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from Toba Kerson's notes: A middle class family with a college-going daughter and an orphaned grandson move into a new house in a small town. There is an evil spirit in the house and the daughter is possessed and starts killing people. After she attacks her father, he calls a doctor, who says that the girl could be suffering from epilepsy
"Varmas Hommage an 'Poltergeist'
"Ram Gopal Varmas Hindi-Debüt 'Raat' war seiner Zeit voraus und floppte. Ein Horrorfilm ohne Songs, das kam 1992 überhaupt nicht an. Erst 2002 schaffte Varma mit derselben Formel (und in der Tat einem ähnlichen Skript) den Erfolg mit 'Bhoot'." http://www.molodezhnaja.ch/india_qr.htm
"Ram Gopal Varma's film is choc full of slow build up scenes, with over bearing music…..typical (cliché) music from 80's slasher movies - in fact in once bizarre scene when Mani has a fit claiming something to have burnt, the background music has been lifted directly from Halloween." http://www.thehotspotonline.com/moviespot/bolly/reviews/r/Raat.htm
Finally, even though Raat eventually ends up in more off-the-wall supernatural territory, much of the film can be taken as a metaphor for schizophrenia--in fact, Varma goes to some lengths to show us a literal parallel while engaging in the metaphor at the same time. Minnie's early "hallucinations" and her later "possessions" tend to be accompanied by catatonia. She has olfactory hallucinations as well. She loses track of Bunty and lets him remain in unusual isolation when she's supposed to be watching him. She becomes anti-social and violent, and so on. Even the more supernatural material works well for this interpretation, as mental disorders such as schizophrenia were misdiagnosed as "possession by demons" and similar claims throughout history. I wouldn't say that Varma intended the whole film as only a metaphor for schizophrenia, but that's obviously one of his intentions, along with simply telling a good horror/thriller yarn.
(Brandt Sponseller from New York City: User's comment of the IMDB)
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