Raaz (2002 film)

RAAZ
DVD Cover
Directed by	Vikram Bhatt
Produced by	Mahesh Bhatt (Presenter) Mukesh Bhatt Kumar S. Taurani Ramesh S. Taurani
Written by	Mahesh Bhatt Girish Dhamija
Starring	Bipasha Basu Dino Morea Malini Sharma Ashutosh Rana
Music by	Nadeem-Shravan
Cinematography	Praveen Bhatt
Edited by	Amit Saxena
Production company	Vishesh Films
Distributed by	Tips Music Films *T SERIES MUSIC Films
Release dates	1 February 2002 (2002-02-01)
Running time	152 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Box office	₹37 crore (US$5.5 million)[1]

Raaz (English: Secret) is a 2002 Bollywood horror film directed by Vikram Bhatt and produced by Mukesh Bhatt, Kumar S. Taurani, Ramesh S. Taurani. The film stars Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea as a couple who have moved to Ooty to save their failing marriage. However, what they find in their new home is more than they expected when a ghost starts haunting the place. The wife, Anjana suddenly finds that her husband is part of the ghostly conspiracy, which she must fix to escape.^[2] The film is an unofficial adaptation of What Lies Beneath.^[3]

It was the second highest grossing film of the year 2002 behind Devdas, and the first installment in the Raaz series. Bipasha Basu was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actress Award. Raaz also marked the debut of actress Malini Sharma. A sequel to the film was released in 2009, under the title of Raaz: The Mystery Continues and the third installment of the series titled Raaz 3 was released on 7 September 2012. A fourth film, Raaz Reboot, has been released recently on 16 September 2016.

Plot

The film starts with a group of college students enjoying a picnic in a beautiful forest in Ooty. One of the girls, Nisha (Mink Brar) in that group, dies after being attacked under mysterious circumstances outside a bungalow in front of the forest. She had attacked her boyfriend too, who, though injured, managed to live on. She was rushed to the hospital, where just before dying, her facial look and voice changed completely for a short while, thus confusing all the attending doctors. Professor Agni Swaroop (Ashutosh Rana), who is supposedly an expert in phenomena involving the unexplained and the supernatural is called by the police to look into the matter. Prof. Swaroop and the police visit the forest at the same place where Nisha was attacked and after investigating from Nisha's boyfriend, Prof. Swaroop declares that she was attacked by a spirit. He further reveals that this spirit has waked for some purpose and it will not stop until that purpose is fulfilled.

The story then turns to Anjana Dhanraj looks alike Twins(Bipasha Basu) and Aditya Dhanraj (Dino Morea) in Mumbai in a business party, where Aditya seems too busy to pay heed to the fact that his wife is longing to talk to him. She snatches the car keys from Aditya's pocket and leaves the party to return home. On her frantic drive home, she hears a voice in her head and loses control of the car. However, miraculously, she escapes the accident unscathed. After her recovery, Sanjana asks her husband for a divorce; Aditya, however, realises his fault and suggests a vacation to work out their problems. He offers Sanjana a trip to any corner of the world for some days and Sanjana chooses to return to Ooty (where their relationship first began) to save their failing marriage. In Ooty they stay in the same bungalow behind which Nisha was attacked. Initially, the couple enjoy their stay at the cottage but soon Sanjana starts experiencing mysterious things, such as hearing a woman screaming in the forest behind the cottage and inexplicable falling of objects. She later learns that their housekeeper's husband, Robert, also used to hear strange voices from the forest, and that he ran from the house in fear once he could bear it no more.

She shares her problems with her friend Priya (Shruti Ulfat), a local girl, who advises Sanjana to visit Professor Swaroop. Prof. Swaroop arrives at the cottage and after a short investigation announces the presence of a spirit in the house. He also tells Sanjana about the earlier incident involving the girl who was attacked and killed by an evil spirit in those very woods. He then revisits the same spot in the forest where Nisha was attacked, this time accompanied by Priya and Anjana. Sanjana goes alone to talk to that spirit, where after some time, she discovers a revolver. All three of them go to an arms store to learn more and are told by the shopkeeper that the revolver was licensed to a retired colonel named Col. Arjun Malik. They visit the colonel's house, suspecting him to be a murderer of innocent girls, but soon learn from the colonel that the spirit is actually his own daughter, Malini (Malini Sharma), who was mentally ill and had managed to escape from the mental asylum several times.

Using the methodology suggested by Prof. Swaroop, Sanjana summons the spirit, believing that the spirit wants to tell her something. The spirit conveys that Malini had met Aditya when he came to Ooty the previous year for work. When Sanjana confronts Aditya, he admits that he had stayed at the same cottage where Sanjana and Aditya are currently staying. They eventually learn that Malini and Aditya had an affair and that Aditya rebuked Malini's demands that he leave his wife, claiming that the affair was never meant to be anything more than physical. An enraged Malini commits suicide in front of Aditya inside of his home. Aditya, with the help of his then manservant Robert, buried the dead girl's body in the forest behind the cottage.

Sanjana storms off in anger leaving Aditya alone. Prof. Swaroop tells Sanjana that all this was an attempt by Malini's spirit to separate Sanjana and Aditya to take him with her into the afterlife. He believes that the spirit's next step would be to kill Aditya and that they should rush to Aditya before Malini attacks him.

Sanjana goes to Aditya and tells him that she is doing this just to save him and that they should leave for Mumbai in their car immediately. After they leave, Sanjana, Priya and Prof. Swaroop arrive at the cottage where the bewildered maid tells them that Aditya just left with her. Prof. Swaroop realises that the earlier Sanjana was Malini's spirit in disguise and they rush after the car.

Malini's spirit meanwhile causes the car in which Aditya is travelling to fall off a cliff. Aditya goes into a coma and is hospitalized. To prevent the spirit from succeeding in her plans, Sanjana, Priya and Prof. Swaroop go into the forest to locate the girl's body to burn it. Prof. Swaroop uses the lemon tied to a small thread for locating the dead body, believing that it will turn red after reaching the exact spot where dead body is supposed to be. Prof. Swaroop gives them the advice that it is better to burn the body here and goes to bring the petrol from the car. As he is getting the petrol from the car, a nearby power pole suddenly falls down and kills him. After sometime a possessed Prof. Swaroop arrives at the spot and gives the can full of petrol to Sanjana, in the meanwhile Prof. Swaroop attacks the two girls with a hoe but they somehow manage to escape. While pursued by the ghost, Sanjana finds the dead body of their old servant Robert hung on a tree, when suddenly Prof. Swaroop comes from behind and tries to kill her with the hoe, but she somehow manages to run towards the dead body, while the possessed Prof. Swaroop gets badly injured. Sanjana tries to burn the body, but as she is doing so, the spirit attacks her. She succeeds in getting to the dead body to burn it, and hence saves her husband. At last, Sanjana and Aditya are shown reuniting.

Cast

• Bipasha Basu as Sanjana Dhanraj
• Dino Morea as Aditya Dhanraj
• Malini Sharma as Malini (Ghost)
• Ashutosh Rana as Professor Agni Swaroop
• Mink Brar as Nisha
• Vishwajeet Pradhan as Ajay
• Ali Asgar as Nisha's boyfriend
• Pratima Kazmi as Robert's wife
• Shruti Ulfat*Madhu Anand Chandhok as Priya rehaan mother
• Anang Desai as Mr. Dhanraj

Box office

Raaz was released on 1st of the February 2002 and grossed ₹370 million (US$5.5 million). and declared Blockbuster.^[1]

Reception

Webindia123.com said that Raaz is "something different from the current trend...Raaz is a psycho thriller worth a look". This movie was well praised because of its unique story .^[4]

Music

The music of Raaz was composed by Nadeem Shravan and utilised a series of melodious tunes and bittersweet rhythms. Songs were written by Sameer. The album was a chart buster in 2002 with songs becoming very popular on the youth. Alka Yagnik received a nomination for Best Female Playback Singer at the Filmfare Awards for the song "Aapke pyaar mein"

References

External links

• Raaz at the Internet Movie Database
• Planet Bollywood Review