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Netflix's obsession with Indian horror continues after Ghost Stories, Betaal and Bulbbul, with their latest offering, Kaali Khuhi. Directed by Terrie Samundra, the movie stars Riva Arora, Shabana Azmi, Sanjeeda Shaikh, Satyadeep Mishra, and Leela Samson. Kaali Khuhi revolves around a village in the North of India, where female infanticide once used to be rampant. The curse of this horrendous practice returns to haunt the village, when the spirit of one of the dead girl children returns from the black well, where their bodies were dumped. Kaali Khuhi Movie Review: Ghosts of Female Infanticide Come to Strike Fear in Shabana Azmi’s Well-Meaning but Predictable Netflix Film.
It is now up to a 10-year-old girl Shivangi (Riva of Uri and Gunjan Saxena fame), visiting her comatose grandmother (Leela Samson) with her parents (Satyadeep Mishra and Sanjeeda Shaikh) to figure what her family's past has to do with the curse. And with the help of her father's aunt Satya maasi (Shabana Azmi), try to put an end to it. Will she manage to do so? Let's decode the ending of the film, which, of course, means plenty of SPOILERS ahead!
The Ending
Towards the end, Shivangi finds out that the spirit haunting the room in the first floor of her ancestral house is the grownup ghost of her father's baby sister, Sakshi, who was killed after being born by the elders of the village. After seeing Sakshi kill her father, Shivangi runs to her ailing mother and Satya maasi, only for them to be attacked by a possessed Chandni. While they manage to subdue Chandni, who bites Shivangi's hand, they begin to hear Sakshi beckoning Shivangi.
Satya tells Shivangi that only she can stop this curse. Shivangi's mother reveals that she is pregnant and Sakshi wants that child. A petrified Shivangi gathers her guts and enters the house, to be transported back in time, where she meets her father as a child and her pregnant grandmother. Her young Daadi throws a white cloth on her, that is used to shroud the babies. Kaali Khuhi Trailer: Sanjeeda Sheikh And Shabana Azmi's Horror Film Will Make You Squirmish.
Shivangi returns back to the night, where she finds Sakshi's spirit waiting for her. She follows the spirit to the accursed room, from where cries of babies can be heard. There she sees an alive womb, throbbing on a platform with a baby in it, that leaves her scared. The embryo then turns dead. She then sees hallucinations of the elderly women about to poison baby Sakshi. Shivangi takes the baby out of the crone's hands, screaming that she will not allow this to happen.
As she rushes out of the room to the ground below, the whole house crumbles, while she kisses the baby. In the morning, all that is left is debris and her grandma's buffalo, who Shivangi takes out to the fields and leaves her near the black well. At the kaali khuhi, she sees many girls playing and she approaches them. One of the girls is Sakshi who smiles at her and then gives her the tadaagi (amulet) that Sakshi's father had made for his unborn sibling.
What Does It Mean?
The reason why Shivangi is chosen to end the curse is, as Satya maasi puts it, she is from the new generation and can stop atrocities from happening again. Which is evident later on when she prevents the elders from killing the baby, and once she does so, the entire house crumbles, denoting the breaking down of old riti rivaaj.
Shivangi, whose name embodies both Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati became what none of the women in her family could do. Her daadi couldn't prevent her daughter from getting killed. Her Satya maasi, while rebellious, is a silent bystander. Her mother, while resilient, continues to begrudgingly adheres to her husband's wishes. But Shivangi manages emerge victorious in the fight, shattering walls of blind belief and evil traditions in the process.
What about the final scene? The girls playing near the well are believed to be the grownup ghosts of the babies thrown in the well, just like Sakshi. That means Sakshi was not the only ghost that was haunting the village. Earlier in a scene, Shivangi overhears a lady tells her friend that 11 people have died because of the curse. Perhaps the rest of the spirits were responsible for this, as we only see Sakshi killing three people, including (presumably) the man who was pushed in the well. And thanks to Shivangi's actions, the spirits seemed to have found peace.
Do you agree with our views on the ending of Kaali Khuhi? Did you find any other metaphors? Do share your thoughts in the comments section below. If you haven't watched the film, Kaali Khuhi is streaming on Netflix.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 30, 2020 08:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
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