Phoonk

Rajiv, a civil engineer and staunch atheist, lives in Mumbai with his wife Arati, their two children Raksha and Rohan, his mother, and the housemaid Laxmi. His closest colleagues are Madhu and Anshuman, whom many, including Rajiv’s friend Vinay and Raksha, suspect are not exactly normal. After a party at his house, Rajiv learns that a married couple has cheated him out of a valuable contract for an IT firm in Delhi, and he fires both Madhu and Anshuman, delivering a sharp insult that fuels their ensuing plan of revenge. Madhu notes that Rajiv is fond of Raksha, a detail that gnaws at him even as he tries to move forward.

What begins as a creeping unease around the household soon escalates into a string of eerie, unexplained events. Mandar, appointed to replace Madhu and Anshuman, is mysteriously killed at the construction site, a shock that shakes Rajiv’s faith in logic. Raksha starts to talk and behave oddly, shocking everyone with levitation, a deeper, masculine voice, and episodes of pain that leave doctors baffled. The elderly grandmother grows more insistent that black magic is at work, but Rajiv and the doctors refuse to accept that explanation, clinging to a rational view even as the signs accumulate.

With the situation spiraling, Rajiv finds himself cornered by superstition and fear, and he reluctantly agrees to a small shrine at the construction site to appease the unknown force. Vinay proposes seeking the help of Manja, a seasoned magician who understands these hard-to-deny phenomena, and is drawn into the mounting tension surrounding Raksha’s condition. Manja arrives, quickly assessing Raksha and visiting Rajiv’s home to lay out what he believes is a plot of revenge targeting Rajiv. He also reveals a troubling detail: Raksha’s private effects—hair, soil from her footprint, and her toys—have been used by the others to perform the dark rites, some of which involved Rajiv’s own driver.

Armed with this new information, Rajiv, Vinay, and Manja rush to Madhu’s house, where they uncover Madhu and Anshuman performing a ritual on a doll meant to be Raksha. Rajiv commands them to stop, but Madhu lashes out with a trishul while Vinay grapples with Anshuman. The atmosphere thickens with malevolent energy as the confrontation unfolds. In a dramatic turn, Manja uses his powers to disrupt the ritual, and the room’s chaos peaks when a ceiling fan, moved by a sudden force, strikes Madhu and decapitates her in a macabre, almost darkly comic moment. The surge of negative energy recedes, leaving the group dizzy and shaken. A skull on the floor releases a spider that bites the driver, who dies in the ensuing turmoil, further tilting the night into tragedy and mystery.

In the aftermath, Raksha’s health takes a sudden turn for the better, and she fully recovers, much to the relief of Rajiv and Vinay. Everyone around them attributes Raksha’s improvement to the doctors, but Rajiv and Vinay exchange a knowing smile, recognizing that the true cause lay in the confrontation, the rites, and the inexplicable forces that had haunted Raksha. The film closes on a note that invites reflection: sometimes faith and science collide in the most unexpected ways, and the line between medicine and mystery remains perilously thin.

Last Updated: October 07, 2025 at 08:43