Hawa
- Director
- Guddu Dhanoa
- Studio
- | distributor =
- Release Date
- 4 July 2003
- Language
- Hindi
- Budget
- ₹3.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹5.89 Cr
Cast
Review
Anushka Sharma's performance anchors *Hawa* with a rawness that elevates what could have been a derivative supernatural thriller. Her portrayal of Sanjana—a woman systematically abandoned by the institutions meant to protect her (psychiatrist, police, society)—grounds the film's more outlandish horror beats in genuine maternal desperation. Director Aneil Barve constructs the first half with admirable restraint, letting dread simmer through the antique shop's claustrophobic interiors and the lonely hillside estate. The locket as a narrative device echoes *Shershaah's* sentimental anchor, but here it becomes a Trojan horse for something far more sinister. However, the film's third act descends into the kind of CGI-heavy mythology-dumping that plagued so many post-2015 Bollywood horror attempts—the parapsychologist exposition feels borrowed from *1920* without the elegance, and the final well sequence, while visually ambitious, strains credibility in ways that undermine the psychological terror carefully built beforehand.
What distinguishes *Hawa* from Barve's previous work is its refusal to let the supernatural be mere spectacle; the real horror lies in systemic failure—a psychiatrist who dismisses a woman's crisis, a missing daughter rendered invisible by bureaucratic indifference. This thematic undercurrent could have positioned it alongside *Article 15* as socially conscious horror, but the film ultimately chooses spectacle over substance. The possession sequences are effec
Storyline
Sanjana's life takes a haunting turn when she settles into a remote hillside home after her divorce, running her stepfather's antique shop to make ends meet. Everything spirals when a mysterious Tibetan woman gifts her a locket, then vanishes—literally, turning out to be a ghost trying to reclaim her precious heirloom. The locket keeps returning to Sanjana no matter who she sells it to, and with it comes something far more sinister than a vengeful spirit: an invisible demon begins tormenting her relentlessly, attacking her in her own home while her kids watch helplessly.
The terror escalates when Sanjana's psychiatrist dismisses her desperate pleas for help, leaving her completely alone as the demon grows more violent and possesses her beloved dog. Her younger daughter vanishes into thin air, swallowed by the malevolent force, and Sanjana finally gets answers from a parapsychologist: the demon is a murdered rapist thrown into an ancient well where tribal criminals were executed, now obsessed with her after escaping through a lightning strike. When the well is opened, a flood of vengeful spirits erupts, and the parapsychologist is consumed by the chaos.
Sanjana makes the ultimate sacrifice, plunging into the possessed well herself to rescue her daughter, where all the spirits merge into one towering monster. She hurls the Tibetan locket at the demon, and it crumbles to dust, its hold finally broken! Her father's spirit appears as a radiant angel, delivering her daughter safely back to her arms, and Sanjana prepares to leave this cursed place behind. But just as hope blooms, the door slams shut one final time—a demonic whisper echoes through the darkness, leaving us wondering if she's truly free or if something sinister still lurks within those walls.
