Woh Kaun Thi? (1964) :
Brief Review -
The haunting horror-mystery formula of British novels comes to India with an evergreen film. Woh Kaun This is a horror film, alright, but is there a ghost? That's the biggest suspense, and I don't want to spoil that for you. Let's assume that it's a horror flick because 99% of its runtime makes you believe so. But beware of that 1% of suspense I'm not revealing here. I don't know how many people in the 1960s were familiar with Agatha Christie and Arthur Dolye's stuff, so they must have been thrilled to see what they saw in Woh Kaun Thi. Thankfully, Hindi audiences were familiar with the fact that something like this can happen because of "Bees Saal Baad" (1962), which was based on Doyle's writing only. Raj Khosla brings the same formula again, but with a completely fresh look at it. Even that was seen and experienced by many in the late 1940s with Mahal (1949). Yet, Woh Kaun Thi has plenty to offer, especially the camera work, sound design, and Raj Khosla's vision of a scary horror flick. Hollywood had done it back in the 30s with the Cat and the Canary and Sherlock Holmes series, so I can't say that Khosla's film was path-breaking. But for Indian cinema, it indeed set a new benchmark, which hasn't been crossed by any film as of 2024. That's exactly 60 years. This is why Woh Kaun Thi must be celebrated as one of the best horror thrillers ever made in Bollywood history. The film tells a story about a doctor who meets the ghost of a girl and later sees her again as a dead girl. He is then married to an unknown girl, who happens to be the same girl. What's the mystery behind it? Khosla's horror thriller will tell you that, and believe me, it has a lot of horror elements with far better scene design than what we saw later in the 80s. Sadhana will forever be remembered for this role, and Manoj Kumar was top-class. Special thanks to Madan Mohan for evergreen "Naina Barse" and "Lag Jaa Gale." As a whole, a complete textbook on genre-breaking commercial cinema in Bollywood.
RATING - 7.5/10*
By - #samthebestest.
