Nai Raat Nai Baat (1990)
Cast:  Devan, S. Shailaza, Pappu, Balan K. Na
Director: Vijayan Karot
Nutshell: A bunch of sleazy friends plot to make off with a woman's inheritance using Rape and Murder as their weapon.  She returns as a vengeful white sari clad ghost.

 

This Malayalam horror film, dubbed in Hindi, starts with a man accosting Tulsi, who is due to be married to an older man. He tells her she is making a terrible mistake, that his love for her surpasses everything and that she should ditch the older fellow and enjoy life with him instead.

If Tulsi marries the older man, her inheritance will fall into her husband's hands, and to prevent this marriage, the scheming men hatch a most diabolical plan. Tulsi is gang-raped and murdered by the men. Later, the scoundrel who hatched the plan marries into Tulsi's family, hoping eventually to gain access to the wealth.

The evil Kumar is now about to enjoy the first night of being wed to his new wife. Just as he gets into the swing of things, he is a little disturbed to see a beauty mark on the girl's breast identical to Tulsi's. He is even more shocked when his young bride's giggles turn into the cackles of a witch as she transforms into a white-sari-wearing apparition!

Not an ideal wedding night.

Kumar broods for a few days, thinking about the horror of having his beautiful young wife transform into a witch, but the memory fades, and he is finally ready to consummate the marriage with his bride. Meanwhile, one of his old mates arrives to drag him away for a quick reunion with the buddies.

One of Kumar's fellow rapists encounters a village belle on the way back home and, just as things are getting hot between them, is stunned to see the same birthmark on the girl. In a flash, she sprouts fangs and turns into a witch. Later, the friend's body is discovered lying in the stream, just as Tulsi had been dumped there by the rapists.

Kumar and his friends are now increasingly perplexed.

The rapists consult a much-vaunted Mantric for help against the ghostly Tulsi, and he promises that he will get rid of her. In the middle of his spell, he hands the men an implement and asks them to wait while he attends to something important. Chuntering his spells, he approaches a large tree and starts hammering a nail into it, but all of a sudden the apparition of the witch appears, causing the Mantric to suffer a heart attack.

She then goes on to sing the usual vengeful numbers about "adhoori kahanis" and "bigri jawani... dard hai meri nishani", dressed in the ghost's prerequisite outfit: the white sari.

Fog billows from every side as she reeks of vengeance.

Kumar and his cohorts approach another Mantrik, this time a Muslim one, who impresses them with his floating boiled egg and the leaf that dances around it. The rapists decide on some extra protection by placing the head of a sacred cow on the doorstep of their Haveli.

The attempt backfires horribly in the film's most terrifying scene thus far when the cow's head comes to life and gores a man to death.

The friends, now becoming increasingly desperate, decide to sell Tulsi's inherited Haveli. There is considerable interest from potential buyers, but when they hear the haunted tales surrounding the home, they decide not to make the purchase.

Eventually, a student researching such matters of darkness decides to move in and investigate. He convinces his family to purchase the Haveli, but they discover that the legal documents bear the signature of a woman named Tulsi. The lad is told to investigate exactly who Tulsi is before they make the purchase.

One night, the potential buyer hears a sitar being played beautifully from somewhere within the house. He finds a beautiful woman who introduces herself as Tulsi. She tells him that she was the previous owner of the house and that she will reveal some interesting things about it.

No fangs this time around. Tulsi doesn't have a grudge against this handsome young man yet.

He asks her to sing him a song.

The plot thickens.

The student, Uday, tells Kumar, Suresh and his friends that he met Tulsi and that she showed him papers for the Haveli signed in her name. Kumar's increasing anxiety leads his friends to turn to a third Mantric to solve their ghostly problems. Once again, the Mantric prepares some weird concoctions and scribbles on a piece of parchment, which he gives to Suresh, telling him to be confident that these should do the trick against the ghost of Tulsi.

Meanwhile, Tulsi wins over Uday, and a romance blossoms. They sing love songs to one another and frolic on the beach, rolling around together in the sand.

Doesn't bode well for the future, romancing a ghost.

However, in these films, anything is a possibility.

That night, Tulsi arrives at the bedside of the sleeping Uday and makes amorous advances, which he initially repels. He then confronts her about her true identity. He realises that she is a ghost...

And yet embraces her with passion!

Meanwhile, the rapists have turned in desperation to a fourth Mantric, Pran Baba, who demands a blood sacrifice—which means the group must now turn on one of its own. Things get nastier and murkier, but this latest Tantrik actually seems to be having an effect. After the human sacrifice, Tulsi feels as though someone is summoning her.

She is right.

Pran Baba appears to be making his mark.

A terrifying confrontation awaits, pitting the vengeful ghost of the raped and murdered Tulsi against Pran Baba and the rapists he is protecting.

There is, however, a final twist in the tale, as Uday attempts to resurrect the dead Tulsi, hoping they can live happily ever after.

Surely he cannot succeed.

Or can he?

He transforms into a ghostly entity and joins Tulsi in the grave, where they have a bizarre conversation.

This film follows a beaten track that's been done to death in Bollywood horror movies: the wronged woman returning from her shallow grave to wreak vengeance upon the criminals who exploited and murdered her.

The acting is not as terrible as you would normally expect, but the make-up and special effects are ropey at best.

Not particularly memorable, and yet we've certainly seen a lot worse.