No, Munjya is not based on real-life incidents but takes inspiration from a traditional Maharashtrian/Konkan folklore or legend regarding spirits or ghosts named Munjya. Munjya is a 2024 Indian Hindi-language comedy horror film directed by Aditya Sarpotdar. The movie features Abhay Verma, Sharvari, Sathyaraj and Mona Singh. Produced by Amar Kaushik and Dinesh Vijan under the banner of Maddock Films, Munjya is a part of the horror universe alongside Stree, Stree 2 and Bhediya.
The story is built around the legend of Munjya. The makers of the film, including the screenwriter Niren Bhatt and producer Amar Kaushik, spent years researching the folklore of Munjya in regions like Dapoli and Ganpatipule. Munjya, though rooted in cultural folklore, does not document real events.
Plot Summary
The film opens in the 1950s in the Konkan region of Maharashtra. A young Brahmin boy named Gotya falls in love with a girl named Munni, who is older than him. Desperate to marry Munni, Gotya resorts to black magic. However, during the ritual, he suffers an accident near a peepal tree and dies. It happens just days after his sacred thread ceremony or munj. Consequently, he becomes a munjya, bound to the peepal tree.
Decades later, Bittu, a young hairdresser from Pune, visits his ancestral village with his mother, Pammi. Bittu enters the mysterious forest near the village and inadvertently frees the spirit of Gotya by uttering the munjya’s name backwards. As a result, the munjya latches on to Bittu. The vengeful ghost demands that Bittu finds Munni or he will harm Bittu’s family.
Bittu discovers that Munni is now a wheelchair-bound elderly woman. Her grand-daughter Bela resembles her. The munjya shifts his obsession to Bela. He plans to transfer his soul to a goat and sacrifice Bela under the same tree to complete the marriage. Bittu, with assistance of his grandmother and friends, races to stop the spirit. The film ends on a climactic note.
Core Theme: Munjya Folklore
The movie draws from the folklore of Munjya. As per the belief, Munjya is the ghost of a Brahmin boy who dies prior his marriage but after his sacred thread ceremony. Such ghosts are believed to dwell in peepal trees and roam around at night. Munjyas are considered to be harmless ghosts. However, there are claims of munjyas causing accidents and pelting stones.