Bollywood has given us some of the most wonderful films in the genre of horror thrillers. There are some true gems that were made during the 50s, 60s and 70s. Here is a short list of old Bollywood thrillers, the films are chosen very selectively from a huge number of films of the genre.
Woh Kaun Thi? (1964) – Amazon Prime Video:
Directed by Raj Khosla, ‘Woh Kaun Thi?’ is a film that tells the story of a doctor of great fame. Anand, the doctor gives lift to a mysterious woman one night and he experiences a strange chain of events afterwards. Manoj Kumar played the role of Anand here and did a great job as usual. ‘Woh Kaun Thi?’ was one of the trendsetters in horror thrillers and paved the way of production of many such films in later days.
Neel Kamal (1968) – Jio Cinema:
‘Neel Kamal’ was directed by Ram Maheshwari and had Waheeda Rehman, Raaj Kumar, Manoj Kumar In leading roles. The film got nominated for many awards and won most of them. Neel Kamal told the story of Sita, played by Waheeda Rehman who has a sleepwalking disease. The disease becomes a matter of concern for her husband and her family and they get to know that it has something to do with her previous life, and that she is still attracted to somebody else from that life.
Madhumati (1958) – Jio Cinema:
‘Madhumati’ is one of the first horror thrillers of India and also arguably the best of them all. It was directed by Bimal Roy and had the maestro Dilip Kumar in the lead role. Dilip Kumar plays the role of Deven, an employee who takes shelter in a deserted Mansion after a landslide blocks his way. He gets to know about his previous life here and he is shocked by the eerie happenings. Salil Chowdhury has given some of the finest songs of the last century in this film.
Gumnaam (1965) – Disney+Hotstar:
‘Gumnaam’ was directed by Raja Nawathe and starred actors like Manoj Kumar, Pran, Nanda and Mehmood. It was inspired from the novel ‘And Then There Were None’ by Agatha Christie. Gumnaam tells the story of eight different people who get stranded on a remote island and they go to a huge deserted mansion to stay there. There is a strange butler in the mansion and the environment is creepy. Soon everybody gets afraid as the dead bodies of their companions start getting discovered one by one.
If you like horror films and if you are a cinephile you will absolutely love these movies. Watch these thrillers with your friends and family this weekend.
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