Shaitan Khopdi (2000)

Having endured Khopdi just a couple of days ago and found it nothing less than excruciating, it was a courageous decision to go for Shaitan Khopdi as a follow-up. Yet within minutes, it surpassed Khopdi as a cut above the masked rubber nonsense that is churned out in North India these days.

Shaitan Khopdi hails from the South and is far superior to the garbage churned out up North. The film is set in 2022, and we are introduced to an Award ceremony where a great Indian scientist is soaking up the plaudits, having invented a cure for AIDS.

The scientist becomes overwrought and emotional when he speaks of his mother, who shrivelled up and died in front of him. Since that day, he swore to dedicate his life to making sure that those who died prematurely should never have to suffer a truncated life but could be revived by science and allowed to live happily till the end of their time.

The great doctor is helped in his attempts to become a Dr Frankenstein of the future by his highly talented assistant Vishnu and his daughter Varsha, who is due to get married to the assistant shortly. Sadly like most mad scientists, “Daddy” is driven by his quest for glory, and he fails to assess the dreadful consequences of his dabbling with life and death in the manner that so many scientists in horror movies have done before him.

So, Daddy manages to get himself a dead body from the local morgue. Soon, the corpse is reanimated and, in true Frankenstein style, is soon on the loose, stalking the Indian countryside for innocent victims to terrorize. His first victim is a happy picnicker at Lovers Beach whose lunch is trampled upon and when he reacts in anger, Ajay the Corpse strangles him and attacks his girlfriend. Moments of black-clad disco dancers break out into a fangled routine which makes for fascinating if bizarre viewing.

Soon, Ajay, the rampaging reanimated corpse, is romping around town. He turns his attention to the handsome Vishnu who is attacked brutally and fatally at home, leaving Varsha, the daughter of our Mad Scientists, very soon upset indeed. She pleads with an increasingly lusting and power-hungry Daddy to end his experiments, but it proves difficult for a once-great scientist to part with his dubious legacy and fame.

Ultimately, he proclaims, “I will destroy the Shaitani Khopdi”. Though it does appear like an excellent idea, he has virtually created an indestructible monster with the ability to absorb bullets and miraculously recover from any wounds. Thus killing the already dead monster proves a tricky prospect.

Fortunately, a police inspector around resembles Joe Spinnell and has a penchant for wearing bright red wellies – enough to scare the most hardened criminal into submission. Yet Ajay the Corpse provides a formidable challenge, and there is an almighty showdown between repentant good and burgeoning evil to determine the course of history.

Shaitan Khopdi, written and directed by one Vasan, is far from being a classic. Yet it is infinitely superior to the wave of rubber masked shite that those responsible for turds like Khopdi and Khooni Dracula currently spewed out. Not precisely the thrill a minute chiller intended, yet several cuts above the current rubbish churned out in the guise of horror these days.