 "'Khauf' web-series review: Rajat Kapoor and Monika Panwar's horror-thriller digs deeper and keeps you engaged")
Cast: Monika Panwar, Rajat Kapoor, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Shilpa Shukla, Abhishek Chauhan, Chum Darang
Directors: Pankaj Kumar and Surya Balakrishnan
Language: Hindi
One thing that the Hindi film content needs to be praised for is how the atmospherics are in a much better place as opposed to the gaudiness of the past. It’s more about the meticulous men and women behind the camera and not just the technological advancement. This week on Prime Video, we have a horror thriller called Khauf that’s created and written by a woman- Smita Sen. Directed by Pankaj Kumar and Surya Balakrishnan, Khauf opens with a mysterious lady going back to her hostel when she senses someone approaching her surreptitiously. It’s midnight, the city is Delhi and not surprisingly. Khauf isn’t just another take on possessed bodies and twisted spirits. It also attempts to throw light on how women’s safety continue to be in jeopardy.
The story then moves to another lady (Monika Panwar) as mysterious and unknown to the people around her. She too senses evils around her in the form of ghosts. As expected, there’s one jump scare right in the middle of an intimate scene in a cramped room. The makers juxtapose two lives into one narrative and the story truly gets rolling when she comes to the same hostel where the aforementioned girl felt scared for life. No name in this genre can escape the trope and tried and tested formula. The moment she lands in the hostel, she begins to experience strange and ghastly experiences.
The camerawork does a good job of creating eerie like atmosphere accompanied by bone-chilling background score. Enter Rajat Kapoor, (doing an Ashutosh Rana from Raaz). Kapoor’s bruised and brooding aura blends nicely into the tense story of Khauf. He did the same with the underrated thriller called Pari back in 2018 where he died an alarming yet amusing death. We haven’t had too many female creators attempting this genre as it’s mostly dominated by the men out there. We have seen the intense silences of Ram Gopal Varma’s Bhoot, we have also experienced the melancholic madness of Vikram Bhatt’s Raaz. Khauf opts for the former. It chooses to play with silences so that we can scream. Most of the horror titles have characters’ screech where the viewers remain absolutely deadpan.
Also, after a really long time we get to see ghosts dropping on the screen anytime they want, even right in the middle of the day. Yes! It feels both rousing and refreshing. But Khauf isn’t just a run of the mill horror drama. It flirts with the idea of what it feels and takes to be a woman in 2025, the perverted world filled with promiscuous men, and battling loneliness in an unknown city with strangers all around. The title has more meanings than one. It’s not always the fear of the ghosts, it’s also the fear of loneliness and even the people around. Nicely done!
Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)
Khauf is now streaming on Prime Video IN
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