# Raat (रात) (film)
**Raat** (रात, "Night") is a 1992 Indian Hindi-language supernatural horror thriller film written and directed by [Ram Gopal Varma](https://www.edgepedia.org/ram-gopal-varma), starring Revathi as a college student who becomes possessed by the spirit of a murdered woman after her family moves into a house with a dark reputation.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266875/) • [2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJDDzIxMhVM) Released in India on 7 February 1992, it was Varma's first horror film and is remembered for taking Hindi horror out of the low-budget Ramsay-brothers mold and toward mainstream, actor-led thrillers.[3](https://www.boxofficeindia.com/movie.php?movieid=5933) • [4](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/raat) • [5](https://scroll.in/reel/1088032/scroll_in)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 7 February 1992 (India), Hindi language[3](https://www.boxofficeindia.com/movie.php?movieid=5933) |
| Director, writer | Ram Gopal Varma (story, screenplay, direction); dialogue by Vinay Shukla and Uttej[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266875/) |
| Runtime | 127 minutes (sources also list 128 min and 2h 7m)[6](https://www.cinemaazi.com/film/raat) • [3](https://www.boxofficeindia.com/movie.php?movieid=5933) |
| Lead cast | Revathi (Manisha "Mini" Sharma), Rohini Hattangadi (Shalini), Om Puri (Sharji), Akash Khurana (Sharma), Anant Nag (psychiatrist)[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266875/) |
| Key crew | Music Mani Sharma, cinematography Teja, editing Shankar Suri[6](https://www.cinemaazi.com/film/raat) |
| Filming | Annapurna Studios, Hyderabad; 35 mm color[6](https://www.cinemaazi.com/film/raat) |
| Audience rating | 7.0/10 on IMDb from about 1,600 votes[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266875/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The Sharma family, father (Akash Khurana), mother Shalini ([Rohini Hattangadi](https://www.edgepedia.org/rohini-hattangadi)), college-student daughter Manisha "Mini" (Revathi), and young nephew Bunty (Master Ateet), whose parents died in an accident, move into a house reputed to be haunted.[4](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/raat) • [7](https://moriareviews.com/horror/raat-1992.htm) Strange events begin: a kitten Bunty adopts is run over and buried, then reappears alive; Mini's friend Rashmi (Jaya Mathur) is murdered with her neck twisted backward; and attempts are made on Mr. Sharma's life and on Deepak (Chinna), Mini's boyfriend from university.[4](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/raat) • [8](https://www.ratingraph.com/movies/raat-ratings-94567/)
The possession itself is tied to a roadside episode: while out with Deepak, his motorcycle breaks down, and when he returns Mini has changed and falls into intense trances.[7](https://moriareviews.com/horror/raat-1992.htm) The parents split over the cause. The father, finding Mini's behavior worrisome, consults a psychiatrist ([Anant Nag](https://www.edgepedia.org/anant-nag)), while the mother becomes convinced her daughter is possessed and, on the advice of an elderly neighbor (Nirmalamma), brings in the exorcist Sharji ([Om Puri](https://www.edgepedia.org/om-puri)).[4](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/raat) • [9](https://www.zee5.com/movies/details/raat/0-0-raat) Sharji identifies the ghost as a woman who was murdered in the house, and after a confrontation in the tunnels beneath the house he drives the spirit out of Mini's body.[9](https://www.zee5.com/movies/details/raat/0-0-raat) • [10](https://eofftvreview.wordpress.com/2021/01/22/raat-1992/) The film closes on the unresolved tension between the psychiatric and supernatural readings of Mini's ordeal.[11](https://www.plotexplained.com/movie/raat-1992/)
## Production
Raat was made after the success of Varma's crime film [Shiva](https://www.edgepedia.org/shiva-1990-film) (1990), which he remade in Hindi to enter Bollywood; Raat was his first complete Hindi film.[12](https://harc-ias.vn/Images_upload/files/8767606439.pdf) At the time he found it difficult to convince producers, several of whom wanted a bigger star than Revathi or wanted to build the film around her songs; he did not compromise.[12](https://harc-ias.vn/Images_upload/files/8767606439.pdf)
Two production details are repeatedly noted. First, this was Ram Gopal Varma's first horror film.[4](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/raat) Second, Alam Ara (1931) is described as the first Indian film in which sound was recorded live rather than in a studio.[4](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/raat) • [18](https://filmheritagefoundation.co.in/alam-ara-1931-hindi-urdu-124-mins/) The soundtrack carried only one song, with [Mani Sharma](https://www.edgepedia.org/mani-sharma)'s background score doing most of the work.[13](https://filmytown.com/movies/raat-1992/) The IMDb full-credits listing also shows early roles for two later noted filmmakers: [Madhur Bhandarkar](https://www.edgepedia.org/madhur-bhandarkar) as second assistant director and Krishna Vamsi as chief assistant director.[14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266875/fullcredits/)
Crediting of the producer differs across sources. Rotten Tomatoes and Box Office India list Ram Gopal Varma as producer, while the Moria review and FilmyTown credit [Boney Kapoor](https://www.edgepedia.org/boney-kapoor), and IMDb's full credits list Kapoor as presenter.[15](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/raat) • [3](https://www.boxofficeindia.com/movie.php?movieid=5933) • [7](https://moriareviews.com/horror/raat-1992.htm) • [13](https://filmytown.com/movies/raat-1992/) • [14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266875/fullcredits/)
## Style and reception
Contemporary and retrospective reviews converge on the film's craft rather than its plot. Scroll.in describes it as crisply written, tautly paced, and deftly performed, with close-ups, silences, and jump scares, and credits it with taking horror cinema away from fog-filled Gothic imitations and Ramsay-type creature features.[5](https://scroll.in/reel/1088032/scroll_in) Film Companion's Sankhayan Ghosh wrote that Varma "mostly sticks by the rules" of the tropey horror genre "but he knows how to use them effectively."[15](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/raat) The EOFFTV review notes that although Indian horror existed before Raat, Varma's film was the first to try for mainstream respectability, earned unusually good critical acclaim, and picked up a cult following that helped usher in a new wave of subcontinental horror.[10](https://eofftvreview.wordpress.com/2021/01/22/raat-1992/)
Not all assessments were positive. Richard Scheib's Moria review rates the film two stars, arguing that the first half relies almost entirely on loud soundtrack stingers and [Steadicam](https://www.edgepedia.org/steadicam) prowling, and that nearly an hour of the 127-minute running time is atmospheric padding; he praises Revathi's transformation and Om Puri's commanding late entrance.[7](https://moriareviews.com/horror/raat-1992.htm) On IMDb the film holds 7.0/10 from about 1,600 users.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266875/)
## Legacy
Raat established a template Varma returned to. He directed a later horror film, Bhoot (2003), with many similarities to Raat, and at the Red Lorry Film Festival he said plainly: "Bhoot is nothing but Raat; I changed the characters into husband and wife and no one REALIZED!"[7](https://moriareviews.com/horror/raat-1992.htm) • [16](https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movie/raat/) He went on to make further horror films including Darling (2007), Phoonk (2008), and the possession films 12 O'Clock and Deyyam (both 2021).[7](https://moriareviews.com/horror/raat-1992.htm) Scroll.in also identifies an earlier ancestor, the Exorcist-inspired Gehrayee (1980), and places Raat's achievement as the bridge between the Ramsay productions and slickly produced horror thrillers starring well-known actors.[5](https://scroll.in/reel/1088032/scroll_in) An academic study of the Gothic in Hindi horror cinema describes Raat as a film that prematurely augured the breakthrough of horror cinema into the Hindi mainstream.[17](https://repository.uel.ac.uk/download/e2349a6d95d98bd3c556c9fceea98d16cb377a3cc1d96addfc9de5d917f09588/340245/But%20Are%20They%20All%20Horrid%20-%20On%20the%20Intermittent%20Use%20of%20the%20Gothic%20in%20Hindi%20Horror%20Cinema.pdf) The film has been compared to [The Exorcist](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-exorcist) (1973) in structure, with a murdered woman's spirit in place of a demon.[7](https://moriareviews.com/horror/raat-1992.htm)
## References
1. [Raat (1992), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266875/)
2. [Raat 4K Full Hindi Movie description, YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJDDzIxMhVM)
3. [Raat, Box Office India](https://www.boxofficeindia.com/movie.php?movieid=5933)
4. [Raat (1992), Moviebuff](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/raat)
5. [Start the week with a film: In 'Raat', a never-ending night of terror, Scroll.in](https://scroll.in/reel/1088032/scroll_in)
6. [Raat (1992), Movie Details, Cinemaazi](https://www.cinemaazi.com/film/raat)
7. [Raat (1992), Moria, The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review](https://moriareviews.com/horror/raat-1992.htm)
8. [Raat (1992) ratings, Rating Graph](https://www.ratingraph.com/movies/raat-ratings-94567/)
9. [Watch Raat Full HD Movie Online on ZEE5](https://www.zee5.com/movies/details/raat/0-0-raat)
10. [Raat (1992), The EOFFTV Review](https://eofftvreview.wordpress.com/2021/01/22/raat-1992/)
11. [Raat (1992) Plot Summary & Story Explained](https://www.plotexplained.com/movie/raat-1992/)
12. [Bollywood Genre Cinema through the ages, horror movies of the 90s (PDF)](https://harc-ias.vn/Images_upload/files/8767606439.pdf)
13. [RAAT (1992), Filmy Town](https://filmytown.com/movies/raat-1992/)
14. [Raat (1992) - Full cast & crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266875/fullcredits/)
15. [Raat, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/raat)
16. [Raat, Bollywood Hungama](https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movie/raat/)
17. [But Are They All Horrid: On the Intermittent Use of the Gothic in Hindi Horror Cinema (PDF), University of East London repository](https://repository.uel.ac.uk/download/e2349a6d95d98bd3c556c9fceea98d16cb377a3cc1d96addfc9de5d917f09588/340245/But%20Are%20They%20All%20Horrid%20-%20On%20the%20Intermittent%20Use%20of%20the%20Gothic%20in%20Hindi%20Horror%20Cinema.pdf)
18. [Alam Ara (1931) Hindi/ Urdu, 124 mins - Film Heritage Foundation](https://filmheritagefoundation.co.in/alam-ara-1931-hindi-urdu-124-mins/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Supernatural horror films*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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