealistic music score by Daniel B.George are outstanding. All technical aspects including the prosthetics managed to steer Kaali Khuhi out of a total disaster.
Verdict & Rating
Despite a sound premise and an ensemble star cast, the horror angle played the spoil sport. The inexperience of debutant director Terrie Samundra in handling a sensitive storyline is clearly visible as she failed to strike a right balance between spookiness and reality which emerged due to the confusion in selecting the right track between horror and sentiment. As a result, Kaali Khuhi lost its direction and motive relegating it into another see it and forget it film.
The spark which is there inside Terrie is definitely missing in Kaali Khuhi except shades of it are visible in the fag end scene where Shivangi pulls the buffalo to the fields near the black well but it’s too late to make a recovery.
The technical brilliance notwithstanding the excellent performances all go down the drain as hackneyed execution is the main curse of Kaali Khuhi turning it into a big disappointment on the Halloween day.
Rating: 2.5/5
