ROOHI(2021) 

Bhawra Pandey and Kattanni Qureshi come from the village of Bagadpur, where it is common practice for the man who wants to marry the girl to kidnap her against her will. Guniya Bhai, their boss and leader of the kidnapping gang, has given them the task of kidnapping Roohi as part of a contract with a man who wants to marry her. However, in order for the marriage to take place after the funeral, a death in the groom's family forces them to hide her in an abandoned woodworking shop. Roohi's father confirms Bhawra's suspicions that she is in fact possessed by a demon during their stay. A year ago, Roohi was supposed to marry, but the groom and his family fled when they realized she was possessed.

Bhawra falls in love with Roohi and tries to get the spirit out of her; On the other hand, Kattanni is captivated by the demonic spirit, who goes by the name Afza and tries to approach her rather than Roohi so that he can speak with her. They discover that the demon is a Mudiyapairi—a witch with feet that point in the opposite direction—and that she will not leave unless she marries the girl she is possessing. Guniya Bhai orders them to abandon Roohi because he is concerned about the police investigation into the kidnapping, but they refuse, so he has to send his henchmen to finish the job. When the henchmen attempt to assault Kattanni, Afza injures them severely, and they tell Guniya about it.

Bhawra learns from an elderly woman that the "Mudiyapairi" must be coerced into marrying a man who is already married. This makes the "Mudiyapairi" the mistress and forces her to leave the body she is in control of. The same witch had previously possessed the elderly woman, and she had exorcised the spirit, but not before the enraged spirit murdered her fictitious husband. After Afza attacks the henchmen, killing one and injuring the other, Bhawra, Roohi, and Kattanni move to the village of Chimmattipur, where Bhawra weds a dog to deceive the witch. However, he is rebuked by the locals for bringing a witch into their sacred community. Guniya Bhai arrives to exact revenge, but Afza must marry in less than a day, so he realizes this. Guniya Bhai tells Afza that she can marry the man who gave her the contract to marry Roohi in an effort to rebuild his reputation.

Kattanni and Bhawra show up at the wedding; Afza is persuaded to marry him by Kattanni, who is dressed as Bhawra at her wedding. The elderly lady interrupts them and deceives Afza into believing that the marriage is a sham by showing her a video of the dog getting married. When she sees Bhawra dressed like the groom, she gets confused and thinks he's Kattanni. Afza, enraged, orders Bhawra to marry him, but Roohi prevents it. After that, rather than treating Afza as an adversary, Roohi makes the decision to wed Afza herself, thereby embracing the strength that Afza had given her.

Accepting each other, Roohi and Afza leave Bhawra and Kattanni behind. The elderly woman informs the police, who arrive with Roohi's father, that Roohi has fled not with herself but with the elderly. The woman vanishes, indicating that, given that she had previously married "Mudiyapairi," she may have been assisting Afza all along.

Janhvi Kapoor as Roohi/Afza Varun Sharma as Kattanni Qureshi Rajkummar Rao as Bhawra Pandey Alexx O'Nell as Tim Guniya Shakeel Sarita Joshi as Budhiya Sumit Gulati as Paras Rajesh Jais as Roohi's father Gautam Mehra as Lucky Pandit Aadesh Bharadwaj as Riaz On the other hand, it was moved up to June 5 on February 17.

The movie was retitled Roohi from Roohi Afzana on February 15, 2021, and it was released in India on March 11, 2021.

The majority of critics gave Reception Roohi poor reviews. Based on 10 reviews from critics, it has a 10% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Roohi is an entertaining blend of laughs and thrills," the Times of India said, giving it 3.5 stars out of 5. "Roohi has its moments, but they’re very few to label this as an entertaining product overall," stated Umesh Punwani of Koimoi, who gave the film a rating of 2.5/5. The acting department shines, but the rest are still mediocre to moderately good." The Hindustan Times' Monika Rawal Kukreja referred to Roohi as a "convoluted film." In the movie, she praised Rao and Sharma's equation, but she called Kapoor's performance average. According to Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV, the film "seeks to subvert genre conventions and venture into the terrain of feminist rebellion" and received a rating of 2 out of 5 stars. "Roohi is a horror-comedy movie with some spirit but no soul," stated Scroll's Nandini Ramnath. "Written by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba and Gautam Mehra, Roohi is totally about spontaneity and a solid beginning," wrote CNN-IBN's Rohit Vats. Even though Rao and Sharma are in their comfort zone, their banter and punchlines make people laugh.

The Indian Express' Shubhra Gupta gave Roohi a 1/5 and called it a "plain horrible" movie. She went on to say that "Roohi lacks a coherent plot and writing." One cringe-inducing sequence after another is all we get." The film received a rating of 2 out of 5 stars from Trade Analyst Taran Adarsh, who described it as "Disappointing." He added, "Nowhere near Stree, Weak screenwriting, Works in bits and spurts, not in its entirety, Second half and climax lack impact." However, he praised the lead cast's performances. "The film wants to juggle many balls – horror, comedy, feminist messaging, a love triangle, and a bromance – but ends up dropping almost all of them," Anupama Chopra wrote in Film Companion. "Roohi is horror comedy that’s dead on arrival despite sporadic humour, feminist aspirations," wrote Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost, who gave the film a rating of 1.5/5. "They could have cast any other actor in her place and it would not have made an inch of a difference to the film," she said, praising Rao and Sharma for their comic timing but criticizing the film's writers, the overall plot, and Kapoor's performance. "Nothing better indicates Roohi’s lack of commitment to its feminist goals than the irrelevance of its female star," she continued. "While Stree, despite the fluff and inconsistencies, was eminently watchable," stated Namrata Joshi of The National Herald (India), comparing Roohi to Stree. "Roohi is unbearable to the core." The "horror" aspect is not supported by any jump-from-the-seat moments or chills-down-the-spine erieness. In terms of comedy, there are only lame slapstick and jokes that don't work. There are very few funny lines and gags. The Deccan Herald's Roktim Rajpal referred to Roohi as a "Big Disappointment." He praised Rao's and Sharma's work, but he criticized Kapoor and said that Kapoor didn't do enough to make an impression. "Kapoor is simply unwatchable with a flat performance without any sound direction by Hardik Mehta," stated Sushri Sahu of Mashable India, praising Rao and Sharma but criticizing Kapoor and the film's direction.