Raat

Manisha ‘Mini’ Sharma Revathi is a college student who, along with her parents, moves into a house that locals claim is haunted. The family includes her father Mr. Sharma and her mother Shalini Sharma, who find themselves drawn into a world where uneasy tales of the past begin to bleed into the present. Mini’s classmate and boyfriend Deepak and Mini’s curious nephew Bunty Master Atit inhabit the same home, while the basement hides a silent watcher: a cat with eyes that seem almost otherworldly.

One day, the cat slips behind Mr. Sharma’s car and is killed accidentally as the car is reversed. The creature is buried in the backyard without Bunty’s knowledge, leaving a chill in the air that unsettles the family. Their neighbor, Nirmalamma, the grandmother of Mini’s classmate Rashmi Jaya Mathur, greets the new household with a fearful, almost prophetic warning, hinting at secrets buried beneath the surface of their new dwelling. Soon after, Bunty discovers a second cat that bears an uncanny resemblance to the deceased one, deepening the sense that something is not right.

The family’s attempt to enjoy ordinary moments is interrupted when Mini and Deepak set out for a ride toward the city limits. A flat tire forces them to stop and wait, and Deepak leaves, asking Mini to stay put. When he returns, he finds Mini sitting beside a tree near a pond, her face cradled in her hands and weeping. As he approaches, her eyes flash with a fierce, red intensity—reminiscent of the dead cat—before she suddenly returns to normal and urges him to come away from the water.

The tension escalates when Rashmi is brutally killed at a friend’s wedding, her neck twisted and her head contorted in a chilling mimicry of Mini’s earlier distress. A police investigation unfolds, and the officer notes a disturbing link: Mini’s movements with a doll’s head during questioning eerily mirror Rashmi’s neck twist. The same officer then dies in a nearby accident, intensifying the sense that unseen forces are at play and prompting the family to seek professional help.

Shalini turns to their neighbor Nirmalamma for guidance, while Mr. Sharma seeks the opinion of a psychiatrist, Anant Nag. The doctor remains skeptical of any occult explanation, treating the events as a psychiatric or psychosomatic riddle rather than a supernatural threat. Nirmalamma, however, urges Shalini to consult Sharji Om Puri, who lives in Falaknuma and who is believed to deal with such disturbances. Sharji’s path starts with a meeting of his own spiritual guide, a guru who has taken samadhi, and with the aid of fire-power ashes as a weapon, he begins to trace the malevolent presence to the basement of Mini’s house.

Sharji uncovers that the ghost haunting Mini’s home is not a nameless specter but the spirit of a woman—the former mistress of the previous owner—murdered in brutal circumstances. The revelation ties the haunting to the house’s dark history, linking the present terror to a past crime that refuses to stay buried. As the killer of the former lover now shares a bed with another, the ghost rises from the shadows to claim another life, demonstrating how the old wounds continue to reach into the new residents’ lives.

Armed with this knowledge, Sharji confronts the malevolent force through sacred chants and the ritual use of sacred ashes. The confrontation culminates in a spectral eruption and a final, thunderous moment as the ghost is driven back and ultimately expelled from Mini’s body. The house falls silent, and Mini returns to herself, the immediate danger warded off—though the moral of the story lingers in the air like a pressure that has just begun to ease.

Scientifically minded, Mr. Sharma submits Mini to MRI and other medical tests in the hope of a rational cure. Yet Sharji’s perspective remains different: a darkness that exists beyond light, not wholly erased but subdued, a force that can be managed but perhaps never fully vanquished. The film closes with this tension between science and superstition, a reminder that some hauntings live on in the shadows between belief and doubt.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 14:10