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Cast: Monika Panwar, Rajat Kapoor, Chum Darang, Abhishek Chauhan, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Priyanka Setia, Shalini Vatsa, Riya Shukla, Asheema Vardaan, Gagan, Arora, Shilpa Shukla & others
Creator: Smita Singh
Director: Pankaj Kumar & Surya Balakrishnan
Streaming On: Prime Video
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 8 episodes of 40 minutes each
Have you ever encountered ghosts in real life? Most of you would say no; some of you might be dicey. But for those of you who might have had a ghost encounter, does it still haunt you? Are you still scared? The answer would definitely be a no! But let me ask, are you scared each and every second of your life. Is it something that haunts, is scarier than a ghost? For most of the women (probably all), the answer would be a screaming yes! That is the life of a woman in general – living in Khauf, being haunted by the past, being scared about what might happen in the future, and being possessed by trauma forever! Healing is a rarity here. And Prime Video’s web series Khauf is a very sharp and crisp commentary on the same!
The trailer of the web series sets up the premise very clearly – there is a girls’ hostel, and there is a ghost. A group of women is affected by the same. The web series delivers much more than it promised – a dose of horror that is as real as this world, scarier than the paranormal entities and supernatural events.
Khauf starts on a haunting note and ends with the same, maintaining the tone and complexity of the series. But does it manage to win? Definitely yes. Check out our review to find out how this paranormal web series turns into a scary piece and commentary on this world rather than the parallel world!
Khauf Review: What’s It About:
Khauf in the very first episode, offers the scariest moment one could witness – a woman walking on the lanes of a secluded road in Delhi and each passing second seems like a lifetime with a stalker following her and the woman trying to live the horror, probably the scariest 10-minute walk of her life as she tries to reach home safely!
This scene introduces us to the main character of Khauf – Pragati Working Women’s Hostel, that stands as a deserted building on the outskirts of Delhi. The hostel has a ‘raaz’ something happened with Annu, a girl who died on the road but lived in the hostel. Since then, her four friends – Rima (a pregnant woman), Swetlana (a Naga migrant), Nikki (a rich girl with an abusive past), and Komal (a call girl) have not left the premises. They all believe some entity is restricting them from leaving the college, and the worst could happen if they step outside! The girl who died, Annu, was a close friend of this group, and since her death, her room has been locked!
Until Monika Panwar, playing Madhuri, a gangrape survivor from Gwalior, arrives in Delhi to experience freedom and start afresh. She takes the dreaded room, and the gang of girls bully and intimidate her to vacate. Trying to understand all these women, the hostel warden played by a brilliant Shalini Vatsa!
The story dives straight into the Khauf of living in a city full of male gaze that is more dreading than a ghost encounter, and the horror of surviving this abnormal activity every single day, during every single commute, and it is more horrific than any other paranormal activity.
Although the story also dives into the paranormal realm once Madhuri is possessed but that ghost is far better than the real world to be honest and Khauf establishes this fact in every single frame, thanks to the brilliant writing and direction of this web series!
Khauf Review: What Works:
The series is so well executed that you do not try to find a flaw; you are too invested in the layers and the subplots that each and every character brings. Be it Geetanjali Kulkarni as the police constable trying to find her absconding criminal son, or Rajat Kapoor – a half-demon, half-human tantrik who starves for women’s blood for some black magic, and the plot thickens!
Each character of this web series offers a new fear to explore. There is so much horror in each backstory that even the distinct segregation between the good and the bad men is blurred at times. A character who comes across as the good man, Nakul, is continuously put on a pedestal of suspicion. The intense background score adds to the fear! Why he is so good is the greatest fear, which is so sad!
Khauf Review: Star Performance:
Monika Panwar obviously shines in this web series, and every other character does. Basically, the winning performance here is a tight script executed so brilliantly that you do not want to blink and miss anything important! Undoubtedly, Madhuri is the hero of Khauf; she fights, she struggles, she surrenders, yet she survives. Rajat Kapoor and Geetanjali Kulkarni with their struggle win the narrative, but Shalini Vatsa as the warden is so endearing and real. She is strict, but she is protective. She does not need to show that affection, but being a woman, she knows what others are going through and what they have to go through eventually in life. She has been there and done that!
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Khauf Review: What Doesn’t Work:
Arun suffers from the serious and the stupid ‘Bhabhi hai teri – bandi hai meri’ syndrome that brings the horror in Madhuri’s life in the first place. He compromises her safety and then makes the trauma all about himself. No, do not get me wrong, I understand that the trauma was legit, but I clearly do not empathize with him. He works out in the gym because he cannot protect himself. He loves Madhuri, but he is the decision-maker in this relationship! He takes her to a room full of men and then blames her for leaving that very night and living in the cheap, unsafe hostel. Well, hey, Arun, imagine your girl feeling safer in that unsafe hostel than being with you and your boys (and ironically, she was right as well since you admitted to your stupidity that caused havoc in Madhuri’s life earlier! ). So, no, Arun and his sexism are equally scary and disturbing, but the screenplay somehow tries to overlook this casually! Just like every Indian household that tries to shush their child after an uncle tries to misbehave!
Khauf Review: Last Words:
Abuse and its trauma are never-ending, and every woman in this web series is peddling that cycle. Ghosts of the past are the spirits that haunt you forever, the demons that possess you, and Khauf instills that fear sharply and unapologetically! It doesn’t paint a dreamy and rosy picture that no matter how bad this world is, there will be a way out. There is a silver lining. No, all the silver lines are just grey patches in this dark world for a woman. And grey patches cannot be a silver lining. They never were and they never will be!
4 stars.
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