In an India post the 2012 New Delhi gang rape that shook the country, public buses, late night cinema shows, and metal rods have made a place for themselves in the language of violence against women. So naturally, when you watch Anu (Asheema Vardaan) travelling by herself in a DTC bus in the capital city, you will be overcome with fear. Anxiety will envelope you as you watch her make her way to a derelict hostel in the middle of nowhere, evading the gaze of creepy men. This seemingly mundane sequence sets the tone for Smita Singh’s latest show, Khauf, where the real is more harrowing than the supernatural; where the city is both a witness and a perpetrator.
Smita Singh’s Khauf is deeply suspicious of the world around it. In the eight-episode miniseries, spanning five and a half hours, there are only a handful of moments when the bystanders come out looking good (or at least civilised).
The joke on the street is that despite the Hindi film industry’s slowdown, four filmmakers will always be found working: Anurag Kashyap, Hansal Mehta, and the director-duo Raj-DK. While Kashyap and Mehta are, expectedly, quietly mounting their next, Raj and DK are also gearing up for yet another streaming project, Farzi 2, which could have had a slightly different origin story.
