| Krishna Cottage | |
| Director: | Santram Varma |
| Producer: | Ekta Kapoor Shobha Kapoor |
| Screenplay: | R. M. Joshi, Abhigyan Jha & Nirav Vidya |
| Story: | R. M. Joshi, Abhigyan Jha & Nirav Vidya |
| Music: | Anu Malik |
| Editing: | K. Ravi Kumar |
| Cinematography: | Basheer Ali, Sethuraman M |
| Distributor: | Balaji Films Ltd. |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Hindi |
| Runtime: | 129 minutes[1] |
| Budget: | 40 million[2] |
| Gross: | 59 million |
Krishna Cottage is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language supernatural horror film directed by Santram Varma and produced by the mother-daughter duo of Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor, better known for producing Indian television soap operas. The film stars Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, and Anita Hassanandani. In the film, the surviving copy of an unfinished book containing nine-and-a-half stories turns out to be cursed, and imperils the lives of a group of college friends.
Upon its release on 2 April 2004, the film received mixed reviews and became a commercial disappointment.[2]
The film opens at a function celebrating the launch of a book titled "Kahi Unkahi Baatein" (Said and Unsaid Things) by Professor Siddharth Das, who donates a copy of the book containing nine-and-a-half stories to JC College. Later, the college principal quietly removes the book from the library and places it in an abandoned storeroom.
A group of close college friends all attend JC College: Manav, his girlfriend Shanti, Kabir, Akshay, Kabir's girlfriend Nupur, and Talli. When Disha, an alluring young student, joins the college, she is invited to Manav and Shanti's engagement, where Manav rescues her in the nick of time before a chandelier crashes unprovoked on her. When the group drives Disha home, their car collides with a disappearing ice wall and breaks down. The friends are then forced to spend the night at an old halfway house, Krishna Cottage, where many supernatural events intensify, and Disha explains that the spirit of her dead boyfriend, Amar Khanna, is responsible for all the mayhem. Meanwhile, Talli discovers that "Kahi Unkahi Baatein" is Disha's favourite book and requests Nupur to read it so he can pluck some select romantic lines from it and woo Disha later. Nupur reads the book and is tormented and killed by a mysterious force inside her house. Talli overhears a conversation between Professor Siddharth Das and the college principal and learns that "Kahi Unkahi Baatein" is cursed and must be destroyed to prevent future tragedies. Talli rushes to Nupur's house to retrieve the book and keep it back in the library but cannot find her as she is dead. He takes the book and meets up with Kabir, but accidentally leaves the book in Kabir's car, who reads it out of curiosity and is killed by the spirit. Manav admits to Shanti that Disha has an oddly magnetic quality to her, but he is in love with Shanti only. The former part of the confession infuriates Shanti, and she drives away to confront Disha at her house. There, she is greeted by Disha's elderly mother, who reveals that Disha has been dead for 22 years in a shocking turn of events.
Discovering Nupur and Kabir are dead, Shanti runs and faints in front of a shrine and is rescued by a noted medium, Sunita Menon, who performs a séance that invokes Disha's spirit. Talli reads the book and learns that it is all about Krishna Cottage, but is murdered by Disha. Professor Das, who was in love with Disha, burns the last few pages of the book and reminisces about her, but he dies of a heart attack before Manav and others could reach him. Manav discovers Amar Khanna's corpse preserved in ice, and it is revealed that he was Amar Khanna in his previous birth. He and Disha were students of JC College. Disha proposed to him at Krishna Cottage, but he rejected her advances by stating that their relationship was more than a friendship but less than love. Disha murdered some men that Amar had previously gotten into a fight with and made him the prime suspect in the case so that he can flee with her somewhere far away. Realizing this, Amar tried to stop the car, which crashed into the mountain and killed him. Disha wept over his body and refused to leave, despite the pleas of the principal and the professor who had reached the site by then, till an avalanche buried her too. Sunita suggests the only way to stop Disha is Manav and Shanti getting married, as this bond is too strong for a spirit to break. The wedding ceremony is interrupted by Disha's spirit, who attacks and kills Sunita. Manav agrees to go with Disha's spirit but says that his heart belongs to his wife, Shanti, and he will gladly die for his true love. He jumps to his death but survives and wakes up in a nearby cottage and is told by the caretaker that a woman dropped him there. He reads a letter by Disha that appeared on the window, stating that she finally understood that his happiness lies with Shanti and the meaning of love is to give, not to take.
| Krishna Cottage | |
| Type: | Soundtrack album |
| Artist: | Anu Malik Vishal–Shekhar |
| Released: | 9 February 2004 |
| Genre: | Feature film soundtrack |
| Label: | Times Music |
The film's soundtrack contains 7 songs composed by Anu Malik. Lyrics were penned by Sanjay Chhel, Neelesh Mishra, Sameer, and Shekhar Ravjiani. The album was released on 9 February 2004.
| Title | Singer(s) | Lyrics | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Bindaas" | Shaan, Sunidhi Chauhan | Sanjay Chhel | 6:03 |
| "Suna Suna" (Bepanah Pyaar Hai Aaja) | Shreya Ghoshal | Neelesh Mishra | 7:24 |
| "Aaju Mein Tum" | Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu | Sameer | 6:22 |
| "Uff Yun Maa" | Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan | Sanjay Chhel | 7:15 |
| "Hamesha Tere Saath" | Vishal Dadlani | Shekhar Ravjiani |
Taran Adarsh wrote for Bollywood Hungama, "Krishna Cottage has its moments, but not enough to enjoy an innings like some of the films belonging to this genre".[3] Shilpa Bharatan Iyer of Rediff.com wrote, "All in all a movie worth watching once -- if cheesy spook shows are your thing".[4] Parul Gupta of The Times of India wrote, "Producer Ektaa Kapoor takes the horror film genre literally, making a film that's truly a horror to watch."[5]