Roohi 2021

Bhawra Pandey [Rajkummar Rao] and Kattanni Qureshi [Varun Sharma] hail from the small Bagadpur village, where a harsh local custom once dictated that the man who wishes to marry a woman must abduct her. The two men are pulled into that grim tradition by their boss, the ruthless Guniya Bhai [Manav Vij], who hires them to kidnap Roohi [Janhvi Kapoor], a young woman whose future is tied to a marriage contract. When a death in the groom’s family forces a pause on the plan, Bhawra and Kattanni decide to hide Roohi in an abandoned woodworking shop so the marriage can proceed after the funeral.

Inside the dim space, tension quickly shifts from a kidnapping plot to something far more supernatural. Bhawra begins to sense that Roohi is not merely scared or resistant but actually possessed by a demonic spirit. This is confirmed by Roohi’s father, a man deeply worried about what the family has walked into. The demon, who identifies herself as Afza, reveals herself as a Mudiyapairi—a legendary, exceptionally strong witch with backward-turned feet who will not leave until she marries, taking the girl she possesses with her.

Guniya Bhai, worried about police scrutiny and the danger to his reputation, orders his men to retrieve Roohi, but Bhawra and Kattanni refuse to abandon her. Their stubborn loyalty puts them in direct conflict with the gang leader, and the henchmen who are sent to reclaim the girl pay a dangerous toll for underestimating Afza’s strength. The brutal confrontation makes it clear that the demon’s hold on Roohi runs deeper than a simple kidnapping.

Seeking a way out, Bhawra consults an old woman who shares a chilling, practical truth: the Mudiyapairi can be trapped by tricking Afza into marrying a man who is already married, effectively turning the spirit into a nuisance rather than a permanent inhabitant. The old woman’s tale carries a heavy history—she herself has been possessed by the same witch in the past and survived only after an exorcism that came with a steep price.

With time running short, the trio heads toward a village called Chimmattipur and improvises a plan that blends superstition with a desperate sense of humor: Bhawra even goes so far as to marry a dog to fool the witch and force Afza to confront the possibility of a “fake” union. The villagers react with anger and skepticism, viewing the scheme as a desecration of their sacred space, but the sense of danger remains if Afza is not appeased.

Guniya Bhai arrives again, intent on revenge and on salvaging his own standing, but he quickly recognizes that Afza’s marriage must occur within a day if she is to be driven out of Roohi. He pivots toward a cynical payoff, proposing that Afza marry the chosen groom associated with the original contract in order to restore his own reputation.

At the wedding site, Kattanni, dressed in Bhawra’s wedding attire, tries to coax Afza into an arranged union. The old woman interrupts once more, presenting Afza with a startling ruse: a video of the dog wedding meant to demonstrate the fragility of the plan. Afza becomes confused, misidentifying Bhawra as Kattanni, and her anger surges. In a climactic turn, Afza commands Bhawra to marry her, but Roohi intervenes with a radical choice.

Roohi, embracing Afza’s strength rather than fighting it, decides to marry Afza herself, choosing a union that acknowledges the spirit’s power rather than denying it. The two women—Roohi and Afza—find an unexpected harmony, leaving Bhawra and Kattanni behind as the situation shifts from a rescue plot to an uneasy coexistence.

In the aftermath, police arrive with Roohi’s father, but the old woman disappears, leaving the impression that she may have aided Afza all along. The film closes on the note that the transfer of power and choice has shifted, leaving Roohi empowered to decide her own fate alongside Afza, rather than being controlled by the men who kidnapped her.