''Woh Kaun Thi?'' () is a 1964 Indian
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
-language
mystery thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
directed by
Raj Khosla, starring
Sadhana,
Manoj Kumar
Manoj Kumar (born Harikrishan Giri Goswami; 24 July 1937 – 4 April 2025) was an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter, lyricist and editor who worked in Hindi cinema.
He is regarded as one of the greatest and most successful actors in t ...
and
Prem Chopra
Prem Chopra (born 23 September 1935) is an Indian actor in Hindi films. He has acted in 380 films over a span of over 60 years.
Life and education
Chopra, the third of six children of Ranveerlal and Rooprani Chopra, a Punjabi Hindu family, was ...
. Though the screenplay was written by
Dhruva Chatterjee
Dhruva Chatterjee or Dhruv Chatterjee was a noted writer and screenwriter of Hindi cinema in the 1960s and 1970s. Memorable movies written and scripted by him include ''Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan'' (1960), ''Hariyali Aur Rasta'' (1962), '' Gehra ...
, parts were later rewritten, wherein Manoj Kumar took an active role. Madan Mohan rendered the music for this movie. The film was a box-office hit. Its success had Khosla directing Sadhana in two more suspense thrillers: ''
Mera Saaya'' (1966) and ''
Anita'' (1967).
Plot
On a rainy night, the highly reputed Dr. Anand is driving. He sees a woman standing by the road and gives her a lift. She introduces herself as No one. As soon as she steps in the car (Austin Cambridge A55 Mark II), the wipers eerily stop working. He's even more spooked when she shows him the way when it is not visible and guides him outside a cemetery. On reaching the cemetery, the gates open automatically and he hears someone sing the words "Naina Barse Rimjhim Rimjhim".
Dr. Anand is about to inherit a large fortune from a distant relative under the condition that he is perfectly mentally stable—otherwise, he would not inherit the property as there had already been cases of mental instability in his family in the past. His colleague, Dr. Lata loves Dr. Anand, but he already has a girlfriend, Seema. Soon Seema is killed by a cyanide injection and the suspects are Dr. Lata and her father, Dr. Singh, the head doctor of the hospital in which Anand and Lata work.
On a stormy night, Anand is called to a dilapidated mansion on an emergency case. There, he learns that the patient has already died. He is surprised to see that the patient is the same woman. Some policemen tell him that the place has been deserted for a while and that it is rumoured to be haunted. The policemen inform him that what he saw in the mansion happened years ago and many a doctor has registered similar cases with the police on rainy nights. On another occasion, he sees a newspaper that says that the same woman died in a rail accident.
Anand is very unhappy after his girlfriend's demise, but his marriage is fixed to a woman named Sandhya. Anand's mother has never seen her but she was recommended by her sister. On the wedding night, Anand is shocked to see that she resembles the woman he gave a lift to. He starts avoiding her. One day, he sees that she has painted the same bungalow in which he was called on that rainy night. Just after that, he hears her singing a part of "Naina Barse Rimjhim Rimjhim". Another evening, he sees an unmanned boat sailing in the lake and hears another part of "Naina Barse Rimjhim Rimjhim". Another night, the woman (Sandhya) visits Anand at his workplace and asks him to follow her to an isolated place, where she proceeds to sing a song (Lag Ja Gale se Phir). He is impressed and they sit in the car, where he has a sense of déjà vu as the wipers stop working and she can clearly see the way on the stormy and foggy night. He takes her to the bungalow and to the room where he had seen her dead and she disappears. When he reaches home, she is waiting for him and his mother says that she never left the house.
Anand is finally successful in persuading his mother to let Sandhya go back to her home by train. The next day, he learns that the train was in an accident, but he had seen Sandhya on the terrace that same night. All these happenings take a toll on his mental health and he is advised to take rest in
Shimla
Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...
. There, he meets a monk on a hilltop who tells him that 100 years ago at this very spot, a boy and a girl were romancing when the girl fell and died. Since then, her spirit has been roaming, waiting for her lover to return, who has been reborn as Anand. Anand then sees Sandhya far down the hillside and she sings the last part of "Naina Barse Rimjhim Rimjhim". Persuaded, Anand jumps but is saved by Lata.
Later, when Anand sees Sandhya trying to lure him out, he follows her to the same old bungalow, where he sees Sandhya on the stairway in one moment and then impossibly beside him in the next. She lures him to the terrace, where suddenly he sees a duplicate of Sandhya who came running out of a room in the house. The duplicate shouts that she is the real Sandhya but she is taken away. Strengthened by this sudden revelation, Anand realises this woman on the roof is not a ghost and confronts her, but she accidentally falls down and dies. Then Ramesh, Anand's cousin, reveals that all this was his plan from the very beginning so that Anand is termed mentally unstable and that his entire inheritance would pass to the next of kin i.e., Ramesh. A duel follows with the henchmen of Ramesh joining to kill Anand but the police arrive and arrest all the perpetrators.
The superintendent reveals the hidden details of how the previous acts had been staged with the policeman, the monk, and the 'servant' Madhav and tells the story of the other woman who was Sandhya's twin, whose existence was unknown to Sandhya. Sandhya's parents had separated them 18 years ago when her mother took away the other girl. Her mother died, and she was forced to adopt unfair means to earn a living. Her father learned of her after 16 years but he could not tell Sandhya about her identical twin sister out of shame. Ramesh learned of this twin sister and he started his scheming. The "Sandhya" who had lured him in the hospital, the woman he had met by the road, the dead woman in the mansion, and the woman in white in Shimla were all acts done by Sandhya's twin. This explains the entire story and Sandhya's simultaneous presence in two places. Thus, the mystery is solved and Sandhya and Anand reunite.
Cast
*
Sadhana as Sandhya / Sandhya's twin sister
*
Manoj Kumar
Manoj Kumar (born Harikrishan Giri Goswami; 24 July 1937 – 4 April 2025) was an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter, lyricist and editor who worked in Hindi cinema.
He is regarded as one of the greatest and most successful actors in t ...
as Dr. Anand
*
Helen as Seema, Anand's girlfriend
*Ratnamala as Dr. Anand's mother
*
Prem Chopra
Prem Chopra (born 23 September 1935) is an Indian actor in Hindi films. He has acted in 380 films over a span of over 60 years.
Life and education
Chopra, the third of six children of Ranveerlal and Rooprani Chopra, a Punjabi Hindu family, was ...
as Ramesh, Anand's distant cousin
*Parveen Choudhary as Dr. Lata, a coworker of Anand
*
K. N. Singh as Dr Singh, Anand's boss and Lata's father
*
Mohan Choti as Sher Singh, servant of the Simla quarters
*
Dhumal (actor)
Anant Balwant Dhumal (29 March 1914 – 13 February 1987), popularly known as Dhumal, was an actor in Bollywood films known for playing character roles. He acted in many movies and was active from the mid 1940s till the late 1980s. He started h ...
as Madhav, the new servant in Anand's home
*Indira Bansal as Rosy
*
Raj Mehra
Raj Mehra (born 20 May 1913 – 10 April 1993) was an Indian character artist and film actor in Hindi language films, especially known for his role as a father of leading actors. During his career, he worked in over 300 Hindi films. Some of hi ...
as Police Superintendent
*Anwari Bai as Old lady in old bungalow
*Pal Sharma as the monk in Shimla
Remakes
The film was remade in Telugu as ''
Aame Evaru?'' and in Tamil as ''
Yaar Nee?'' (1966).
Music
The music was nominated for the Filmfare award that year. The lyrics of the songs were written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
Awards and nominations
Won
*
Filmfare Award for Best Cinematographer for Black & White Film- K.H. Kapadia
Nominated
*
Filmfare Award for Best Actress
The Filmfare Award for Best Actress is given by '' Filmfare'' as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise the female performer who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role. The award was first given in ...
-
Sadhana
*
Filmfare Award for Best Music Director
The Filmfare Award for Best Music Director is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to the best composer/arranger of a soundtrack. This category was first presented in 1954. Naushad Ali was th ...
-
Madan Mohan
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, id=0232960, title=Woh Kaun Thi?
1964 films
Indian black-and-white films
1960s Hindi-language films
Indian mystery thriller films
Indian psychological thriller films
Films directed by Raj Khosla
Films scored by Madan Mohan
Films set in Himachal Pradesh
Hindi films remade in other languages
1960s mystery thriller films
1960s psychological thriller films
Indian film series