Red Rose 1980

Anand Rajesh Khanna is a successful businessman with a dark side: he preys on nubile girls, seduces them, and kills them. These acts are not hidden; they are video-recorded and watched by his adoptive father, Anand’s Foster Father Satyendra Kapoor, a fellow deranged woman-hater who has spent years sequestered in a distant corner of the mansion, silently guiding his son’s brutal impulses. The murdered girls are buried in a discreet garden behind the house, where a lone rosebush grows above the graves as a stark, living reminder of the violence that shapes the family’s private world.

Anand chances upon an undergarments salesgirl, Sharda Poonam Dhillon, a conservative woman who makes it clear that if he wants to be with her, he must marry her. The romance that blooms between them appears to offer a possible salvation for Anand, adding a fragile light to a life dominated by crime. Yet the shadow of his past looms large, threatening to unravel the fragile peace that Sharda envisions.

On their wedding day, Sharda discovers a diary that details the depths of Anand’s deranged life, revealing the names of the girls he has killed scribbled on the walls of one of the rooms in his expansive, shadow-filled house. At the same time, Sharda encounters Anand’s father—the man Anand had claimed was retarded and not to be disturbed—and she manages to lock him away, hoping to escape the truth. When Anand returns and realizes that Sharda now knows his terrible secret, a tense pursuit erupts through the mansion corridors and into the night.

The chase culminates in a graveyard, where a wary cross becomes a fatal symbol as Anand stumbles and is pierced, drawing the attention of the police. The investigation is led by Inspector Bhushan Roopesh Kumar, who closes in as the truth about the murders becomes undeniable. Anand is imprisoned, but the experience leaves him physically and mentally altered: he becomes mentally retarded and loses his bloodthirsty tendencies. In his altered mind, the only memory that remains coherent is the name of Sharda, which he repeats over and over as his consciousness continues to fade.