Makdee

Makdee
Directed by	Vishal Bhardwaj
Produced by	Vishal Bhardwaj
Screenplay by	Vishal Bhardwaj
Story by	Vishal Bhardwaj
Starring	Shabana Azmi Makrand Deshpande Shweta Prasad
Music by	Vishal Bhardwaj
Cinematography	Hemant Chaturvedi
Editing by	Aarif Shaikh
Distributed by	Percept Picture Company
Release date(s)	November 22, 2002
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Makdee (देवनागरी: मकड़ी, English literally Spider), promoted as The Web Of The Witch in English, is a children's film in Hindi directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, starring Shabana Azmi, Makrand Deshpande, Shweta Prasad, and Alaap Mazgaonkar. The film tells the story of a young girl in north India and a alleged witch in a mansion. It also explains the believe in witches and witchcraft across modern day India.

Plot

Life in Chunni's village is all peace and quiet, and great fun. She fools the villagers including her parent with her impersonation of her twin sister, Munni.

In the village, there is a mansion that is said to be haunted and legend goes that a witch called Makdee (Shabana Azmi) resides there. The legend has it that whosoever wonders into the mansion, comes out as an animal! No one in the village dares enter the mansion.

Things are going fine for Chunni until the day one of her pranks gets quite out of hand. As a result of this, Munni, her docile sister, enters the mansion, where the witch turns the little girl into a hen! Chunni is hysterical when she discovers this. She runs from pillar to post to get help, but her credibility is at an all-time low and the entire village refuses to believe her, so Chunni finally enters the haunted mansion alone to search for her sister.

In the mansion she comes face to face with the witch, she pleads with the witch to let her poor little sister go, as it was no fault of hers. But the witch asks her to strike a deal. She will turn Munni back into a human only if Chunni can acquire for her hundred hens in exchange.

All of a sudden, Chunni is confronted with the biggest challenge of her life. How she over comes this task becoming the hero of the village in an unexpected climax is worth a watch.

Cast

• Shweta Prasad as Chunni/Munni
• Shabana Azmi as Makdee, the witch
• Makrand Deshpande as Kallu, the village butcher
• Daya Shanker Pandey
• Aalap Mazgaonkar as Mughal-e-Azam
• Vineet Kumar
• Mohini Mathur
• Chittaranjan Giri
• Vijay Raj as Chunnl/Munni's father
• Shammi Narang as himself (guest appearance)

Awards

• The film won the second prize at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.
• Shweta Prasad won the Indian National Film Award for Best Child Artist for 2003 for her role in the film.

External links

• Makdee at the Internet Movie Database
• Makdee Advertisement