Raaz
DVD Cover
Directed by	Vikram Bhatt
Produced by	Mukesh Bhatt
Written by	Mahesh Bhatt Girish Dhamija
Starring	Dino Morea Bipasha Basu Malini Sharma Ashutosh Rana
Music by	Nadeem-Shravan
Cinematography	Praveen Bhatt
Editing by	Amit Saxena
Distributed by	Vishesh Films Tips Music Films
Release date(s)	2 February 2002 (2002-02-02)
Running time	152 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Box office	37 crore (US$6.8 million)[1]

Raaz (Hindi: राज़, translation: Secret) is a 2002 Bollywood horror movie directed by Vikram Bhatt and produced by Mahesh Bhatt. 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, Sanjana suddenly finds that her husband is part of the ghostly conspiracy, which she must fix in order 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. 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 September 7, 2012.

Plot [edit]

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.The professor and the police visit the forest at the same place,where Nisha was attacked and after investigating from nisha's boyfriend,professor declares that she was attacked by the spirit.He further reveals that this spirit has waked for some purpose and it will not stop until that purpose will not be fulfilled.

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 is 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 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. 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 uses the lemon tied to a small thread for locating the dead body,he believes that it will turn red after reaching at the exact spot where dead body is supposed to be and same happens with the lemon.professor 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,suddenly a nearby power pole fells down and kill professor.After sometime possessed professor arrives at the spot and gives the can full of petrol to sanjana,in the meanwhile professor attacks the two girls with the hoe but somehow they manage to escape.while pursued by the ghost,sanjana finds the dead body of their old servant Robot hanged on the tree,and suddenly professor comes from behind and tries to kill her by the hoe,but somehow sanjana runs towards the car and during this deadly battle possessed professor gets badly injured.Sanjana tries to get the petrol from the car,but as she is collecting petrol,the spirit attacks her but she succeeds in getting enough petrol and runs towards the dead body and with the help of the petrol manages to burn the body of the spirit and hence saves her husband.At last,Sanjana and Aditya are shown reuniting.

Cast [edit]

• Dino Morea as Aditya Dhanraj
• Bipasha Basu as Sanjana Dhanraj
• Ashutosh Rana as Professor Agni Swaroop
• Malini Sharma as Malini
• Mink Brar as Nisha
• Vishwajeet Pradhan as Ajay
• Ali Asgar as Nisha's boyfriend
• Pratima Kazmi as Robert's wife
• Shruti Ulfat as Priya
• Anang Desai as Mr. Dhanraj/Aditya's father

Box office [edit]

Raaz was released in the first half of June and grossed 37 crore (US$6.8 million).^[1]

Reception [edit]

Webindia123.com said that Raaz is "something different from the current trend...Raaz is a psycho thriller worth a look".^[4]

Music [edit]

The music of Raaz was composed by Nadeem Shravan and utilised a series of melodious tunes and bittersweet rhythms. "Aapke Pyaar Mein" was sung by Alka Yagnik and "Jo Bhi Kasme" was featured on Bipasha and Dino. Songs were written by Sameer.

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Raaz at the Internet Movie Database
• Planet Bollywood Review
• Raaz 3 Songs Tracklist