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Naag Muni, 1972, Pakistan


Hero travels to a place called "Naag gram", Snake Village, to research on snake venom that will save life of millions. He drives through a road that looks like poplar avenue of Baramula in Kashmir to arrive at a valley populated by a tribe of snake worshipers. Soon after arrival, forgetting all about research, Hero falls in love with a woman who is training to be a Naag Dasi, a woman who claims to be 'daughter of Naag Devta' and a 'Vish Kanya' whose mere touch can kill a man. And yet there are feelings of anti-animism budding in her heart, she doesn't understand a god that offers poison.  Love booms. Noorjahan sings. Father goes -Babu, Naag Dasi say prem karna paap hai. Violence erupts. Noorjahan sings. Lovers try to run-away. Get caught. Father goes - Shalaka ko Beti say Zyada Dharam pyara hai. Hero gets bitten by a snake. Heroine sings and dances to an idol of Snake god to save her love. God obliges, takes back the venom. In comes an old holy man who claims that Hero and Heonie where lovers in previous life too, lovers who couldn't become one, so in this life their love is kind of legal. Flashback, story of a girl named Naag Muni: a king and a queen desiring a child call on Snake God. The priest puts in a condition that if the queen gets a girl, she will have to become a 'Nag Dasi'. A girl is born. She is forcibly turned into a Dasi. Her parents cry. The priest is unrelenting. He converts the girl into a Vish Kanya by feeding her snake poison. She grows up and in a tragic turn of events becomes the cause of her mother's death after she unintentionally poisons her by her kiss. Out of guilt she tries to end her life but is saved by a prince who claims his love will cure her poison. He wants to marry her.Priest spews venom. Prince's father also doesn't approve of this relation. Prince is house-arrested. Noorjahan sings. Priest tries to initiate Naag Muni into the snake cult and make her Naag Devi, but at the last minute prince arrives to rescue her by offering to drink a goblet of poison from her hand to prove that all this is nosense, that love shall prevail over everything. He passes out. Naag Muni dances to please the god (who obviously would do anything in return for a nice latka jatka). Prince survives. Everyone happy. Prince and Naag Mani are allowed to marry, but in a moment of mushiness of brain trigger by unexpected happy turn of events, promises that all girls born in his bloodline will be offered to the temple to become a Naag Dasi. Which brings us back to: Flashforward. The hero offers to again undergo the poison test. In comes, Hero's friend, who comes up with  test of his own for the Heroine. He wants her to change in a snake and then back into a girl to prove that she is Nag Devi. The Heroine dances to the Snake god to get the boon of 'woman-to-snake-to-woman' Morphinator. God obliges. She slithers to meet her lover. In comes an extra woman, a jealous woman who also loves the city boy. She tries to kill the snake, snake bites the extra woman. Snake is also injured. It turns back into heroine. To save her hero drinks the goblet of poison.  It seems snake gods feld Pakistan a few years before the rise of Zia-Ul-Haq, both the lovers die.

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