Bhooty Call – Tahkhana

You don’t see many angry mobs of torch-welding villagers in horror movies these days. It’s kind of a pity; the angry mob is a cliche, but it is a useful cliche, especially when you’ve created a sympathetic creature and you want the viewers to ask themselves, “Who is the real monster?” In Tahkhana (1986), at least, the answer is clear – the true monster is the Satanic golem powered by blood sacrifice that’s been killing absolutely everybody.

The backstory in Tahkhana is a bit complicated. Durjan (played by . . . somebody. The IMDB isn’t very helpful here) is an evil tantrik. Disinherited in favor of his virtuous brother Raguveer, Durjan takes his revenge by murdering his brother and kidnapping his nieces, Sapna and Aarti; he can sacrifice the girls to bring his clay devil-god to life, and the girls wear lockets which double as a map to where the family treasure is buried, so it’s a win-win.

Things don’t go quite as smoothly as Durjan planed, however. Raghuveer’s friend Mansingh forms a rescue party and the girls are saved, though Sapna runs into the jungle with her locket and nobody bothers to follow her. Durjan, meanwhile, is locked in the surprisingly extensive dungeon on the outskirts of the village, alone with his devil-god. And a vulture.

Twenty years later, a significantly decayed Durjan commits suicide by exploding boil, finally bringing his beloved clay devil-god to life. Said devil-god is still trapped in the dungeon, however, so as long as nobody comes looking for the treasure, everything should be fine.

Aarti, meanwhile, has grown into a spirited young woman played by Arti Gupta, and is happily in love with Mansingh’s son, Vijay (Puneet Issar). Mansingh himself is on his deathbed, but before dying, he gathers Vijay and Aarti, along with his nephews Anand and Shakaal (Imtiaz Khan), and charges them to find Sapna and reclaim the treasure.

Shakaal scoffs at the idea of long lost siblings and buried treasure, and returns to Mumbai, where he meets a young woman named Sapna (Sheetal), Shakaal gives her a job as a dancer, and when she’s alone, he goes to her room and accidentally kills her while trying to rape her. While disposing of the body (you get the impression that he’s done this kind of thing before) he discovers her locket, realizes this Sapna is that Sapna, and begins to scheme.

When Vijay and the others show up to begin the search for Sapna, Shakaal tells them that he met her, and she sold him the locket before moving on. Since they’ve got the complete locket, the group decides to focus on finding the treasure first, and to look for Sapna later.

Vijay and Aarti go to the village first, where, with the help of well-muscled local Heera (Hemant Birje, fresh from his breakout role as Tarzan) they reclaim the abandoned mansion. A few days later, Anand and Shakaal arrive, along with a handful of Shakaal’s hired goons, and the group make their first foray into the dungeon. And that’s when people start dying.

Tahkhana really suffers from the lack of a compelling villain. There are plenty of antagonists, but Durjan, the actual bad guy who wants things and sets events in motion in order to get them, is dead within the first twenty minutes of the movie, and while Shakaal is scum, he’s passive, committing bad deeds as the opportunity arises rather than driving the plot.

That leaves the monster, which doesn’t talk. The monster starts out as a cunning predator with supernatural powers stalking the dungeon to protect the treasure, but he rapidly undergoes the kind of character degeneration that takes most movie monsters a couple of sequels to achieve and becomes a ponderous brute stomping through the village killing everybody within reach for no apparent reason. it’s enough to make a man cheer for the angry mob.