REVIEW: Raaz The Mystery...

In a brilliantly executed shot, Kangana casually looks for some pills in her cloak, while her image in the mirror is standing still.

Raaz-The Mystery Continues is filled with several such spooky moments – some work, some don't. Bhatt camps' sequel to the surprise 2001 hit Raaz has no relation whatsoever to the Bipasha Basu-Dino Morea flick. Except that both films are essentially murder mysteries with some edge-of-the-seat moments.

Random suicides in an obscure North Indian village go unreported till a model in Mumbai develops similar tendencies. Kangana Ranaut plays the troubled supermodel (oh no, not again!) Nandita who is dating news anchor Yash (played by a confident Adhyayan Suman) who happens to be a atheist, a non-believer. RTMC takes time to find its bearings. After a shocking opening sequence, the plot shifts to the customary Bollywood love angle, with couple of melodious numbers thrown in. Due to its particularly long first half the writers take a while to get to the real point.

But the action picks up soon. Enter Prithvi (Emraan Hashmi) – a mysterious painter who is hooked onto guzzling beer and painting Nandita's pictures. Based on his premonitions Prithvi starts painting Nandita's future. After a few near-fatal incidents Nandita starts believing Prithvi and despite Yash's disapproval, goes out to unravel the Raaz. Turns out, there are some strange links connecting the suicides to all the three protagonists.

A gripping narrative:

Much like comedy, watching a horror flick also requires some suspension of disbelief. RTMC is a clever blend of superstition, mythology with social maladies and religious politics. The plot flows like a thriller - filled with enough twists and turns to keep you engaged. The makers have clearly kept a mass audience in mind. Because without getting too melodramatic, the narrative packs in a number of crowd pleasing, emotional sequences. This emotional link is handled competently in the climax which may not be as scary as expected but certainly not funny either.

There's also a split second full-bodied nude shot of Kangana when she is thrown out of the bath tub. But it is executed with utmost aesthetic value.

Kangana's love triangle