Papi Gudia (1996)

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

This, or something very much like it, the thin antiquarian told me, when I inquired if he had a copy of Lawrence D'Souza's curious tale Papi Gudia hidden somewhere in the dusty stacks of his little corner bookstore. At first, he denied any further knowledge of the subject, but soon, relaxed by my expertise in things arcane and eldritch, he admitted to owning a copy of the elusive work.

It took me only little time to convince him to part with it. In truth, he seemed somewhat relieved to part with it for just the smallest of fees. Oh, had I only known what I know now, I would never have mentioned the thing whose claws now scratch at the thin doors of my sanity.

Alas, I bought the dreadful abomination and took it home. With trembling hands I opened the DVD case which now I know I never should have set eyes on, put the DVD it into the gaping maw of my DVD player and settled to watch.

Soon, a feeling of dread started to rise inside my breast as the most terrible of tales unfolded on the screen. At first it all seemed so innocent and friendly - an heroic outsider full of strength and vigor sneaks through an Indian city, on the look-out for vile creatures who disguised themselves with the look of childish innocence. I didn't let myself be fooled by their tricks; as soon as they moved, spoke or danced their inhumanity became obvious. The police, those once stalwart forces of order, had long since been crushed under the net of lies and betrayal the forces of madness spread, and hunted Channi, said heroic outsider, as a killer of children. With knowledge of magic and a quick mind he still was always able to escape them, until one fateful night he met the most terrible monster of them all - a puppet-like dwarf called Raju, who had talked a once innocent girl named Karishma into the belief she was his older sister and pressed her into outmost depravity: The life of a dancer.

Channi's efforts to kill the monstrous thing were in vain. Instead a sweating and corrupt policeman ended the heroic struggle against darkness prematurely. Or so it seemed. Unknown to the dreadful forces threatening the human mind and spirit, the bright spark that was Channi's spirit wandered into the body of a doll, a doll that would soon start Channi's mission again. The kind hands of destiny delivered his new body into the hands of the abominable Raju himself, who did not recognize him, and instead pressed his "sister" into acquiring the "doll" for him. A better position to exact his vengeance Channi could not have asked for.

The nerve-shattering terror Papi Gudia exudes can not be explained purely by the abomination that is Raju, or the terrible, soul-crushing end that is inflicted upon Channi. The madness that still clouds my mind has another source. With fiendish inventiveness the thing that hides behind the mask of "Lawrence D'Souza" has constructed his vile work as a ceremony to call upon the Elder Gods themselves. Each of the "musical numbers" is another step on the viewer's way to destruction, each eroding his sanity with terrible truths about the nature of the universe, truths I wish I had never known. The first dance step Karisma Kapoor did should have warned me, her dreadful smile shown me the truth about the madness that lied in wait, but my thirst for knowledge was too strong.

Now, there is no place I go where I do not hear the mad piping at the center of the universe, nothing I see that is not tainted by the things I have seen.

I have written these words as a warning for other seekers after forbidden knowledge while I still have the time, while the dreadful sounds are getting closer and closer to my doorstep. Soon, I will see that dreaded smile again.

[The poor fellow who wrote this words has disappeared without a trace. I heard he had made an unholy movie geekish pact with Todd of Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill!, whom we have to thank for his demise.]

 

 

Technorati-Tags: bollywood,indian movies,horror,reviews,karisma kapoor,shakti kapoor,lawrence d'souza