From The West (Pachhuwa)

A stranger visits a highly superstitious village, with some secret information about the village, and brainwashes the villagers to thug them.

Pachhuwa (From The West) is a story on superstition. This story is inspired by a real incident in my village a decade ago. The characters, the scenario, and the film's tone have been recreated according to the image I had in mind. I always have questions about the superstitious practices in my society. There is a famous enchanter in my village, near my house, where people from remote villages come to get healed of bad spirits, evil spirits, witches, ghosts, etc., by enchanting. While in my school days, I used to study that superstition is a mal social practice, and on the same evening, I used to face the people healed by enchanting. At that moment, questions used to arise in my head: if superstition is really something that heals, it should be included in the syllabus. Otherwise, it should be legally banned. After a few years, a moment came when people were dying one after another due to different reasons. Suddenly, one day, a saint came, fooled all the villages, and swindled huge amounts of money from them. People believed him because he was taking the actual name of the people who died during that course. Later, it was leaked that that saint had collected all information from an old man staying out of our village. While working on this story, I found many people who had been conned by random such saints who promised to heal them and asked for a good amount of money in return. Some people have realized that they were fooled. But some still believe that it works. This film is an expression of the emotion created inside me while going through these stories.