Woh Kaun Thi? creates a mysteriously adequate ambience from fog-filled nights to creaky doors to abandoned old houses right from its opening on a dark stormy night. It is a story of Dr. Anand (Manoj Kumar) who has the most spookiest encounter of his life one night. He meets a girl in distress Sandhya on his way back home. She asks for a lift to her house, to which Anand readily agrees. Sandhya’s look disturbs Anand as her hands were bleeding. When he drops her at a cemetery, an old man comes running towards him pleading him to save his daughter’s life. But before he could do anything, the girl dies and Anand realizes that it’s the same girl. A few years later, he meets the girl again, now as his wife. Anand gets entangled in this mesh of lies and deceit until he discovers the truth. It was Manoj Kumar’s best film before he became the poster boy of patriotic cinema.

Gumnaam is an eerily made thriller. Seven people mysteriously win a free vacation. On the way to their destination, the plane has engine trouble and they are left abandoned in a remote seaside location. They find shelter in a large mansion inhabited by a comical butler Mehmood. One by one, they are murdered and the remaining vacationers try to figure out why they were chosen for the trip and what they have in common. Gumnaam doesn’t start as a suspense thriller but as a horror film with a girl eerily singing a song till the mystery is revealed. No one can decipher where the bloodshed ends.

R. D. Burman’s scintillating numbers in the film did such a magic that the plot of Teesri Manzil became a bit obscure. It is an engrossing suspense tale of the murder of a girl who’s pushed from the third floor of a hotel. Rocky (Shammi Kapoor) happens to see it and as a result becomes the suspect. Even the love of his life Sunita too thinks of him as her sister’s killer. He slowly and steadily finds out the truth behind the murder. It was a great hit, more so for the music than for the plot. Directed by Nassir Hussain, Teesri Manzil saw Shammi Kapoor bounce back since the critics had numbered his days in the industry.

Jewel Thief played with the popular notion that if you scream a lie aloud, people start accepting it as a truth. Vinay (Dev Anand) becomes a victim of a dubious scheme of a great jewel thief (Ashok Kumar) who makes him believe that he’s not Vinay but Prince Amar. After witnessing a few proofs and seeing his supposed fiancé Shalini, Vinay starts believing in what is served to him. However, in the end, he discovers the truth but till then he gets deeply sucked into the inferno. Jewel Thief was a big hit first for its content, which was actively riveting, and for the inspiring music of R D Burman.

Humraaz was a murder mystery with B R Chopra at the helm of affairs. It was his first attempt to get out of the box since he specialized in issue based movies till then. Humraaz dealt with a story of Meena (Nimmi) who falls in love with a miilitary man Rajesh Kumar (Raaj Kumar) and marries him against his father’s wishes. But destiny strikes hard when Kumar dies and after some days she loses her baby too. On the insistence of her father, she marries a famous singer Kumar (Sunil Dutt) only to get killed mysteriously. Humraaz is a slick and entertaining thriller handsomely populated with beautiful scenes, songs and shots. It’s success made B R Chopra dish out some more commercial films.

Suspense thrillers took a back seat almost for two decades before 100 days hit the theatres. The title suggests a horror plot but it was basically a murder mystery. Devi (Madhuri Dixit) foresees future incidents and one day sees her sister Rama (Moon Moon Sen) dead. Quite consequently, her sister goes missing under strange circumstances. After a few years, she falls in love with a businessman Ram Kapoor (Jackie Shroff). But the real identity of her husband shocks her: he’s the murderer of her sister! The film unfolds with a series of pulsating plot points that keeps you on tenterhooks.

Khiladi gave the genre of suspense thriller the cult status. It was Abbas Mustan’s first successful thriller, a genre they kept using and abusing ever since. Raj Malhotra (Akshay Kumar) is a prankster who likes to win a bet, by hook or by crook. His friends Boney, Nisha and Neelam are his partners in crime. As a part of a bet, Raj challenges Nisha that he could scoop up crores from her father by staging her kidnap. Nisha accepts the challenge only to end up dead. Her death leads Raj to scurry for refuge. As if all this was not enough, Raj’s elder brother Suresh Malhotra (Shakti Kapoor) is entrusted with the job of finding the culprit. Khiladi had every ingredient of the genre from romance, college life to suspense. This one film shot Akshay Kumar to limelight.

Baazigar is a psychological thriller filled with suspense and intrigue. It casts aside the usual sweet and innocent hero for something a bit darker. Since it is rare for the actor who plays the villain to become a hero, Baazigar was the unexpected vehicle riding on which Shah Rukh Khan had his meteoric rise to fame. Ajay (Shah Rukh Khan) is a meek and timid guy who’s in love with rich man’s daughter Seema (Shilpa Shetty). But Ajay’s designs on Seema are not as it seems as he pushes her off the terrace of a building. Thereupon he takes the new avatar of Vicky Malhotra and starts pursuing Seema’s sister Priya (Kajol). Priya falls for his charm and even gets engaged to him. However, she digs up the dirt about Vicky to discover that he’s after his father’s killer who unfortunately is her father. Baazigar has some of the bone chilling scenes ever filmed.

A hairy hero, two raunchy maidens and one thrilling story; that explains Gupt. It is not a hugely budgeted movie but it had its heart in place. At no point can you guess the killer as every character in the movie has a motive to get even with the victim. Sahil’s (Bobby Deol) stepfather gets killed and the blame rests on Sahil’s shoulder as he had threatened his father of dire consequences if he separates him from his love Eesha (Kajol). An innocent Sahil leaves no stone unturned to find out the murderer. In his pursuit, he’s helped by Sheetal (Manisha Koirala) who has the hits for Sahil too. Sahil is left flabbergasted when he unearths the killer. The highlight of Gupt is its climax and of course, Kajol as this is her career’s most memorable role.

Another of Abbas Mustan’s thrilling build up is Race. Being a pro at it, the director duo hooks you to the drama as it throws as many twists and turns the runtime can offer. It’s a tale of two stepbrothers up in arms against each other. Having competed in cycle races as kids, Ranvir (Saif) and Rajiv (Akshaye) continue their competitive brotherly streak into their adult lives. As the owners of a stud farm in Durban, Ranvir's passion for horse racing and gambling is matched by Rajiv's obsession with alcohol. It's only when fillies of the two legged variety enter the scene that the games really begin. Ranvir's PA (Katrina Kaif) is smitten by her boss, but it's sultry ramp model Sonia (Bipasha Basu) who steals both his and Rajiv's heart. One wedding and a steamy affair later, all is not what is seems as double crosses lead to a contract killing. Race is certainly a visual roller coaster of a ride complete with a slick and stylish look.