Pari 2018

The story weaves a chilling tale around a demonic figure named Ifrit and a Bangladesh-based satanic cult, the drive of which is to perpetuate Ifrit’s bloodline. This cult would kidnap women and conjure a male demon to mate with them, hoping to bear offspring that carried the demon’s seed. A vigilante faction led by Professor Qasim Ali [Rajat Kapoor] operates against this horror, tracking down the impregnated women, holding them captive until they give birth, and then violently killing the demonic babies by decapitating them and sealing the heads in glass jars. The community wrestles with this brutal method—some supporting the effort, others denouncing the extremism—and the group is ultimately shut down for its radical and blood-soaked approach.

Rukhsana [Anushka Sharma] is the daughter of one of those women, who managed to escape captivity before Professor Ali could destroy her child. Her backstory is a ghostly thread that runs through the narrative, haunting her as she encounters the ordinary world outside her trauma. The film follows her as she becomes central to a new, unintended bond.

Arnab, a young man who runs a printing press, leads a quieter life until fate intervenes. He and his parents, on a night of heavy rain, strike an old woman with their car. When the police search the woman’s home, they uncover a secluded hut in the forest where a chained Rukhsana lies hidden. Feeling a deep pull of compassion and responsibility, Arnab [Parambrata Chatterjee] welcomes her into his life, and Rukhsana, who has seen visions the living world cannot explain, begins to view him with a mix of fear and affection. To Arnab, she appears strange yet endearing, and their time together blossoms into something gentler and more intimate than either expected.

On this arc of trust, a morgue worker [Dibyendu Bhattacharya] who has long been entangled with the cult’s shadowy history brings a troubling truth to light: Rukhsana’s mother bore the cult’s mark, linking her fate to the vigilante’s decades-long pursuit. This revelation drives Professor Ali back into the foreground, reigniting the chase as she and Arnab grow closer.

As their bond deepens, Rukhsana falls ill in a way that reveals the demon-blood reality burning inside her. Arnab initially mistakes it for a menstrual problem, but she reveals that she is carrying a demon’s child, and she secretly kills a dog by biting it to release the poison she carries. She confesses her love for Arnab, and the two share a moment of tenderness that is quickly overshadowed by fear and danger. The next morning, the professor confronts Arnab with the truth, and a violent altercation ensues with the morgue worker. In the ensuing chaos, Rukhsana kills the assistant and protects Arnab from danger, even as jealousy flares and she physically asserts herself against him.

Armed with the grim knowledge of Ifrit’s true biology, Arnab reaches out to Professor Ali [Rajat Kapoor], and the story pivots toward a devastating revelation: Ifrit babies are born in just one month, not nine. The professor’s men converge on the couple just as Rukhsana reveals she is pregnant with Arnab’s child. The professor’s cohort tortures Rukhsana to death, and Arnab leaves the scene in despair, unable to intervene as the life he helped create hangs in the balance. Weeks pass, and Piyali [Ritabhari Chakraborty], a nurse and Arnab’s confidante, visits his family home, where he finally confesses the truth about Rukhsana. Their conversation makes Arnab realize that, in a cruel irony, he bears responsibility for the pregnancy and that the baby is, in fact, human.

Rukhsana, battered and broken, breaks free from her captors and journeys toward a last, desperate act. She kills the professor and heads toward Piyali’s home, where she wounds Piyali and enters labor. Piyali, drawing on her medical past, cannot bring herself to kill her patient. Instead, she helps deliver the baby, a moment of fragile humanity amid horror, and the infant is born with an umbilical cord—an emblem of life tethered to both worlds. Rukhsana leaves the newborn with Piyali before disappearing.

Arnab hurries to the old hut and finds Rukhsana gravely injured. He embraces her in a quiet, heartbreaking moment, and she resists using her venom on him, choosing to keep it inside. In her final breath, she declares that their baby is human, not the demon’s progeny. Arnab’s voice gathers the last thread of resolve: it is Rukhsana’s love that rendered the child human, not Ifrit’s hatred. He vows to raise the baby and care for them both, stepping into a fragile future shaped by love, loss, and a new, uncertain hope.