Raat review :
The Ramsays dominated the 80s so much that horror genre got synonymous with them. Scary movies meant Anirudh Agarwal with a mud pack on his face, a bath happy heroine and a religious symbol or idol which turned savior in the end.
Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) tried to do something different with Raat - a film having none of the above elements - which paved the way for the future horror movies in Bollywood.
Revathy played Mini who gets possessed when her family shifts to a new house. Without relying on a hideous looking ghost, RGV evoked tremendous fear in minds of viewer through effective camera angles and sound effects. Revathy was outstanding in the lead role and she reportedly, faced lot of anxiety issues during the filming.
Om Puri's tantrik was memorable too. He only appears at the end but makes his strong presence felt. "Darkness never vanishes, it's only diminished by light in a particular radius" is his interesting explanation to the paranormal.
Raat was released with much publicised 70MM print and 6 track stereophonic sound at Mumbai's New Excelsior cinema. Taking cue from a stunt employed by certain Hollywood film, the makers had parked an ambulance outside New Excelsior for any exigency emerging to weak hearted viewers while watching the film.
Sadly, the film didnt work at the box office but later caught on in the video circuit to emerge a cult classic. In one of his later interviews, RGV admitted that the publicity of film should've focused on its good content rather than the 70MM stereo. He remade Raat (with minor changes) as Bhoot in 2003 which became a super hit. But Raat will always remain special as the one which ushered in a new change in Hindi horror.
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.
