I will be honest. I went to see Rakht with a sense of foreboding myself. In my book the description of three heroes, two heroines, a cottage and a hill station is a recipe for a horrifying tale. But, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the film was a fluid narration and the plot engrossing enough. The film will probably be labelled as a horror movie, but a thriller with elements of the supernatural thrown in will be more the mot juste. It begins with an introduction of the beautiful hill station which is home to our actors.
Bipasha is a single mom with a weird sense of dress and even wierder choice of friends. Her son studies in a local school run by Sanjay Dutt, who is looking increasingly like a principal. Sanju has a obvious crush on Bips and she is doing her best to overlook it. Her son is a bit badly adjusted as a fallout of his fathers untimely death by accident. Bips earns her daily bread and b. by reading tarot cards and closing her eyes and seeing the future of the client. It is enough in this age of low inflation to maintain a palatial bungalow and a big contessa.
I will not talk about the dresses. These hill towns have flea markets. Well, she had the gift of Seeing i.e. she could know the future in advance. This gift was also possessed by her granny. There is a good introduction of her gift when she saves her friend from being crushed under a falling branch. She explains the death of her husband , Abhishek due to an accident. She is counselling her client to leave her husband who is a good man.
The gal is Neha Dhupia and the drunkard is Dino. If he keeps acting in this manner he is soon going to join the ranks of extinct dinos. He thinks that Bips conspires to break his marraige to Neha and goes berserk. By the way, he too is as wealthy as they come.
Sanju is all set to marry the daughter of the mayor, Amrita and become the mayor himself. Amrita is a record breaking flirt and is painting the town in all shades. She is shown in various stages of undress and gives her best shot as a corpse. Now, I have already revealed that she is deader than a dodo. But, at first she goes missing and the local police is unable to find her. So, Sanju convinces his to be father in law to consult Bips. She comes with the location of the body in various dreams and Dino is convicted of the crime.
However, the spirit of Amrita is restless and soon tells Bips that she was murdered by someone eles. So, she launches a hunt for the real murderer. Also, Sunil Shetty is a mentally challenged friend of Bips with a Past. The script lacks relation at places and coherence.
However, the screenplay is good and the pace excellent. Few songs and many snacks keep the audience glued to their seats. The climax is a bit anti climax. However, I think you will probably think that the money was well spent.
Pros : Performance of Bipasha Basu, Sunil and Abhishek. Screenplay and Camera
Cons: Amrita, Age of Sanju