All’s well, till she starts getting stalked by saucer-eyed Emraan Hashmi to the haunting tunes of the piano. Then follow the usual suspects of every horror film – the deserted car park, moving camera, the elevator scene and so on. To the soundtrack of a woman wailing we see Hashmi’s Prithivi in a damp, dark studio furiously painting. We see that it is the painting of Nandita, with a slashed wrist. Meanwhile, Nikita discovers she is pregnant and a near-fatal, freak incident causes her a miscarriage and, you guessed it, a slashed wrist exactly as in the painting. Next up, Nandita experiences strange occurrences - at a fashion show, she glares at the chief guest and manhandles him. The vision of her being taken in by the security had found its way onto Prithvi’s canvas just a day before. Nandita is frightened, and convinced that she is being attacked by a spirit. The spirit is ruthless and harasses Nandita again, but Prithvi has already envisioned it and is there to save Nandita. Such incidents continue till she decides to unravel the raaz that connects her to Prithvi and to the spirit that’s determined to harm her. This journey leads her to a village Kalindi in Himachal Pradesh, where the imminent annual mela also has a connection with Nandita.

Raaz –The Mystery Continues manages a pretty good rank on the scare-o-meter; there are some genuinely chilling scenes, but nothing that’ll give you recurring nightmares. Of course, the film becomes unintentionally comic in portions where we see a monster-like hand emerge out of the ATM machine or when we see Jackie Shroff’s half-disfigured face with several others. There too many teases – the screensaver changing to a blood red `God is Dead!’ leads to nothing; the track about the Agori tribe has no real significance; and the bulls attacking Nandita’s car is there just for the heck. Most significantly, we are unable to understand the reason for the spirit picking on Nandita in the first place. Then there is the pseudo religion- espousing where a holy man advices Nandita to keep the Bhagvad Gita with her to ward away evil spirits. Like in Vikram Bhatt’s 1920, where the evil spirit is done away with, using the Hanuman Chalisa.

Director Mohit Suri’s storytelling is super-stylish, reminiscent of Ram Gopal Varma’s smart thrillers. Cinematography by Ravi Walia is outstanding, from shot composition to the moody lighting. Dialogue is functional, apart from some bloopers like using `son of a bitch’ as an expletive and Nandita explaining to Yash – `You know how much I love myself. Why would I try committing suicide?’ Songs, as in most Bhatt films, are quite good.

Kangana Ranaut is fabulous both in the tender scenes and in those where she is possessed and going through the usual drone like levitating and screaming. She looks good in her new look with the soft perm and slightly over-done make-up.

Hashmi gives a spirited performance. Adhyayan Suman is far better in this film than his disastrous debut Haal-e-Dil. He does need a spiffier haircut and an overall makeover though. The actor playing the head priest’s wife gives you the chills.

The film’s raaz is ironically the weakest point in the film. For there is no justification or motive really, for the spirit to vent its revenge on Nandita. Still, the Indian audience is a great sport when it comes to horror films; they arrive in droves with family and friends to huddle together or pass smart-alecky comments leading to nervous laughter all over the theater. The film is recommended if you can enjoy the thrills and chills, not really holding your breath for the mysterious raaz.

Verdict: 2 1/2 stars