I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs.
Revisited it recently on YouTube.
The print is good.
I consider this inferior to Mithun's Bhayaanak.
Bhayaanak relied more on atmosphere n the sinister nature of men.
This movie is scary only cos of the monster Samri n he became very famous n he is still known as Samri n not his real name. In real life too, his personality is creepy.
A devil worshipper Samri is put on trial aft he kills a king's daughter. (So nobody cared while he committed the heinous acts on non royal fellas).
He has raped virgin brides, he has sacrificed young kids, he has exhumed corpses n eaten their flesh n his method of overpowering his victims is hypnotizing em by sucking out their life force through the eyes, causing their natural eyes to be replaced with demonic white ones.
All the heinous activities r never shown onscreen except for the hypnotizing ones.
Before his execution, Samri puts a curse on the king's dynasty.
Samri is beheaded aft the king's order n his head is kept in the catacombs of the palace while his body is buried behind the purana mandir (Old Temple).
The story moves 200 years forward n we r introduced to the great great descendants of the king.
After this initial good start, the film has unnecessary songs, lousy sub plots to inject some comedy n bad fight sequences cos one of the character is a body builder.
Towards the end when the film picks up the pace n starts getting creepy then again v r served two lousy songs.
The editing is atrocious. In one scene a guy runs to the terrace to face the monster, it is a night scene. The moment he reaches the terrace, he gets a slap on his face by jus a hand shown n the next scene cuts to broad daylight n the guy is jus cryin while the monster jus disappears.
It has some gory scenes, not thru the demon but the fight sequence r nasty, a guy puts his fingers in his opponent's eyes, a person's face get smashed like a watermelon by another one's foot, ther is some lousy sword fight, a creepy horse chariot chase scene, zero nudity but lots of cleavages n fatty thighs, lots of fogs n one of the best location, the mansion.
I have personally visited the mansion, it is located in Murud Janjira. The mansion is on top of a foothill next to a beach. (My aunt stays nearby n the place has some lovely childhood memories).
Very generous with an 8 cos of Samri n to encourage obscure n forgotten Bollywood horror films.