Woh Kaun Thi?

On a rainy night, a doctor on his way back home meets a white sari clad girl. He offers her a lift and as soon as she steps in the car wipers cease working.He's even more spooked when the lady tells him she knows the way and guides him outside a cemetery. Enroute when he notices her hand is bleeding, she tells him "Mujhe khoon achcha lagta hai" (I like blood) A while later a distraught father stops his car begging him to save his daughter's life. He follows the man and comes to a manor-like house, but unfortunately the girl in question is already dead. He is surprised to see her, she being the same who he just dropped off at a cemetery a while ago. When he goes back,he encounters some policemen who tell him that the place is deserted and no-one has been living there for a while now. Thus starts off the promising premise of Woh Kaun Thi,a wonderful whodunit by Raj Khosla aided by some great music by Madan Mohan. Sadhana never looked more enticing (check her out in "Lag Ja Gale") and Manoj Kumar thankfully is restrained. The supporting cast is also good.

I was not much fan of yesteryears Indian movies before seeing this movie. Man this movie is so captivating, it just suck you in.. The very first scene when the protagonist(Manoj Kumar) gives lift to Sadhana, and the dialogues that goes in that journey is pretty cool.. Little flaws of editing or tilt screen is easily forgotten when you consider this is made in 50s. for me movie is all bout the the leading actress Sadhana.. She luks so natural and ravishing... now I understand what was all the fuzz about Sadhana's Cut.. Watching her on screen is simply mesmerizing. If you like this you will surely watch the trilogy of Wo kaun thi, Mera saaya and anita.. I am a big fan of Sadhana so i wud recommend this movie to everyone.. 8/10 easily.

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.

Woh Kaun Thi? is the first out of three Raj Khosla-directed thrillers starring Sadhana in the lead, the other two being Mera Saaya (1965) and Anita (1967). Actually, all three films have similar concepts and are all successful, although Mera Saaya is my favourite. The movie starts on one rainy night when Manoj Kumar's Dr. Anand while driving home meets a young, serious and awkward woman, whose image will chase him for a long time to come. The movie is high on suspense, and Raj Khosla handles everything very well. The script is tense, interesting and twisted, at times so much that there isn't a possible solution one would offer. The writers try to lead the audience to one particular prediction, but the movie is still highly unpredictable. I liked many of the film's scenes. The movie is aided by some melodious songs composed by Madan Mohan and sung by Lata Mangeshkar, it is technically well done and is generally well cast. While Manoj Kumar does well and is pretty decent as the confused guy, it is expectedly Sadhana who dominates this show with her beauty and ambiguity, successfully creating a mysterious, eerie character. The climax actually turns into an anticlimax which reveals all the secrets in one hit and is a bit too direct for my liking. I just felt everything was uncovered because there was no other way around. Clearly, the writers wanted to keep the mystery for as long as they could and then throw everything into one scene which clarifies it all within two minutes. But even then they failed to answer some substantial questions like how the car's wipers stopped and how Sadhana found the way visible through the car's front windowpane while the guy could not. This is a major plot hole and I wonder how the makers did not notice that. Anyway, Woh Kaun Thi? is still a memorable Raj Khosla thriller which was quite good for its time and is still worth watching today.

Looks like the movie was inspired by the book WOMAN IN WHITE.