Chudail No.1 (1999)

It has been scientifically proven by now that any film with the word Chudail contained within the title is bound to follow a specific set horror formula. Thus don’t be at all surprised if everything seems a tad familiar in this zero-budget slasher film.

The film begins delightfully with a hot young thing getting threatening phone calls just like the guy from Scream, and indeed it’s not the boyfriend who has a knife to his throat outside but poor Daddy Malhotra sahib instead. The nasty voice is demanding File No.10, and unless she finds and delivers it within the count of 10, her daddy will be virtually gutted like a fish. She scurries about in a mad panic but to no avail, and daddy is hacked and sliced to death mercilessly.

The beauty now tries her best to evade the bunch of sadistic goons who have cornered her, and once again, in Scream style, she is hacked down in cold blood just as you hoped she might get away. The goons walk out, leaving the poor innocent girl to die in the cold on her own.
The scene shifts to Inspector Vicky introducing his girlfriend to his mother, hoping to get her blessing for a swift marriage. Things work out perfectly, and within minutes they are married and settled happily, but the news of Vicky’s transfer to Bombay stuns his new wife rather alarmingly. Is there something about her past we are not aware? Some skeleton in the closet?

The couple shoots off to Bombay and moves into a lovely new house, and he takes up his position as head of a police precinct, performing his duties with Rajnikant efficiency. The cute female sub-inspector is soon swooning and daydreaming about her new boss.
The sleazy group responsible for the murder of the Scream girl now start to discover that this white sari-clad figure walks the streets late at night in a swirly mist. Singing a song that goes “pehchano main kaun hoon” and is prone to uncontrollable giggling fits is an evil omen for them indeed but, surely it can’t be? Was she dead? And yet the white sari, the mist, the song, the loose hair, all the signs are there!

The police soon discover that the woman is the new wife of Police Inspector Vicky, much to everyone’s shock. But in actuality, their marriage has turned a little cold as Vicky has found some feelings for his cute sub-inspector. It appears as though he is almost hoping that his wife is indeed the serial killer who prowls the night, axing people to death in the most brutal manner imaginable. Is it Vicky who is framing his wife, or is she indeed totally innocent as she claims?

The mystery reaches its end, but not without a twist or two along the way. Chudail No.1 is a genuinely terrible movie made on a budget of enthusiasm and little else. Ishrat Ali is instantly recognizable, and it’s good to see he has survived in films over the years but sad to see the dregs he has to exist on. Mac Mohan is there somewhere, as are some old familiar b grade villains of yesteryear. To its credit, there isn’t a rubber mask insight, nor is there any overtly blatant attempt at throwing women into showers or swimming pools or bathtubs to ogle them.

It still doesn’t make Chudail No. 1 anything other than a truly rotten film, and yet its heart is in the right place. It includes some ghastly acting, horrid dance numbers that elevate the experience to being somehow tolerable. It certainly helps that the running time is short. Rotten, but if you are stoic or masochistic, you might make it to the end.