Aakhri Raat (1999)
Cast:  Sandhya Mehra, Sudhir Dalvi, Mushtaq Khan
Director:  Pappu Bahruz
Synopsis:  Yet another kitchen sink rape-revenge marketed as a horror film including pictures on the VCD cover than never remotely appear on screen.  Compounded by a video release that is literally topsy-turvy.
Review by: Omar Ali Khan

Nisha and Naina are two devoted sisters, with the elder Naina dutifully looking after her younger sibling, there being no parents in sight. They enjoy a happy home life, and Naina is about to embark upon her career as a lawyer while also dating a bright, up-and-coming local police inspector. She frequently chides Nisha for wearing "revealing clothes", but an increasingly exasperated younger sister insists she simply feels comfortable in her "jogging outfit" and is growing weary of Naina's constant complaints.

Nisha, however, continues in her own carefree fashion. Before leaving home for college she dutifully dresses demurely, only to head straight for the changing rooms where, like Wonder Woman, she transforms into the sexy nymphet known to a drooling gang of well-connected college thugs as "Miss 99". Every day the ogling youths gather in their usual spot to admire her "jogging clothes", which keep various parts of her anatomy jiggling away to their undisguised delight.

Eventually, mere fantasy no longer satisfies the lads, and they weave a plan to entrap Nisha and satisfy their uncontrollable lust. Recruiting a drug-addicted girlfriend as bait, they persuade Nisha to attend a supposedly innocent birthday party, where they spike her drinks. Reduced to a helpless, drugged state and little more than putty in their hands, she is brutally raped by the four men before being dumped into a shallow grave, stone dead.

One stormy night, the despairing Naina receives an unexpected visit from her sister, who appears dressed, rather ominously, in a white sari—a sure sign that she is no longer among the living. Naina is understandably a tad shocked by the encounter. Nisha has just two requests: first, that Naina fight her battle in court and avenge her murder; and second, that she allow Nisha to use her body as a vessel through which to carry out her own revenge.

Naina battles valiantly in court, but corruption and lies win the day, and her sister's murderers walk free. It is not long, however, before Nisha takes possession of Naina's body and begins exacting vengeance, luring her rapists to grisly deaths one by one through a combination of seduction and supernatural intervention.

As the body count mounts, Naina's police inspector boyfriend becomes increasingly concerned by the rumours linking his beloved to the killings. He warns the corrupt minister fathers of the rapists to guard their sons carefully, while one panicked minister seeks advice from a quack tantric, who likewise foresees grave danger ahead.

One by one, Nisha exacts her brutal revenge until, at last, her soul is finally able to rest in peace and her murderers receive the punishment they richly deserve.

Aakhri Raat is yet another entry in Bollywood's seemingly endless stream of rape-revenge horror thrillers that manages to be neither particularly horrifying nor especially thrilling. The film's most memorable asset is the enthusiastic performance of Sudhir Dalvi as the police inspector. His boundless energy almost compensates for his atrocious acting and distinctly limited dancing ability, and he emerges from this cinematic wreckage with honours intact. The actresses playing Nisha and Naina perform adequately enough, while the rapists are the usual brainless "minister's sons" buffoons one has come to expect.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of an otherwise utterly dreary experience is the bizarre fact that the film's opening titles appear roughly three-quarters of the way through the running time. Even the version circulating on YouTube suffers from the same problem, with the credits arriving just when the climax ought to be approaching. It creates a rather surreal viewing experience but, strangely enough, does little to damage a film that is entirely predictable from the outset. If nothing else, it provides an unintentionally amusing twist.

This is scarcely a horror film at all. There is not a drop of blood to be seen, nor do the obligatory rubber-masked demons make an appearance. Lowbrow, low-budget and made with correspondingly low expectations, it proves to be pretty much as awful as anticipated. On the positive side, at least the songs are kept to a minimum, and mercifully there is no tedious comedy track—normally an unavoidable feature of this sort of garbage.