Bollywood Horror movies are difficult to come by. In a hundred years of cinema, I’d be surprised if we have a 100, well made, wide released horror movies in India. What’s more difficult is having an Indian horror Movie with a female protagonist – a mother, in this case.

Child birth has played a major role in several horror movies. Most of the times, in the eighties, the birth of a demonous child would make the whole mansion a death trap, so on and so forth. But we rarely had a movie where the mother played a major role in defeating the demon.

Years of misogny and patriarchy have created the uber alpha Indian male hero who saves the day. In fact, in a movie like Purana Mandir, the female character’s only role is to shriek at the top of her voice and wait for her boyfriend to save the day.

That’s the same in movies like Takhana, Aakrhi Cheekh and so many more.  But that trend saw a bit of a change as the nineties hit us. Some movies have surpassed this big cliche and presented to us mothers who have saved the day.

Here’s a quick list of those Bollywood horror movies, on occassion of Mother’s Day

#4 Hawa

Tabu stars in a Guddu Dhanoa movie that’s gone into infamy because of the sexual assault scenes. Tabu plays a single mother who has shifted to a picturesque bungalow, but it turns out to be a haven for a demon.

Tabu’s motherhood is shown right, front and centre. In fact, the climactic scene has an extended scene where her character tries to get hold of her children. The movie is one of the more commerical Bollywood horror movies. When it released,critics wondered what Tabu was doing in a midde of the road horror movie.

#3 Vaastu Shashtra

Then, there’s the Sushmita Sen starrer Vaastu Shashtra, in which she puts on the mom clothes. In Ram Gopal Varma’s Vastu Shastra, Sushmita’s character shifts into a new house with her husband, children and sister-in-law.

Vaastu Shashtra sees the mother-son dynamic in a better light and has some child admonishing sequences in the middle of the movie, because the story is about the child making up a fictional friend.

#2 Lapachhapi

This Marathi horror movie isn’t just about a pregnant woman battling demons, it also tackles female foeticide. The movie is the first post modern horror movie and revived interest in the horror genre for Marathi cinema.

Lapachappi gets under your skin and is a masterpiece of the right amount of jump scares, eerie sequences and characters that stay with you long after the movie has ended.

#1 Maa

Nothing can beat a horror movie that has a mother in its title. This little known Bollywood horror movie was another one that showed the ghost in a positive light, after Saamri 3D. Jayaprada plays a mother who’s husband’s relatives kill her.

The relatives now are hell bent on killing her husband and child as well, but she’s not allowing that to happen. Maa is one of those social themed Bollywood horror movies that worked well. Watch this movie on YouTube and you will still get goosebumps at the climax. Classic stuff, this.