Aakhri Cheekh (1991)

'Aakhri Cheekh' was released in the year 1991 and by this time, the Ramsays' House or Horror was falling apart. Like a gambler, the Ramsays' were motivated once again to make a film on the lines of Wes Craven's 1989 film 'Shocker'. Well, plagiarism isn't a new tool for Bollywood. Many directors and storytellers we see now have achieved their fame with it. Now, it all depends on their 'adjustments' that bring the tale down to the Indian B-horror standards. This practice has given birth to several blatant rip-offs like 'Mahakaal (1993)', which was a flagrant rip-off of Wes Craven's 1984 cult-classic 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'. Then there was S.U. Syed, who forgot his directing abilities when he shamelessly copied Sean S. Cunningham's historical 'Friday the 13th'. Then we have another impersonator called Mohan Bhakhri, who tried hands with Tom De Simone's 'Hell Night (1981), and Stan Winston's life-threatening creature feature 'Pumpkinhead (1988)'. Vinod Talwar and P. Chandrakumar belittled Tom Holland's 'Fright Night (1985)' by copying the original stuff in such a hate worthy manner that you should never watch Talwar's 'Wohi Bhayanak Raat (1989)' and Kumar's 'Bungalow No. 666 (1988). Unfortunately, 'Aakhri Cheekh' is no different from the ones mentioned above.

Four friends Vijayendra Ghatge, Javed Khan, Deepak Parashar and Anil Dhawan and not just pals, but also business partners. They are known for their collective professional decisions and truthfulness towards one another. However, life tests them when they fall prey to a malicious ghoulish black magician Surendra Pal, who is after Vijayendra's sister Sri Pradha. The magician is notorious for luring young virgins to his lair, whom he later sacrifices before his demon god. The men happen to get Surendra arrested and prove his crimes before the court. The court instantly decides 'death by electrocution' on him. Tied on the electric chair, Surendra warns everyone about his return from the Hades. Little do the guys know that Surendra has a detailed plan of wreaking havoc on their families. How the men unite against all the odds and defeat the dark forces forms rest of the story. The film boasts on bold scenes by B-grade showgirls Poonam Das Gupta and Neelam Mehra. Kanwaljit as a government doctor and Sujit Kumar as a sanely priest need a mention here for their contribution to this trash. Then we also have Vijay Arora as a high-profile advocate, who has a short presence, and Kamal Kapoor with his 'Sadhu' attire closely resembles an Indian hobo. There are few jack-in-the-box scenes that were done well. The background score is bouncy and different from the ones used in the previous Ramsay films.

By the late 90s the real horror had vanished from the so called horror films. Ramsays' could never touch the zenith they did with 'Dahshat', 'Hotel', 'Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche', 'Veerana' and 'Darwaza'. They tried hard to ignite the almost extinguished fire of horror with trash productions that didn't really have a production value. Had they invested on good actors, they could have made a memorable horror film in the late 90s and even now. The Ramsay films had a touch of original during the early 70s and 80s, but unfortunately they didn't give out a single cult-hit in the 90s that could hold a candle to their amazing creations. This is a sleazy film with the swarm of B-graders or so called Bollywood backbenchers, which has nothing new to promise. If you've already seen Craven's 'Shocker', better avoid this one.