Top 10 Bollywood suspense thrillers

Team L&M

The chances of one of your favourite suspense thrillers from Bollywood being featured here are quite high but don’t be disappointed if the one which sent the chill down your spine isn’t here. Just scroll down to the comments section and share the one you found to be the top of the list.

MAHAL       1949
The country’s first reincarnation thriller was produced by Bombay Talkies and starred Ashok Kumar and Madhubala in lead roles. The directorial debut of Kamal Amrohi who later made movies like Pakeezah and Razia Sultan, the movie finds place in the British Film Institute’s list of 10 Great Romantic Horror Films. Lata Mangeshkar became an overnight star after singing the superhit number, Aayega, aayega aanewala aayega.

WOH KAUN THI?       1964
Directed by Raj Khosla, this black and white psychological mystery film starred Sadhna, Manoj Kumar and Prem Chopra in lead roles. A major hit at the box office, the highlight of Woh Kaun Thi? was the music by Madan Mohan and the songs, Lag Jaa Gale Ki Phir Yeh Haseen and Naina Barse Rimjhim Rimjhim. Khosla later directed Sadhana in two other suspense thrillers – Mera Saaya and Anita.

GUMNAAM       1965
An adaptation of the mystery novel And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, the thriller was directed by Raja Nawathe. Starring Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Helen, Pran and Mehmood, the movie gained lots of attention due to its opening song, Jaan Pehechn Ho, getting included in the opening credits of 2001 black comedy, Ghost World. It was also used in the 2011commercial, The Date, for Heineken.

MERA SAAYA       1966
Raj Khosla teamed up with Sadhana once again after Ek Musafir Ek Hasina and Woh Kaun Thi? in this box office thriller which also starred Sunil Dutt, KN Singh and Prem Chopra. It was a remake of Marathi movie, Pathlaag. Manohar Amberkar won the Filmfare Best Sound Award for the movie.

ITTEFAQ       1969
Directed by Yash Chopra, the suspense thriller starred Rajesh Khann with Nanda, Bindu, Iftekhar and Madan Puri. It was a remake of the famous 1965 American movie, Signpost to Murder and was the fourth Hindi movie without any songs. While Yash Chopra bagged the Filmfare Best Director Award, it got MA Shaikh the Filmfare for Best Sound Award.

100 DAYS       1991
Starring Madhuri Dixit, Jackie Shroff, Moon Moon Sen, Laxmikant Berde and Javed Jaffery, the movie is a mystery thriller that follows the events in the life of a woman with extrasensory perception. It was a remake of Tamil film, Nooravathu Naal, which also happened to be an unofficial adaptation of Italian film, Sette note in nero.

KHILADI       1992
The Abbas-Mustan directed action and suspense thriller had Akshay Kumar, Deepak Tijori and Sabeeha in the lead roles along with Prem Chopra, Shakti Kapoor, Johnny Lever and Anant Mahadevan. The movie is considered to be one of the biggest hits of Akshay and Ayesha. The character of Anna played by Lever was much appreciated by the audiences. The film was later remade in Kannada as Aata Hudugaata.

KAUN?       1999
Written by Anurag Kashyap and directed by Ram Gopal Verma, the suspense thriller starred Urmila Matondkar and Manoj Bajpayee in lead roles along with Sushant Singh. There are a number of mysterious elements in the film which remain unsolved like the murderer of the cat is never known which adds to its suspense. Additionally, it was never known how the woman was committing so many murders in an unknown house which belongs to some Mr Malhotra. These mysteries raise suspense levels.

BHOOL BHULAIYA       2007
An official remake of 1993 Malayalam movie, Manichitrathazhu, the movie was directed by Priyadarhan and starred Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Shiney Ahuja, Ameesha Patel, Parel Rawal, Manoj Joshi, Asrani, Rajpal Yadav and Vikram Gokhale. The suspense thriller with loads of comedy peppered in was a huge commercial success. Vidya Balan’s performance in the movie is considered to be one among her best till date.

KAHAANI       2012
The story of a pregnant woman searching for her missing husband in Kolkata during the festival of Durga Puja, Kahaani starred Vidya Balan along with Parambrata Chatterjee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. It went on to win three National and five Filmfare awards. During the shooting of the film, the crew often indulged in guerrilla filmmaking techniques on the streets of Kolkata to avoid attracting attention.