1920: Horrors of the Heart

Story:

1920: Horrors of the Heart is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language horror film directed by Krishna Bhatt and written by Mahesh Bhatt. It is produced by Vikram Bhatt, Raj Kishor Khaware, Rakesh Juneja, and Shwetambari Bhatt. It is the fifth installment in the 1920 film series. The lead actors are Avika Gor and Rahul Dev. Supporting actors include Barkha Bisht, Randheer Rai, Danish Pandor, Ketaki Kulkarni, Avtar Gill, and Amit Behl.

Plot

Meghna discovers her father’s personal diary on the night of his suicide, which reveals Radhika, her mother’s scandalous background of liaisons with British people for monetary gain and celebrity. Her mother poisoned her father once in an attempt to kill him, but he miraculously lived. Unable to bear her actions, Meghna’s mother abandoned her family and married a wealthy man, Shantanu. Meghna is shaken by the revelation and visits her father’s grave, where she speaks with his spirit. Meghna travelled to her mother’s lavish home with her father’s permission, which kicked off a chain of strange happenings.

Despite her father’s warning not to allow love distract her from her duty, Meghna develops feelings for Aditi (her step sister). Simultaneously, Meghna’s boyfriend becomes aware of her harmful intents towards her mother and urges her against following in her footsteps. Because of his resistance, he dies at the hands of Meghna’s father’s spirit.

Arjun, Meghna’s boyfriend (who was not genuinely dead but was an exorcism practitioner assisting Meghna’s father using black magic) unexpectedly gives her with an earthen pot (kalasa in Hindi) filled with ash. Aditi becomes possessed after sprinkling the ashes under her pillow, causing the household to be terrified. Despite the housekeeper’s advice to kick Meghna out, Radhika and Shantanu opt to keep her.

Meghna then receives a message to meet Arjun in the mansion’s back yard, where she learns of his true identity as the exorcist. A fight breaks out, and the housekeeper is killed for uncovering the truth. Meghna’s voyage back to her mother’s mansion, where a gardener delivers her her mother’s diary, takes her away from the exorcist.

Meghna is presented with a tragic revelation after reading the diary: her father was a nasty man who would trade his wife for money and power. When Radhika objected, he ingested poison to make her fearful, but he survived. Shantanu had spared Radhika from suicide, and they had spent years trying to find Meghna after her father had taken her.

Meghna, realising her terrible error, confesses to Aditi’s parents that she assisted her father’s soul in inhabiting Aditi. The family hires a Hindu priest, who tells that Meghna’s father made a deal with the exorcist in which his soul gained strength in exchange for his heart after death, allowing him to possess and kill Aditi.

With no other option to save Aditi, Meghna ignites a sacred lamp (diya) in the temple and murders herself with the Goddess Durga’s trident. In the spirit realm, her spirit battles her father’s, eventually driving him into the light. She runs into her long-dead boyfriend, who tells her to return to the living world. When Meghna regains consciousness, she finds herself in a hospital bed, surrounded by Radhika, Shantunu, and Aditi, all of whom represent a new beginning.

Release

The teaser for the Bhatt flick was released on February 24, 2023 by Zee Music Company. Zee Music Company published the trailer on June 1, 2023.