By: Goher Iqbal Punn

Starring: Shabana Azmi, Shweta Prasad, Makrand Deshpande and others.
Music: Vishal Bhardwaj
Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

MAKDEE, directed by music composer turned director Vishal Bhardwaj, is an entertaining horror film for children. The story unfolds and enters into picture Chunni and Munni who are twin sisters. Life in their village is all peaceful and smooth. Chunni (Shweta), a look-alike of her twin sister, always makes the villagers fool with impersonation of her twin sister, Munni. She plays pranks on her schoolteacher, Kallu (the village butcher) and her father. There is a mansion in the village, which is said to be haunted. There lives the legend of a witch called Makdee (Shabana Azmi). The legend has it that the witch transmogrifies anyone into an animal form who dares enter the mansion. No one in the village even goes near to the mansion.

One of Chunni's pranks leads her into a big trouble when Kallu (Makrand Deshpande) loses his hens because of her mischievous behaviour. Angrily, he chases her to recover the hens. At last, he is able to corner her. That is when Chunni plays her customary trick by impersonating as Munni and redirects Kallu to chase the particular girl instead. Munni gets terrified when she sees angry Kallu coming for her, and enters the mansion haunted by the witch, MAKDEE. When Chunni comes to know the fact about her twin sister Munni, runs from house to house to seek help, but her credibility is at an all time low and the entire village refuses to believe her. Consequently, Chunni gathers the courage to go into the mansion and enters the main hall. To her horror, she confronts the witch, MAKDEE. She pleads with MAKDEE to let her sister (Munni) go, who has now been transformed into hen. But the wicked witch asks Chunni to strike a deal. The witch will return her sister back into a human form provided that Chunni gets her a hundred hens in exchange. The biggest challenge of her life is now waiting for Chunni. Does she succeed in it?

 Indian filmmakers rarely touch the subjects targeted at kids because they have fears of losing their money in these kinds of projects. But a few attempts have been made in this regard in the past. These include APPU RAJA and CHHOTA CHETAN. MAKDEE lacks thrilling moments, which are considered as necessary ingredients for the projects targeted at children. The interesting thing of this enterprise is the plot, which has a brilliant stuff to entertain the little audience. Being a talented composer, Bhardwaj does excel in this art. The script is laced with too many songs, which comes up as a big weakness of the film. On the contrary, the story is stretched so much without any valid reason that is why the outcome loses its impact by the time the climax arrives in. Directorially, Vishal Bhardwaj does impress. A couple of sequences, especially those between Shabana and Shweta, portray the remarkable execution ability of the newly born director. Cinematography is accurate. As a child artist, Shweta Prasad who plays the central characters of Chunni and Munni, performs exceptionally well and her performance merits an award too. She comes up as a natural and good headed child artist. Shabana Azmi is excellent as usual and her get up also deserves full marks. Markand Deshpande portrays the character with his fullest energies. The other cast of the film fills the bill.

On the whole, MAKDEE exhibits itself as a sincere attempt and has won the second prize at Chicago International Children's Film Festival.

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