Minnie Sharma (Revathi) and her family have just moved to a new town. Her sister and sister's husband died in a car accident, and she's left taking care of their young child, "Bunty" (Master Atit), in conjunction with her parents and their "manservant", Narayan (Chinna). As Raat opens, Minnie is having nightmares about being isolated as some strange, mysterious force chases her. Eventually these nightmares cross over into daydreams/hallucinations. When she goes out on a date with Deepak (Kushant), she ends up in the woods by herself, and her nightmares threaten to become real.
Raat is a quality Indian Psychological Horror/Thriller, marred by some looseness in the plot. Die-hard horror fans may also be occasionally distracted by pegging where the film is derivative of popular western horror films. The performances are fine, with Revathi standing out in particular, and the technical aspects are good, even though the version I watched--the Eros International DVD version for the UK and the United States (and other English-speaking areas)--was made from a very questionable print of the film. The image is frequently dirty and scratched, the soundtrack is slightly out of sync with the video, the subtitle timing is often off, and there is a lot of artifacting on the DVD transfer, which also wasn't properly divided into chapters. Of course for these technical issues, I do not subtract any points, as I'm rating the content of the film imagining an ideal print. It was a shame that the transfer couldn't have been better, as Teja's cinematography seems like it would otherwise be very attractive.
I enjoyed Raat the most in its opening scenes. Writer/director Ram Gopal Varma begins right in the middle of a horror sequence that could very well be the climax. Minnie steps off of a bus by herself and is soon running from some unseen force through a somewhat rundown looking neighborhood, which is eerily void of other humans. I would guess that the creepiness of such "ghost town" isolation might hit native Indians even harder, as it's probably unusual to find such a deserted town, and especially unusual for someone to exit a bus without being met by family or friends. The scene goes on long enough that it's a surprise when she finally wakes up. The first section of the film is primarily focused on these bizarre lapses into an alternate, desolate reality. To an extent, I later wished that Varma had kept the whole film in this same mode, as it was done so excellently--it was on firm "10 out of 10" ground throughout the first section. But the subsequent material was entertaining enough, even if the meandering and eventual slight lack of logic for the menace caused me to lower my score a bit.
Varma wears his horror influences on his sleeve throughout Raat. The beginning has some strong resemblances to the first two Evil Dead films (1981 and 1987)--this is especially noticeable in the interesting hand-held cinematography representing the evil force. Shortly after, Raat takes a turn towards an Amityville Horror (1979)-styled haunted house flick, complete with the sound of masses of flies (and this occurs periodically throughout the film). Later, there are elements of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the Exorcist (1973), and even Friday the 13th (1980)--I suppose we could say that if you're going to "steal", steal from the best. If you dislike strong influences and you know those precursor films, this might be a cue to avoid Raat. I don't mind influence; Varma weaves his disparate sources together adeptly.
The music, by Mani Sharma (an obvious influence on the main character's name in the film), can be a bit uneven. At times it is almost comically over-exaggerated, with very prominent "cheesy" late 1970s/1980s synthesizer tonalities. At other times, it's almost sublime, perfectly atmospheric. I was especially fond of the way Sharma and Varma incorporated traditional Indian wedding music during a crucial, "big turning point" scene. Other than that, there is not a lot of traditional music in the film, and there are no musical song/dance numbers--a characteristic that has become somewhat common in Indian horror, even if it is very unusual otherwise.
Horror fans should not expect to see a lot of gore or special effects. When such effects do occur, they come off a bit cheesy. So it's better that Varma tends to stick with subtlety, suggestion and reaction to experienced/observed horrors. He easily handles this more understated style.
Finally, even though Raat eventually ends up in more off-the-wall supernatural territory, much of the film can be taken as a metaphor for schizophrenia--in fact, Varma goes to some lengths to show us a literal parallel while engaging in the metaphor at the same time. Minnie's early "hallucinations" and her later "possessions" tend to be accompanied by catatonia. She has olfactory hallucinations as well. She loses track of Bunty and lets him remain in unusual isolation when she's supposed to be watching him. She becomes anti-social and violent, and so on. Even the more supernatural material works well for this interpretation, as mental disorders such as schizophrenia were misdiagnosed as "possession by demons" and similar claims throughout history. I wouldn't say that Varma intended the whole film as only a metaphor for schizophrenia, but that's obviously one of his intentions, along with simply telling a good horror/thriller yarn.
