Raaz (2002 film)
Encyclopedia
Raaz is a 2002 Indian ghost movie
directed by Vikram Bhatt
starring Dino Morea
and Bipasha Basu
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, Sanjana suddenly finds that her husband is part of the ghostly conspiracy, which she must fix in order to escape. The film is an unofficial adaptation of What Lies Beneath
.
It was one of the top grossing films of 2002. Bipasha Basu
went on to be praised for her role in the film, and 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
.
), who is supposedly an expert in phenomena involving the unexplained and the supernatural is called by the police to look into the matter and declares that the girl was killed by an evil spirit that has been awakened by her entering the forest.
The story then turns to Sanjana Dhanraj (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, realizes 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) in order 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 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. The professor 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 re-visits the same spot in the forest where Nisha was attacked. He was accompanied by Priya and Sanjana too. 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 the professor, 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 were currently staying. They eventually learn that 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. The professor tells Sanjana that all this was an attempt by Malini's spirit to separate Sanjana and Aditya in order 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 the Prof Swaroop arrive at the cottage where the bewildered maid tells them that Aditya just left with her. Prof Swaroop realizes 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 hospitalised. To prevent the spirit from succeeding in her plans, Sanjana, Priya and the professor go into the forest to locate the girl's body to burn it. The professor is killed by the spirit and then possessed by her and attacks Sanjana during this episode, where Sanjana also discovers the dead body of the husband of the maid who first told Sanjana about the strange voices. At the last moment, Sanjana manages to burn the body, thereby liberating the girl's spirit and saving Aditya's life.
The film ends with Aditya and Sanjana reuniting.
.
was a rave among the people as was "Jo Bhi Kasme" which was featured on Bipasha and Dino. Songs were written by Sameer
Indian ghost movie
Indian ghost movies are popular not just in India but in the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and other parts of the world. Bollywood produces more than 700 films a year in the nation's 16 official languages, often melodramatic and usually full of musical interludes where the characters burst...
directed by Vikram Bhatt
Vikram Bhatt
Vikram Bhatt is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter. He has more than 21 films to his credit. He is also the creative head of a conglomerate called ASA Productions.-Early life:...
starring Dino Morea
Dino Morea
Dino Morea is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood films and a former model.-Early life:Dino Morea was born in Bangalore to an Italian father and an Anglo Indian mother. He is the second of three brothers. Nicolo Morea is his older brother, and Santino Morea is his younger brother. His family...
and Bipasha Basu
Bipasha Basu
Bipasha Basu is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Bollywood films. A former model, she was the winner of the Ford's Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest in 1996.-Early life:...
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, Sanjana suddenly finds that her husband is part of the ghostly conspiracy, which she must fix in order to escape. The film is an unofficial adaptation of What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath is a 2000 American supernatural horror-thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis. It stars veteran actors Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a well-to-do couple who experience a strange haunting that uncovers secrets about their past....
.
It was one of the top grossing films of 2002. Bipasha Basu
Bipasha Basu
Bipasha Basu is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Bollywood films. A former model, she was the winner of the Ford's Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest in 1996.-Early life:...
went on to be praised for her role in the film, and was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actress Award
Filmfare Best Actress Award
The Filmfare Award for Best Actress is given by Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise a female actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role. The award was first given in 1954.-Superlatives:...
. Raaz also marked the debut of actress Malini Sharma
Malini Sharma
Malini Sharma is an Indian model and actress, who has worked in videos like Kya Soorat Hai and movies like Raaz. For her role in the latter, she received the 2003 Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut....
. A sequel to the film was released in 2009, under the title of Raaz - The Mystery Continues
Raaz - The Mystery Continues
Raaz – The Mystery Continues, shortened as RTMC, , directed by Mohit Suri, is a 2009 horror film starring Emraan Hashmi and Kangana Ranaut. Story wise, it is not a direct sequel to the 2002 movie Raaz. The film deals with issues of the “evil within” the human psyche and how it manifests itself...
.
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) in that group, however dies after being attacked under mysterious circumstances outside a bungalow in front of the same 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 RanaAshutosh Rana
Ashutosh Rana , born Ashutosh Jaisingh Neekhra is an Indian actor working in the Hindi Film Industry and the Telugu Film Industry.-Biography:...
), who is supposedly an expert in phenomena involving the unexplained and the supernatural is called by the police to look into the matter and declares that the girl was killed by an evil spirit that has been awakened by her entering the forest.
The story then turns to Sanjana Dhanraj (Bipasha Basu
Bipasha Basu
Bipasha Basu is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Bollywood films. A former model, she was the winner of the Ford's Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest in 1996.-Early life:...
) and Aditya Dhanraj (Dino Morea
Dino Morea
Dino Morea is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood films and a former model.-Early life:Dino Morea was born in Bangalore to an Italian father and an Anglo Indian mother. He is the second of three brothers. Nicolo Morea is his older brother, and Santino Morea is his younger brother. His family...
) 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, realizes 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) in order 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 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. The professor 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 re-visits the same spot in the forest where Nisha was attacked. He was accompanied by Priya and Sanjana too. 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 the professor, 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 were currently staying. They eventually learn that 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. The professor tells Sanjana that all this was an attempt by Malini's spirit to separate Sanjana and Aditya in order 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 the Prof Swaroop arrive at the cottage where the bewildered maid tells them that Aditya just left with her. Prof Swaroop realizes 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 hospitalised. To prevent the spirit from succeeding in her plans, Sanjana, Priya and the professor go into the forest to locate the girl's body to burn it. The professor is killed by the spirit and then possessed by her and attacks Sanjana during this episode, where Sanjana also discovers the dead body of the husband of the maid who first told Sanjana about the strange voices. At the last moment, Sanjana manages to burn the body, thereby liberating the girl's spirit and saving Aditya's life.
The film ends with Aditya and Sanjana reuniting.
Cast
- Dino MoreaDino MoreaDino Morea is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood films and a former model.-Early life:Dino Morea was born in Bangalore to an Italian father and an Anglo Indian mother. He is the second of three brothers. Nicolo Morea is his older brother, and Santino Morea is his younger brother. His family...
as Aditya Dhanraj - Bipasha BasuBipasha BasuBipasha Basu is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Bollywood films. A former model, she was the winner of the Ford's Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest in 1996.-Early life:...
as Sanjana Dhanraj - Ashutosh RanaAshutosh RanaAshutosh Rana , born Ashutosh Jaisingh Neekhra is an Indian actor working in the Hindi Film Industry and the Telugu Film Industry.-Biography:...
as Professor Agni Swaroop - Malini SharmaMalini SharmaMalini Sharma is an Indian model and actress, who has worked in videos like Kya Soorat Hai and movies like Raaz. For her role in the latter, she received the 2003 Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut....
as Malini - Shruti Ulfat as Priya
- Anang Desai as Mr. Dhanraj/Aditya's father
- Vishwajeet PradhanVishwajeet PradhanVishwajeet Pradhan is an Indian Bollywood actor who has worked in many films. Films in which he has acted include Yalgaar, Raaz, Karam, Zeher, Zakhm, Lamhaa. Vishwajeet often plays the role of Inspector or Commissioner. Now he is playing an antagonist role of S.S.P Brahmanand Jakhar in Maryada:...
as Ajay - Ali Asgar as Nisha's boyfriend
- Mink as Nisha
- Pratima KazmiPratima KazmiPratima Kazmi is an Indian television actress who has worked in many Bollywood movies and Hindi television drama series. Although she now works in Hindi movies & dramas, she started her career in 1997 with an UK's English film called Sixth Happiness, produced by an Indian director Waris Hussein,...
- Masood AkhtarMasood AkhtarMasood Akhtar is popular Pakistani singer. He has fan base stretching from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pashtun areas of Balochistan to southern parts of Afghanistan, and has achieved much recognition. Masood sings in several languages: Pashto, Urdu, Hindko- Origin :Masood was born in Mardan, Khyber...
- Kiran Randhawa
Box office
Raaz was released in the first half of June. Though not expected to be a success, 2002 was a year in Bollywood cinema when only two movies had really succeeded at the box office (the other being Devdas), but Raaz was accepted gratuitously and did really well. It was declared a blockbuster by boxoffice india and it went on to become the second highest grossing film of 2002, behind DevdasDevdas (2002 film)
Devdas is a 2002 Bollywood film based on the 1917 Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay novella Devdas. This is the third Hindi version and the first colour film version of the story in Hindi...
.
Reception
The movie was a big hit and was also critically appraised. Webindia.com said that Raaz is "something different from the current trend...Raaz is a psycho thriller worth a look". Bipasha Basu was praised for her acting.Music
The music of Raaz was composed by Nadeem Shravan and utilised a series of melodious tunes and bittersweet rhythms. "Aapke Pyaar Mein" sung by Alka YagnikAlka Yagnik
Alka Yagnik is an Indian singer who is ranked among the best Hindi playback singers of all time. She is a seven-time winner of the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award as well as a two-time recipient of the prestigious National Film Awards...
was a rave among the people as was "Jo Bhi Kasme" which was featured on Bipasha and Dino. Songs were written by Sameer
| Track # | Title | Singer(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Aapke Pyaar Mein" | Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik is an Indian singer who is ranked among the best Hindi playback singers of all time. She is a seven-time winner of the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award as well as a two-time recipient of the prestigious National Film Awards... |
| 2 | "Jo Bhi Kasmein Khai Thi" | Udit Narayan Udit Narayan -Career:King of melody, Udit Narayan Jha was born on 1 December, 1955 in a village called Bhardaha in the Saptari district , Nepal. His father was Hare Krishna Jha and his mother was Bhuwaneshwari Devi.Narayan studied at P.B... , Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik is an Indian singer who is ranked among the best Hindi playback singers of all time. She is a seven-time winner of the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award as well as a two-time recipient of the prestigious National Film Awards... |
| 3 | "Tum Agar Samne Aabhi" | Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik is an Indian singer who is ranked among the best Hindi playback singers of all time. She is a seven-time winner of the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award as well as a two-time recipient of the prestigious National Film Awards... |
| 4 | "Itna Main Chahoon Tujhe" | Udit Narayan Udit Narayan -Career:King of melody, Udit Narayan Jha was born on 1 December, 1955 in a village called Bhardaha in the Saptari district , Nepal. His father was Hare Krishna Jha and his mother was Bhuwaneshwari Devi.Narayan studied at P.B... , Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik is an Indian singer who is ranked among the best Hindi playback singers of all time. She is a seven-time winner of the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award as well as a two-time recipient of the prestigious National Film Awards... |
| 5 | "Mujhe Teri Jaisi Ladki" | Udit Narayan Udit Narayan -Career:King of melody, Udit Narayan Jha was born on 1 December, 1955 in a village called Bhardaha in the Saptari district , Nepal. His father was Hare Krishna Jha and his mother was Bhuwaneshwari Devi.Narayan studied at P.B... , Sarika Kapoor |
| 6 | "Kitna Pyaara Hai Yeh Chehra" | Udit Narayan Udit Narayan -Career:King of melody, Udit Narayan Jha was born on 1 December, 1955 in a village called Bhardaha in the Saptari district , Nepal. His father was Hare Krishna Jha and his mother was Bhuwaneshwari Devi.Narayan studied at P.B... , Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik Alka Yagnik is an Indian singer who is ranked among the best Hindi playback singers of all time. She is a seven-time winner of the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award as well as a two-time recipient of the prestigious National Film Awards... |
| 7 | "Pyaar Se Pyaar Hum" | Abhijeet Bhattacharya |
| 8 | "Yahan Pe Sab Shanti Hai" | Jolly Mukherjee Jolly Mukherjee Jolly Mukherjee is an Indian singer/songwriter. Known as India's "King of Strings", Mukherjee specializes in the music of Bollywood, or the Indian film industry. He started his career as a backup singer for commercials, then moving on to writing music for airline on-flight introductions, where he... , Bali Brahmbhatt, Suzanne D'Mello Suzanne D'Mello Suzanne D'Mello, formerly known as Suzie Q, is one of India's Top Female Vocalists. Gifted with a rich, warm and velvety voice, Suzanne's music spans a broad canvas, ranging from Solo Hits in Bollywood, Remixes, Advertisement Jingles to Live Performances with renowned musicians at prestigious... |